It had been a while. In 2015, Matt Collins recorded his first regional tour win at a stop on the Great Southern Billiard Tour. This past weekend (Sat., March 2), he recorded his second, going undefeated at a stop on the PremierBilliards.com’s Q City 9-Ball Tour. The $500-added event drew 26 entrants to Overtime Bar & Grill in Columbia, SC.
Collins and Chris Coleman battled twice in this event; hot seat and finals. In six matches (five opponents), Collins, racing to 6, didn’t allow any of his opponents to chalk up more than three racks against him until the final, when he and Coleman battled to double hill.
All but two of Collins’ opponents (first and last) were afforded a single ‘bead on the wire’ in races to six. He opened with a 6-2 win over Larry McGee, and followed that with victories over Chris McCutcheon (1) and Dylan Driver (3), which set him up to face Mitch Holmes in one of the winners’ side semifinals.
Coleman, on the other hand, opened against two opponents who gave him ‘beads on the wire.’ He opened with a double-hill win over Steven Ellis 6-6 (Ellis racing to 7) and backed that up with an almost double-hill victory over Billy Fowler 6-8 (Fowler racing to 10). Then, in his first straight-up race to 6, Collins downed Chris Cricket 6-4 and drew Rory Dover in the other winners’ side semifinal.
Coleman shut Dover out, as Collins sent Holmes to the loss side 6-3. Collins took the first of his two versus Coleman 6-3 and claimed the hot seat.
On the loss side, Dover drew Terry Brumble, who’d lost his opening match to Chris Cricket and won four straight that included the elimination of Jerry Zorn 6-1 and Gatlin Askins 6-3. Holmes picked up Junior Gabriel, who’d lost his winners’ side quarterfinal match to Dover and on the loss side, defeated Robby Gainey 6-3 and Cricket 6-1.
Brumble advanced to the quarterfinals on the heels of a 6-1 victory over Dover. Holmes fought a double-hill battle versus Gabriel before prevailing to join Brumble. Holmes took one more step, defeating Brumble 5-1 in those quarterfinals, before Coleman took him out 6-3 in the semifinals.
In Collins’ only double-hill match, he dropped the 9-ball in the 11th rack and claimed the event title.
Tour director Herman Parker thanked Joni and Josh Williamson and their Overtime Bar & Grill staff for their hospitality, along with title sponsor PremierBilliards.com, BarPoolTables.net (Randy Tate), TKO Custom Cues and Realty One Group results (Kirk Overcash), Dirty South Grind Apparel (Angela Harlan-Parker), Federal Savings Bank (Alex Narod), CHC Underground (Chris Clary) and AZBilliards.
The next stop on the PremierBilliards.com’s Q City 9-Ball Tour, scheduled for this weekend (Mar. 9-10), will be a $500-added event, hosted by Dot’s Cue Club in Rocky Mount, NC.
0 comments