Mike Davis and Brett Stottlemyer with TD James Hamilton
This past weekend’s (Jan. 28-29) 9th Annual Dick Cox Memorial Bar Box Open employed an increasingly popular format, known in some circles as ‘double jeopardy.’ The format engages players in two separate disciplines, 8-ball and 9-ball. It plays out in various ways; as an example, players in a match allow the individual who wins the lag to determine which of the games they’ll play first in their total number of games to be played; a 5-4 match would feature an even split, four of each because a 5-4 match would not exceed eight games. The APA Leagues employ the double jeopardy format in a way that has members of a five-member team playing both 8-ball and 9-ball matches; 10 matches total instead of the five associated with just one discipline. At the $1,000-added Dick Cox Memorial, which drew 64 entrants to Action Lounge & Billiards in Leonardtown, MD, the two games were played on opposite sides of the bracket; 8-ball on the winners’ side and 9-ball on the losers’ side.
Mike Davis, Jr., the current MD State 10-Ball Champion, began his year with a win on the PremierBilliards.com TOP (The Open Players) Tour two weeks ago and backed that win up with an undefeated run at this year’s Dick Cox Memorial. Last year, Davis completed an earnings year that surpassed anything he’d accomplished since 2016. Though he’s a long way off from repeating his best earnings year (2006), when he cashed in 17 events, back-to-back wins in the first month of 2023 are a good start.
Davis didn’t have a rack chalked up against him by either Forrest White or Matthew Ruzicka in the opening two rounds. The first competitor to score against him was Tom Zippler, who proceeded to battle him to double hill, before Davis advanced to down Aj Nicholas 6-3 and arrive at his winners’ side semifinal against Rick Winpigler. Meanwhile, Joe Wright was at work holding each of his first five opponents to no more than two racks per match; Kelly Daniel and Rick Rhodes managed only one before Jason Masri checked in with two. Charlie Mattingly brought the run back to its one-rack-against roots before Wright advanced to the other winners’ side semifinal. Wright held Stottlemyer to the now-familiar single rack and advanced to the hot seat, where he was joined by Davis, who’d sent Winpigler to the loss side 6-3. Wright ended up on the losing end of a two-rack-against match that put Davis in the hot seat.
On the loss side, now playing 9-ball, Stottlemyer picked up Aj Nicholas, who’d followed his loss to Davis in a winners’ side quarterfinal with victories over John Hergett, double hill, and Clint Clayton, 4-2. Winpigler drew Danny Mastermaker, who’d lost his opening round match to Stottlemyer in a double hill fight and embarked on a eight-match, loss-side winning streak that would eventually put him into a rematch against Stottlemyer in the quarterfinals. He’d recently eliminated Mattingly and Zippler, both 4-1.
Mastermaker chalked up his eighth loss-side win with a third straight 4-1 victory, over Winpigler, that advanced to him his quarterfinal rematch. Stottlemyer joined him after shutting out Nicholas.
Mastermaker put up a double-hill fight in those semifinals to extend his loss-side streak to nine matches, but Stottlemyer had the last word, eliminating him. He then gave up just a single rack to Wright in the semifinals and turned to face Davis.
Like Davis, Stottlemyer, the reigning MD State 9-Ball Bar Box champion, was hoping for a good start towards matching his best recorded earnings year (2012) and was looking for his first win in 2023. He didn’t find it at the 9th Annual Dick Cox Memorial. The finals opened with an 8-ball match and had Stottlemyer won it, it would have forced a second set, playing 9-ball. He didn’t. Davis defeated him 6-4 in the only set necessary to complete his undefeated run and claim the event title.
Kristin Mohr picked up a $150 prize (courtesy of AB & H Excavating) as the top finishing female at the event, as well as a free entry into a new all-female tour run by Kelly Daniel. In addition to his cash prize as the winner, Davis won free entry into one of the MD State Championships, held under the auspices of On the Hill Productions.
Tour director Rusty Hamilton thanked the ownership and staff at Action Lounge & Billiards for hosting the event, as well as sponsors American Billiards Covering, Southernmuddin Lawns and Paint, AB & H Excavating and On the Hill Productions. Hamilton had picked up the ball that Dick Cox, a retired local player, had originally been running with for two years when he passed in 2014.
“He started a local event called the Southern Maryland Invitational Tourney that lasted two years,” he said. “I decided to take over the event and name it after him to keep his memory going.”
“Here we are, nine years later and the event seems to be getting bigger and better every year,” he added. “We’ve gone from a three-table event to now, 16 tables with live streaming and a field of 64 players in the past four years. Dick would be very proud that this event has reached so many people and players.”
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