Mike Davis
The official winner, Mike Davis, Jr., was one of the ‘possibles’ in pre-tournament thoughts about who’d end up taking the top prize. There were a number of other ‘possibles’ who figured into such thinking; BJ Ussery, Jr., Josh Roberts, Joey Tate, Nathan Childress and Scott Roberts, to name just a few, but as it turned out, the eventual runner-up was Greg Taylor, who’d won his last event on the Q City 9-Ball Tour in 2017. Sent to the loss side in the third round, Taylor won five straight, including wins over Ussery (who’d sent him to the loss side), Scott Roberts and Joey Tate, for the right to face Davis in the final. They opted out of that last match, splitting the top two prizes of the $1,000-added, PremierBilliards.com’s TOP (The Open Players) Tour this past weekend (Sept. 30 – Oct. 1). The event drew 44 entrants to Breaktime Billiards and Sports Bar in Cary, NC.
In straight-up races to 7 on the winners’ side, Davis, Jr.’s trip to the hot seat went through JC Monegro (3), Graham Swinson (3), and Reid Vance (4) which set him up against Robbie Shelley in a winners’ side semifinal. Ussery, in the meantime, got by Reagan Wallace (4), shut out Rob Staskowski and sent Taylor to the loss side (5) to pick up Josh Roberts in the other winners’ side semifinal.
Davis downed Shelley 7-3, advancing to the hot seat match. Ussery joined him after defeating Roberts 7-5. Davis claimed the hot seat in what proved to be his last match 7-2.
Following his loss to Ussery, Greg Taylor’s first loss-side match was his toughest. He survived a double-hill challenge from Scott Roberts and then downed Graham Swinson 7-3 to pick up Shelley. Josh Roberts (no relation to Scott) got Joey Tate, who’d lost his opening match 7-4 to Steve Page and went on a seven-match, loss-side streak that took him all the way to the quarterfinals. He’d been challenged, double hill, by Nathan Childress in his fourth loss-side match, but advanced to eliminate Reid Vance (4) and Barry Mashburn (3) to draw Roberts.
As Tate was busy positioning himself among this event’s final four, his sister Bethany was in Birmingham, AL battling among 64 entrants in the WPBA’s Iron City Billiards Invitational. As it turned out, Bethany, who finished in the tie for 17th/24th, brought home more cash from Birmingham than her older brother did from Cary, NC.
Brother Joey defeated Josh Roberts 7-5, which set him up in the quarterfinals against Taylor, who’d eliminated Shelley 7-5. Taylor stopped Tate’s loss-side streak at seven with a 7-4 win in those quarterfinals.
In what turned out to be the final match of the tournament, Taylor got the opportunity for a second shot at the competitor who’d sent him to the loss side, BJ Ussery. He took full advantage, downing Ussery 7-3, just ahead of the decision he and Davis made to forego a final match and split the top two cash prizes. As the undefeated occupant of the hot seat at the time, Davis was the event’s official winner, which earned him the split cash and a trophy.
In addition to the standard cash payouts, Tracy Hardie earned $50 as the top finishing female in the event.
Tour director Herman Parker thanked Sara and Tony Figueroa and their Breaktime Billiards staff for their hospitality, as well as title sponsor PremierBilliards.com, Bar PoolTables.net, Realty One Group Results, TKO Custom Cues (Kirk Overcash), Dirty South Grind Apparel Company (Angela Harlan-Parker), Diamond Brat (Tonya Crosby), Federal Savings Bank/Mortgage division (Alex Narod) and AZBilliards.
The next stop on the PremierBilliards.com’s Q City 9-Ball Tour, scheduled for this weekend (Oct. 7-8), will be hosted by Big Backs Burgers & Billiards in Princeton, WV.
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