Derek Lawson led a field of local players at the $500 added Fury Carolina Amateur 9-Ball event at Cue 'n Spirits in Winston Salem on Saturday October 23. The event showed that the home-field advantage worked with three of the top finishers being local players.. The $500 added event is stop #18 for this season with 2 more events and a Season Finale in December.
This is Derek Lawson's second event he's played in this season with the Amateur 9-Ball Tour. His playing proved that he was a worthy opponent at he swept through the winners bracket for the hot seat match with another local player Tim Bowen. Lawson showed he was in stroke when he took the hot seat match 7-4.
Meanwhile Dale Russell after his loss to Lawson was working his way through the one loss side to face Bowen after his loss in the hot seat match. The two locals played hard in the race to 5 match but Russell was determined and left Bowen in 3rd place with a score of 5-3. This put Russell in a rematch with Lawson to see who would take the final spot.
The final race to 9 looked as if Lawson was going to take a quick lead, but rattling a couple of balls allowed Russell to jump out to a quick 3-0 lead. In game 4 Lawson was headed for a comeback when Russell scratched on a kick shot at the 4 ball, letting Lawson run out with ball-in-hand. Lawson worked hard to get within one game of Russell at 5-4. The players traded games back and forth till Lawson was able to take the lead at 6-5, but Russell was able to get another game on his side tie the score up 6-6. A miscue by Russell on the 6 ball in game 13 opened the door for Lawson to gain control once more and take the match 9-6.
Final results
1. Derek Lawson $420
2. Dale Russell $255
3. Tim Bowen $170
4. Andy Hutchens $95
