Ryan Fossum
He’d come close before.
A week before Christmas in 2019, Ryan Fossum finished as runner-up to Hank Powell at a stop on the Viking Cues’ Q City 9-Ball Tour. It was only the second time, according to our records, that Fossum had cashed in any tournament. The year before, he’d finished 4th; same tour, same location (Borderline Billiards, Bristol, TN). On Saturday, April 10, Fossum broke through to chalk up his first tournament win; same tour, same state, different location – Jac’s All-American Billiards in Newport, TN. Fossum went undefeated through a relatively short field of 26 entrants and won almost three out of every four games he played (30-11; 73%).
Fossum and Dustin Lackey worked their way through three opponents to arrive at their respective winners’ side semifinal matches; Fossum, facing Montez Lloyd and Lackey meeting up with Rodney Huskey. Fossum downed Lloyd 5-1 and in the hot seat match, faced Lackey, who’d sent Huskey to the loss side 7-2. Fossum claimed the hot seat 5-3 over Lackey.
On the loss side, Huskey picked up Matt Marrisett, who’d lost a winners’ side quarterfinal match to Fossum and then won all but one of the subsequent matches he played on the loss side, double hill. He began by defeating Reid Vance (5-6) and Corey Morphew (5-8). Lloyd drew Tony Miller, who’d lost to Huskey in a winners’ side quarterfinal and defeated Ricky Bingham and Yoshiaki Kanamura, both 6-4.
Miller and Marrisett handed Lloyd and Huskey their second straight loss; Miller, double hill over Lloyd and Marrisett defeating Huskey (not double hill) 5-3. Marrisett stopped Miller’s run in the quarterfinals with his third straight double hill win (5-5).
Marrisett chalked up his fourth straight double hill win, downing Lackey in the semifinals (5-6). Fossum put a stop to Marrisett’s run with a 5-2 win in the finals to claim the event title.
Tour director Herman Parker thanked the ownership and staff at Jac’s All-American Billiards, as well as title sponsor Viking Cues, BarPoolTables.net, AZBilliards, Federal Savings Bank Mortgage Division and Dirty South Grind Apparel Co. The next stop on the Viking Cues’ Q City 9-Ball Tour, scheduled for this weekend (April 17-18), will be hosted by Mickey Milligan’s in New Bern, NC.
