Scott Frost and Bobby Emmons (Photo courtesy of Rick Schmitz)
A new tournament format and new sponsors helped to draw eighty six players to Skip & Jan’s Sports Bar in Tempe, AZ on February 7th and 8th for the Arizona State Barbox 10-Ball Championship and season opener of the new Diamond Pool Tour presented by Casino Del Sol Resort (formerly the Desert Classic Tour).
With the field divided between “A” players and “B” players, the “A” bracket held twenty nine of the top players from Arizona and New Mexico. This bracket was won by Scott Frost, who had tough matches with Arizona bar table specialist Jon Smith and local hot-shot Bobby Emmons at the end of his quest. On the one loss side, Donivan Pedroncelli scored impressive wins over Smith and Donald Mangahas before falling to Emmons 7-4.
The “B” bracket held a whopping fifty seven players with no clear cut favorites in sight. The bracket was won by New Mexico’s Linn Vissage, who defeated recently crowned AZ State Senior Barbox Champion Guyle “Tom” Fielder 7-2 for the hot-seat. Fielder then dropped a lopsided 7-0 decision to Spike Aiardo on the one loss side.
The two brackets combined on Sunday afternoon and Frost took the final hot-seat with a 7-2 win over Vissage. On the one loss side, Emmons ran over Aiardo 7-1 and then sent Vissage back to New Mexico with a 7-4 win.
This left Emmons and Frost facing off for the tournament win. The first set went to Emmons 7-4, but Frost looked to have the advantage in set #2. Emmons came back from an early deficit though, and tied the score at 6-6, setting up one game for the title. Emmons would get out of line during a fairly routine out in that final game and Frost pounced on the unexpected chance back at the table. Frost effortlessly ran out the remaining balls for the title.
Thirteen players came back on Sunday to compete in the Neil’s Garage Cabinets Second Chance tournament. This event would see Burt Balancad put together an undefeated run with wins over Matt Gagne, Bernie Store, junior player Nick Kline and Steve Blackburn in the finals for the win. Blackburn would finish in second place and Kline would take third. Kline was also the winner of the “top junior” bonus, sponsored by the Phoenix APA league.
The Greenmail Top Female Finisher bonus went to Bernie Store and there was no winner of the Greenmail Bounty, as 2014 Desert Classic Tour season finale winner Mitch Ellerman was not in attendance at this event. The Greenmail Bounty will be on Frost at Stop #2, on the 9’ tables at Bullshooters on March 14th and 15th.
Event organizers expressed their thanks to Natalie at Skip & Jan’s for hosting this great event, Cassie at Skip & Jan’s for being a complete rock star in putting up with all of the players over two days, Rick Schmitz for the great photos and “Fast” Lenny Marshall & George Teyechea for the great job of streaming both days of the event.
The Diamond Pool Tour is proudly sponsored by:
Diamond Billiard Products - http://diamondbilliards.com/
Casino Del Sol Resort - http://www.casinodelsolresort.com/
Neil’s Garage Cabinets - http://www.neilsgaragecabinets.com/
Greenmail Internet Marketing - http://www.greenmailinc.com/
QB Custom Cues - http://qbcustomcues.com/
Volturi Custom Cases - http://volturicases.com/
Cue Sport International - http://www.playcsipool.com/
The Arizona BCA, TAP and APA league systems.
