Junior Gabriel
Christy Norris will defend her title at this coming weekend’s 3rd Annual Anthony Mabe Memorial
Having chalked up his first victory on the 2023 PremierBilliards.com’s Q City 9-Ball Tour two months ago, and (us) having mentioned in an April report on that victory that he’d chalked up one tour win in each of the last two years (’21, ’22), it would appear that Junior Gabriel has decided to ‘up his game’ in 2023. He did so this past weekend (June 24) by going undefeated on a tour stop in Columbia, SC to record his second 2023 tour victory. At 4:30 in the morning on June 25, he and Johnny Stallings, who’d won seven on the loss side to face him in the finals, decided to opt out of a final match and split the top two prizes. As the undefeated occupant of the hot seat at the time, Gabriel was the official winner. The $500-added event drew 46 entrants to Overtime Billiards in Columbia.
In the third winners’ side round, Gatlin Askins sent the eventual runner-up (Stallings) to the loss side 7-4. Atkins advanced to eventually face Gabriel in one of the winners’ side semifinals. In that same third winners’ side round, Russell Scott sent Will Hammer to the loss side 6-1. Scott advanced to meet Vocy Lesane in the other winners’ side semifinal. Stallings and Hammer would go on to record seven and five loss-side wins, respectively, before coming head-to-head in the quarterfinals.
Gabriel got into the hot seat match 5-4 over Askins (racing to 7). Scott joined him after surviving a double-hill battle against Lesane. Gabriel then gave up only a single rack to Scott and claimed the hot seat.
On the loss side, Askins and Lesane ran right into the loss-side’s ‘dynamic duo,’ Stallings and Hammer, respectively. Stallings had chalked up loss-side wins #3 & #4 against Chris Cricket (7-4) and Jordan Baker (7-3) to reach Askins. Hammer had sent Wesley Stokes and Terry Brumble home, both 5-3 (also loss-side wins #3 & #4), to draw Lesane.
Stallings and Askins got locked up in a double-hill fight that eventually sent Stallings to the quarterfinals, where he was joined by Hammer, who’d eliminated Lesane 5-2. As one might expect in a match between two competitors who’ve spent a good deal of time on the loss side, the battle for advancement to the semifinals went double hill, too. With Hammer racing to 5, Stallings won it 7-4.
Already into early Sunday morning, advancement to the finals was not as tightly contested. In the event’s last match, Stallings downed Scott 7-1. Gabriel and Stallings negotiated the ‘split’ deal and Gabriel had his second 2023 Q City 9-Ball title.
Tour director Herman Parker thanked Joni and Josh Williamson, Alex Rose and their Overtime Billiards staff for their hospitality, along with title sponsor PremierBilliards.com, BarPoolTables.net, Dirty South Grind Apparel Co., Realty One Group Results, Diamond Brat, AZBilliards.com, Federal Savings Bank Mortgage Division and TKO Custom Cues.
Norris will return to defend her Anthony Mabe Memorial title, won in 2nd year of annual event
This coming weekend is technically the July 4th weekend (the actual 4th of July is on Tuesday) and the PremierBilliards’ Q City 9-Ball Tour will be at Breaktime Billiards in Winston-Salem, NC for the $500-added, 3rd Annual Anthony Mabe Memorial. The event’s defending champion, Christy Norris, will be on hand to defend her title.
The annual event is particularly important to Norris. Both she and Barry Mashburn had known Anthony Mabe as a teenager, long before he died in a car accident in May, 2021. Within a week of his passing, Norris, with Herman Parker, had made arrangements for the Q City 9-Ball Tour’s 1st Annual Anthony Mabe Memorial, which, in the end, raised over $10,000 for the youngster’s family to help defer the cost of funeral expenses.
“Anthony was, literally, like our kid,” said Norris. “He went everywhere with Barry and I, playing pool.”
“There were a bunch of people who were all like one big pool-playing family,” she added, “and every one of them, ‘cause they knew us, was pulling for me to win the event last year.”
She’ll be back this weekend and members of that same extended family are likely to be rooting for her to win it again.
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