John Morra and Fedor Gorst
Brendan Crockett Memorial draws 182 entrants to Hard Times Billiards in Sacramento.
Russia’s Fedor Gorst is about as close to a ‘sure bet’ at the tables that one has or is ever likely to see. This year alone, he has won or placed second in almost 75% (.7368) of the events in which he has cashed (19). It puts him at the top of the AZB Money Leaderboard, which would certainly make him the current ‘best bet’ of the year and while, as with all players, he doesn’t win them all, the chances of him finishing, as an example, 17th in an event are somewhere between remote/slim and none. That said, 17th is exactly how he finished at the Derby City’s 9-Ball tournament in January, so caveat emptor, as they say, when you consider a bet.
His 10th 2022 victory came at the $10,000-added, 4th Annual Brendan Crockett Memorial 10-Ball Open tournament this past weekend (July 30-31), where he and 181 of his fellow competitors gathered at Hard Times Billiards in Sacramento, CA to do battle. Gorst had to come from the loss side of the bracket, though not very far, to dislodge Canadian John Morra from the hot seat. Gorst, with a Fargo Rate of 827, faced nine opponents in 10 matches (Morra twice) with a combined Fargo Rate average of 690. Translated, in the winners’ side races to 9, his opponents had an average 2.5% chance of defeating him, although individually, the one opponent who did – Morra, with a 778 Fargo Rate – had a slightly higher than a one-in-four chance of doing so.
Gorst made it to his first matchup against Morra in one of the winners’ side semifinals, with an aggregate score of 35-5. The opponent he met in the hot seat, Oscar Dominguez, arrived at his winners’ side semifinal against Margaret Fefilova Styer with a 35-12 aggregate score.
Morra sent Gorst to the loss side 7-1. Dominguez sent Styer over 7-2. Morra played what would prove to be his last winning match, sending Dominguez to the semifinals 7-5 and claimed the hot seat.
On the loss side, Gorst picked up Max Eberle, who was working on a four-match, loss-side streak that had recently eliminated Jeremy Sossei in a shutout and Skip Nikakis, double hill. Styer drew Nick DeLeon, who had chalked up five on the loss side, including recent wins over Chris Gentile 7-3 and Spencer Ladin, double hill.
Gorst ended Eberle’s streak 7-3 and in the quarterfinals, faced DeLeon, who’d defeated Styer 7-4. Gorst ended DeLeon’s run 7-4 in those quarterfinals and then, in a manner of speaking, brushed aside Oscar Dominguez with a shutout in the semifinals.
Gorst/Morra parte deux did not begin or end well for Morra. Gorst jumped out to a 5-0 lead, at which Morra began to chip away (as generally recommended), one rack at a time. Morra got on the board with one, but Gorst re-established his five-rack lead with a win in game #7. Morra then took the next three, narrowing Gorst’s lead to two at 6-4. Gorst took games #11 and #12 to reach the hill first at 8-4. Morra took one more swing, winning rack #13, but Gorst walked it off with his ninth rack to claim the 4th Annual Brendan Crockett Memorial title.
Event representatives thanked the ownership and staff at Hard Times, as well as all 181 competitors, who, through their participation, paid homage to the memory of Brendan Crockett and his brother, Jeff, who, travelling together, were killed in an automobile accident in 2016. An annual scholarship fund was created a year later to benefit a junior player who excelled in academics.
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