Joey Tate
By becoming the ‘official’ winner of the PremierBilliards.com’s Q City 9-Ball Tour Championships this past weekend (Sat., Dec. 14), Joey Tate became the first competitor to win both the Q City 9-Ball Tour and affiliated TOP (The Open Player) Tour Championships. As it happened, Tate was the ‘official’ winner of both. He claimed the inaugural TOP Tour Championships title a little over a year ago (Dec. 2-3, 2023) when he came from the loss side, defeated Josh Roberts in the opening set of a true double-elimination final and then, negotiated a split of the top two prizes with Roberts, which included Tate’s designation as its ‘official’ winner. This year, at the $1,000-added Q City 9-Ball Tour Championships, which drew 34 entrants to The Clubhouse in Lynchburg, VA, Tate went undefeated to the hot seat and negotiated a split of the top two prizes with Scott Roberts.
The reasons and specific details of a negotiated ‘split’ are varied and it’s rarely stated, publicly; a kind of ‘don’t ask, don’t tell’ policy. Our policy in that regard is to enter the official payout amounts into the player databases and allow the specifics to remain a private matter. For whatever reason, Tate’s recorded ‘rank’ in last year’s TOP Tour and this past weekend’s Q City 9-Ball Tour Championships are entered as a 1st place finish in his AZBilliards’ database profile, with the amount he would have received before the split was negotiated.
Tate’s ‘run’ to the hot seat was almost sidetracked, twice, in the early going, by two straight, opening-round, double-hill challenges, from James Clay and Robert Cuneo; both racing to 6 and making 5, as Tate chalked up his 9 to advance. Tate followed with a 9-1 victory over the racing-to-4 Elijah Wallace and drew Greg Taylor (winner of last year’s Q City 9-Ball’s Tour Championship) in one of the winners’ side semifinals.
Meanwhile, Thomas Sansone, bound for the hot seat match, chalked up two 6-3 wins against Melvin Shelton and Scott Largen, with a 6-6 win over Jonathan Ailstock in the middle (Ailstock racing to 8). In the other winners’ side semifinal, Sansone drew Scott Roberts, who’d defeated James Moss (4), Michael Robertson (2), Travis Carter (2), and junior competitor Eddie Vonderau to reach him.
Tate advanced to the hot seat match on the heels of a 9-7 win over Taylor, while Sansone used two ‘beads on the wire’ in a race to 8 to defeat Roberts 6-6 and join Tate. Tate downed Sansone 9-3 to claim the hot seat.
Roberts moved to the loss side and ‘leap-frogged’ into the quarterfinals when Collin Hall forfeited their match. Taylor came over and picked up Eddie Vonderau, who’d followed his winners’ side quarterfinal loss to Roberts with wins over Randy Tate (Joey’s father) 8-4 and Michael Robertson 8-3. It was Taylor who joined Roberts in the quarterfinal match with a 9-4 win over Vonderau.
It should be noted, in passing, that while Joey Tate would be the only member of his family who went home with any prize money, it wasn’t for a lack of effort on the part of the other three members of the Tate family in attendance. In addition to the family patriarch, Randy, Joey’s two younger sisters, Bethany and Noelle competed, as well. The elder sister, Bethany, won an opening round, double-hill match versus Michael Barber before being sent to the loss side by Scott Largen. Noelle Tate lost her opening-round match to Tyler Wood. On the loss side, as their Dad (sent over in an opening-round, double-hill loss to Chuck Cuneo) was working on a four-match, loss-side winning streak, the two sisters squared off. Noelle won her opening loss-side match to James Moss and became her sister’s first loss-side opponent. Bethany defeated her 5-2 and was eliminated in the following round by Collin Hall.
On to the quarterfinal match, won by Roberts 8-5, which he followed with an 8-3, semifinal win over Sansone in what proved to be the last match of the night. Negotiations got underway for the split, which, when completed, earned Joey Tate his second ‘affiliated’ PremierBilliards.com Tour Championship title.
“It was a strong field,” noted Tour Director Herman Parker of this year’s Q City 9-Ball Tour Championships. “The strongest of the year.”
Parker thanked Chris England and his Clubhouse staff for their hospitality, along with title sponsor PremierBilliards.com, BarPoolTables.net, Break Time (Clemmons), TKO Custom Cues, Realty Group One Results, CHC Undeground, Digitalpool.com, Dirty South Grind Apparel, Federal Savings Bank Mortgage Division and AZBilliards.
The final stop on the 2024 PremierBilliards.com’s Q City 9-Ball Tour, scheduled for one day this weekend (Sat. Dec. 21), will be its annual Christmas Party Tournament. The $500-added event will be hosted by Action Billiards in Inman, SC.
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