Dave Strum and Niko Konkel
It was one of those now-frequent battles between a junior competitor and an older opponent. David Strum, who was the Viking Cues’ Q City 9-Ball Tour’s champion eight years ago, has returned to the tables after an intermittent absence and faced 16-year-old junior competitor, Niko Konkel twice, in a winners’ side quarterfinal and the finals of this past weekend’s (Dec. 10-11) tour stop. As Strum was chalking up the victories that gave him the tour’s championship title in 2014, Niko Konkel was eight years old. The high school student won both of their matches to claim title to the event that drew 65 entrants to Gate City Billiards Club in Greensboro, NC.
“It was a great tournament,” said tour director, Herman Parker, “and a lot of junior players did really well.”
“We paid out eight spots,” he went on to say, “and four out of the eights spots went to junior players.”
It should be noted, as well, that two of those four payouts went to the same family, while a third, Bethany Tate (16), was eliminated outside of the ‘money.’ Joey Tate (17) finished in 4th place, while his younger sister, Noelle (13) just made it into the 7th/8th payout slot.
Konkel and Strum met first in a winners’ side quarterfinal that sent Strum to the loss side 6-2. Konkel advanced to face another junior, 13-year-old Jas Makhani, in one of the winners’ side semifinals. Matt Lucas squared off against Runal Bhatt in the other one. Konkel moved on to the hot seat match 6-2 over Makhani and met up with Lucas, who’d defeated Bhatt 6-3. Konkel took the first of their two 6-2 and sat in the hot seat waiting for Strum to return for their rematch.
On the loss side, it was Bhatt picking up Strum, who’d followed his loss to Konkel with a victory over Jacob Blake 6-1 and in another veteran-versus-junior matchup, defeated Noelle Tate 6-1. Makhani had what turned out to be the misfortune of drawing Joey Tate, who’d eliminated Mark Bolton, double hill, and Orlando Marcus 9-3 to reach him.
Strum’s trip back to his rematch versus Konkel was almost derailed at the start when Bhatt battled him to double hill before giving way. Tate, in the meantime, shut out fellow junior competitor, Makhani, and joined Strum in the quarterfinals.
Strum eliminated the last of the Tate family 6-4 in those quarterfinals and then gave up only a single rack to Lucas in the semifinals. Strum would need to defeat Konkel twice to claim the title.
Konkel had already made 2022 his best earnings year of the two he’s recorded thus far by winning the first stop on the Junior International Championships’ series of events in January and placing 5th at both the Q City 9-Ball’s Winter Classic in February and the inaugural Shane Van Boening Junior Open in Las Vegas in October. He added $875 to his 2022 winnings with his first victory on the Viking Cues’ Q City 9-Ball Tour.
Tour director Herman Parker thanked the ownership and staff at Gate City Billiards Club, along with title sponsor Viking Cues, Breaktime Billiards (Winston-Salem, NC), BarPoolTables.net, Dirty South Grind Apparel Co., Realty One Group Results, Diamond Brat, AZBilliards.com, Ridge Back Rails, and Federal Savings Bank Mortgage Division.
This coming weekend will mark the tour’s 10th anniversary, a considerable feat in this come-and-go pool tour environment and while 10 years is not necessarily a long time in the annals of some of the country’s pool tours, it is a milestone that led Parker to articulate his pride in reaching it. The 10th year will conclude with its 10th Annual Bar Box Championships, scheduled for this weekend, Dec. 17-18. The $1,000-added event will be hosted by Rock House in Gastonia, NC.
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