Brandon Kidwell
About a month short of two years ago (February 25-26, 2017), pro player Jeffrey DeLuna from the Phillipines signed on to a 65-entrant stop on the Viking Cues’ Q City 9-Ball Tour, being held at Janet Atwell’s room, Borderline Billiards in Bristol, TN. As a professional, DeLuna had to win 13 games per match before most of his opponents chalked up eight or nine. Not surprisingly, DeLuna went undefeated through the field, but not before he was challenged twice by Brandon Kidwell, who called then and continues to call Borderline Billiards his home room. The hot seat match was something of a blowout. With Kidwell racing to 8, he managed to chalk up only three against the seasoned pro’s 13. The finals were a different story. Though DeLuna went on to defeat Kidwell a second time, it was not before Kidwell had brought him to the double-hill brink of defeat at 12-7. Had he won the match, in the double elimination format of the final, Kidwell would have had to do it again; a point rendered moot when DeLuna broke the double-hill tie and claimed the event title.
On the weekend of January 26-27, Kidwell, with two victories on the tour in his past (both prior to his meetup with DeLuna), returned to the ‘scene of the crime’, as it were, came back from a hot seat loss and defeated Scott Roberts twice to claim his first Q City 9-Ball title in a little over two years. The event drew 50 entrants to Borderline Billiards, which, thanks to Atwell, filled in an empty slot on the tour schedule just four days before it began.
Kidwell (still racing to 8, throughout) advanced through the field to arrive at a winners’ side semifinal match against 17-year-old Hunter White. Scott Roberts, in the meantime, squared off against Brandon Stiltner. Kidwell downed White 8-2 and was joined in the hot seat match by Roberts, who’d survived a double hill battle (8-5) against Stiltner. Roberts took possession of the hot seat 8-4 and waited on Kidwell’s return from the semifinals.
Over on the loss side, Stiltner ran into Brian James, who’d defeated Richard Kearsey 6-2 and June Bug (aka James Miracle) 6-3 to reach him. White picked up Mike Clevinger, who’d most recently shut out Trevor Stanley and defeated Steve Guy 6-4. James advanced 6-2 over Stiltner. White joined him in the quarterfinals after shutting Clevinger out 9-0.
James Took the quarterfinal match over White 6-3 and then locked up in a double hill battle with Kidwell in the semifinals. Kidwell dropped the 9-ball in the deciding match and turned his attention to a rematch against Roberts in a double elimination final.
In a straight-up race to 8, the first set ended with the same score as the hot seat match, although it was Kidwell who chalked up the 8 and Roberts with the 4. Roberts came back in the second set, but not by nearly enough. Kidwell claimed the title with a second-set 8-5 win.
Tour directors Herman and Angela Parker thanked Janet Atwell and her staff at Borderline Billiards, not only for hosting the event, but for agreeing to do so, four days ahead of the scheduled start. They also thanked title sponsor Viking Cues, Bar Pool Tables, Delta 13 Racks, AZ Billiards and Professor Q-Ball. The next stop on the Viking Cues’ Q City 9-Ball Tour, scheduled for this weekend (Feb. 2-3), will be a $500-added event, hosted by Speak Eazy Billiards in Sanford, NC.
