 Ralph Hilburn (Room Owner), Shannon Daulton (2nd place), Larry Nevel (winner), & Joel Shroer (Owner) |
The Great Southern Billiard Tour brought lots of action and fun to Northpark Grill in Goose Creek, South Carolina the weekend of December 15th and 16th. The $1500 added event drew such names as recent two-time tour winner Larry Nevel, Jared “The Kid” McGee, Shannon Daulton, local favorite Mike Staubes, and Canadian player Shawn “the Snowman” Miller.
With forty-three entrants in the field (sixteen of which were free entries – five women and eleven military), all eyes would be on Larry Nevel as he has been on a mission lately. The last two tour stops have proved to his benefit as he took home both The Carolina Cup VI and The Columbia Cup titles.
This weekend would be no different as Nevel maintained his spot on the winner's side of the brackets into Sunday, where he then met and defeated Allen Mixon 9-5 and John Rose 9-5 (Rose defeated Clay Gemmell 9-4 prior in the day), before running into Shannon Daulton for the hot seat. Nevel was unable to hold off Daulton and was bested 9-5. The trip for Daulton was similar as he made his way through to Sunday rather handily and took down Jeff Haton 9-3 and Biff Bowden 9-6 (Bowden defeated Roy Payton 9-7 prior) before defeating Nevel for the hot seat.
The one-loss side held quite a pool of talent itself. On Sunday, the final sixteen started out with wins for Joe Lemelin (9-0 over Ben Fisher), Phil Irick (9-3 over Jessie Freeman), Jason Kelsey (9-8 over Adam Weisberger), Mike Staubes (9-5 over Tommy Hunt), Brad Cook (9-6 over Lance Paytonys), Jason Yancey (9-5 over John Adkins), Brandon Maner (9-8 over John Astorga), and the last female standing and recipient of $50 for her efforts Memory Bowden was sent home by Billy Mozingo 9-5.
This helped to narrow the field slightly as matches continued with very close final scores including John Rose over Roy Payton 9-7, Allen Mixson over Biff Bowden 9-6 and then John Rose 9-7. Mixson would end his quest when he ran into Larry “The Truth” Nevel in the semi-finals with a final score of 9-2.
This meant that the two titans Shannon “The Cannon” Daulton and Larry Nevel had officially landed in the final round to compete against each other. The first set of the true double elimination match saw Nevel winning the flip and immediately running five racks. Daulton was unphased and returned the favor by doing the same, but in the eleventh rack, broke and scratched giving Nevel another run at the table. The following games would see the men trade racks back and forth as the score board read 7-7, then 8-8, and ultimately Nevel took the win on the hill forcing a second set.
The second set added pressure to the gentlemen as Nevel was on a mission for a three-peat on the tour and Daulton ever so competitive wanted to win himself, but it would not come to fruition as Nevel finished out the close set 9-7 to finish out the season on a three-peat!
The tour season is officially over and both Shannon and Marge would like to say thank you to all that have supported the tour whether it was from sponsorships (Nick Varner Cues & Cases, Jimmy Reeves Custom Cues & Repairs, Break N Run Sportswear, and AZBilliards.com) or attendance – it has been a great year and they cannot wait for a bigger and better 2008. Just a reminder, the $10,000 guaranteed total added tour championships will be held at Diamond Billiard Club in Chattanooga, Tennessee, January 24 - 27, 2008
The tour would like to send a big thank you to the room owners of Northpark Grill, Ralph Hilburn and Joel Shroer, along with their staff for having the stop at their establishment. Also, congratulations to Robbie Croft and Billy Mozingo on being the winners of the Nick Varner cue raffles – enjoy the cues!
