Shannon Murphy and Anthony Beeler
On Saturday July 15th, the second annual JT “Fingers” Thomas Memorial 9-Ball Tournament was held at Kickshot Billiards in Florence Kentucky. The format was a race to 7 on the winners side and a race to 5 on the one loss side. 40 players were in attendance for this $500 added event .
Early on it was Shannon Murphy whitewashing one opponent after another by a score of 7-0. On the other side of the winners bracket, Anthony Beeler fought his way back from a 5-2 deficit to defeat Autic Craig 7-5. Then he defeated Joe McIntosh 7-2 and Butch Brumback 7-4. In the quarter finals it was Shannon Murphy defeating Bob DeTurk 7-0 and Anthony Beeler defeating Tommy Stephenson 7-3.
The hotseat was a highly-contested event featuring Anthony Beeler and Shannon Murphy. Murphy narrowly defeated Beeler by a 7-6 margin. At 6-6 Murphy negotiated a beautiful break and run sending Beeler to the one loss side.
On the B side, Brian Wilson was mounting a heavy assault on the field. Fresh off a recent victory against Fedor Gorst (at Railyard Billiards in Louisville), Wilson was pitted against Tommy Stephenson. However, it was Stephenson defeating Wilson handily, setting up a rematch of Beeler and Stephenson to see who would go to the finals.
Beeler’s break was just too powerful. Again it was Beeler defeating Stephenson by a score of 5-1.
The clamour around the pool room was that the finals was a rematch of the Billiards Cafe Championship held several years ago and was the only time Beeler and Murphy had faced off. During that event, Beeler defeated Murphy twice to claim the victory.
However, this time Murphy would have his revenge, defeating Beeler to claim the title. Congratulations to all of the winners! Kickshot billiards would like to give a special thanks to Robert Frost for adding money to fund the ladies division. The payouts were as follows:
Men’s Division:
1st Place – Shannon Murphy – $2180
2nd Place – Anthony Beeler – $900
3rd Place – Tommy Stephenson – $500
4th Place – Brian Wilson – $200
Women’s Division:
1st Place Erin Geyer – $200
2nd Place – Kimberly Giglia – $100
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