As it turned out, more players signed on to the Jacoby Custom Cues Carolina Tour's Friday night March 5 Early Bird tournament (16) than signed on for the Open event (10), which started on Saturday. Larry “The Truth” Nevel won them both, defeating Zach Wilson 7-1 in the finals of the Early Bird, and coming back from the one-loss side to spoil an undefeated bid by Johnny Archer in the finals of the Open. The $1,000-added Open and its concurrent events were hosted by Break Time Billiards in Wilmington, NC.
Nevel came within a match of challenging Archer for the hot seat, but Keith Bennett sent him west 7-3, while Archer was busy shutting out Trey Greene. Archer then sent Bennett to a semifinal rematch against Nevel with a 7-3 win that left him in the hot seat.
Nevel's first assignment on the one-loss side was Shawn Putnam, looking to avenge an earlier 7-5 win by Nevel that had sent him over in the first place. Putnam got by Peaches Fuller 7-3 and was the beneficiary of a forfeit by B.J. Ussery, which put him up against Nevel for the second time. Greene faced Michael Fuller, who'd received a bye and then defeated Zach Wilson. Fuller shutout Greene to move into the quarterfinals. He was joined by Nevel, who'd defeated Putnam again; this time, a little more decisively at 7-2. Nevel then dropped Fuller into fourth place 7-2 and avenged his earlier defeat at Bennett's hands with a 7-3 win in the semifinals.
Archer greeted Nevel's entrance into the race-to-11 finals by winning the lag and the first three games . Then, after scratching on the break, and allowing Nevel to win a single game, Archer won two more, to go up 5-1. But again, Archer scratched on the break, and this time, Nevel didn't stop at one game. He won three in a row, capped by a break and run to pull within one game at 5-4. Archer pulled ahead by two, and Nevel responded with two of his own to tie it up at 6-6.
Archer broke the tie to go up 7-6, but he scratched again on the break, and Nevel ran four racks in a row to reach the hill; again, capping the effort with a break and run. Archer got one more game in, before Nevel used a safety and a kick shot to finish it at 11-8.
A Second Chance Tournament, held on Sunday evening, drew five entrants and was won by Kenny Chin in a 7-6 win over Barry Irving in the finals. Patty Sutherland was declared the events' Ladies winner. Caleb Grissom was the Juniors winner. The raffle cue was awarded to C.J. Genta. A six-entrant break contest was won by Karl Deweese.
