On October 5, the Desert Classic Tour rolled into Stingers Sports Bar for a bar table 10 ball event. 24 players arrived on Saturday morning to play in the final B/C event of the year. Many notable regulars were on hand including previous BC winners Rick Armbrust, Mike Hamman, and Jude Espinosa. The tour also welcomed some new players in Ken Cottrell, Joe Avila, Jimmy Brewer and Nick Cipiti.
As the tourney quickly moved through on Saturday, it was decided that a one-day
event was possible. Many of the players agreed with finishing it out late Saturday evening. As the sun set and evening approached, two players began to separate themselves from the rest of the field. Nick Cipiti was mowing down players in the top half of the bracket by scoring wins over Joe Avila, Reid McKinley, and Paul Feltman. After a bye in the first round, these victories would place Nick in the hot seat match on Saturday night.
While Nick was clipping off players in the top of the bracket, a well known Flagstaff player, Junior Jiron, was finishing off the bottom half of the bracket. He too, would receive a bye in the first round and proceed to rattle off wins over Adam Kroll, Chris Miller and Rick Armbrust. His wins would pit him against Nick in the hot seat match.
Meanwhile, over on the B side of the bracket, previous winner Mike Hamman was making quick work of his opponents. After losing his first match of the tourney to
Rick Armbrust, he would roll through Jerry Hartnett, Jude Espinosa, Joe Masi and Sara Miller. This would setup a rematch with Rick Armbrust. Unfortunately for Mike, Rick played as solid as he has all year on the tour and walked away with the victory. Mike would settle for a 5/6 finish.
As the B side progressed, Nick made quick work of Junior in the hot seat match. Nick would cruise to an easy 7-3 victory and await the winner of Rick and Junior. As easily as he lost the hot seat match , Junior would rebound and score a dominant 7-2 victory over Rick, leaving him with a 3rd place finish.
During the finals, both players would make some uncharacteristic mistakes. At 4-4 in the straight race to 7, it was obvious we were in for a close finish. Nick would take the lead at 5-4, only to see Junior win the next two games and reach the hill at 6-5. Nick would quickly tie the match at 6-6. After a scratch on the break in the case game, Junior was faced with a tough out, despite having ball in hand. After 12 games, the players were tied at 6 games a piece. Junior would attempt a 1-10 bank combo only to come up a little short. Faced with a tough out of his own, Nick studied the table and attempted a 1-10 cross side combo bank of his own. Nick would nail the shot to take home the win!
Thank you to Dale and the staff at Stingers for hosting another successful tourney. The DCT would like to thank the 2013 sponsors (On Q Cases, Black Heart Billiard Tips, AzBilliards.com, Billiard and Dart News, Rixx Images, AzPoolscene.com, Jeff Pranke Leather Wraps), and room owners (Pockets, Bullshooters, Kolbys, Skip and Jan’s, Stingers, River City) who continue to support the DCT. The next tour stop is November 2-3, at Bullshooters. This will be the final regular season event before the finale in December. Please visit DesertClassicTour.com for details.
