Frank Owens
In terms of attendance, the Viking Cues’ Q City 9-Ball Tour stop on the weekend of April 14-15, was likely affected by the concurrent Super Billiards Expo (SBE) in Philadelphia. Mickey Milligan’s in New Bern, NC is about eight hours away from the SBE site, which drew over a thousand entrants to its Amateur tournament, many of them residing within an eight-hour travel distance. The winner of the SBE’s Pro Player Championships (Mike Dechaine) drove six hours to compete. The $250-added Q City 9-Ball stop drew 21 entrants and came to an end when Frank Owens and Zach Leonard opted out of a final match, which would have been their second, and split the top two prizes.
They met first in the hot seat match. Owens had sent Matt Lucas to the loss side, double hill, in one winners’ side semifinal, while Leonard downed Richard Limo 7-3 in the other one. With Leonard racing to 7, Owens claimed the hot seat 5-4.
On the loss side, Lucas and Limo ran right into their second straight loss. Lucas picked up Jack Whitfield, who’d shutout C.B. Brown, and defeated Cody Jones 7-4 to reach him. Limo had the misfortune of meeting up with the tour’s most prolific winner, J.T. Ringgold, who, after being awarded an opening round bye, had dropped his first match to Bill Duggan, and was in the midst of a six-match, loss-side winning streak that would take him as far as the semifinals. He’d gotten by Chris Gentile 10-5 and shut out Wayne Miller to draw Limo.
Ringgold downed Limo 10-4, and in the quarterfinals, faced Whitfield, who’d defeated Lucas 7-2. Ringgold then ended Whitfield’s run 10-3, before coming up against Leonard in the semifinals. With Ringgold racing to 10, he and Leonard fought back and forth to double hill (6-9), before Leonard dropped the deciding 9-ball to earn a second shot against Owens.
That second shot did not materialize. Owens and Leonard opted out of the final match, with Owens, in the hot seat, claiming the official event title.
Tour directors Herman and Angela Parker thanked the ownership and staff at Mickey Milligan’s, as well as title sponsor Viking Cues, Delta 13 Racks, AZBilliards and Professor Q Ball. The next stop on the Viking Cues’ Q City 9-Ball Tour, scheduled for April 21-22, will be hosted by Gate City Billiards Club, in Greensboro, NC.
