Nathan Childress, room owner Robert West and Steven Page
Steven Page has been something of a fixture in the North Carolina (and surrounding areas) pool community for two decades now, since 2004, when he cashed in that year’s Carolinas Open 9-Ball Division. He finished 13th in that event, which was won by Johnny Archer with Jeremy Jones as runner-up and Shannon Daulton finishing third. Since that time, with some gaps in his time at the tables, he’s chalked up victories on Daulton’s Great Southern Billiards Tour, the Jacoby Custom Cues Carolina Tour and a few other independent events. He’s cashed in 11 events on the PremierBilliards.com’s Q City 9-Ball Tour over the years and this past weekend (Sept. 7-8), chalked up his first victory on that tour, going undefeated at a $500-added event that drew 33 entrants to Dot’s Cue Club in Rocky Mount, NC.
It was Page’s first (recorded) win since he won the Chad Bostwick Memorial in 2016. His 11 cash finishes on the Q City 9-Ball Tour included three runner-up finishes in 2015.
Page was challenged in the finals by a competitor on the other end of an age spectrum, 21-year-old Nathan Childress, who (racing to 10 throughout) lost his opening match, 5-6, to Jonathan Brockman and went on an eight-match, loss-side winning streak that began and ended with a competitor’s forfeit.
Until Childress challenged him in the finals, Page (racing to 8) didn’t give up more than four racks in the six matches it took him to claim the title; and that, only once. After a bye, he gave up three to Ron Ford in his opening match and the four to Jarvis Miller in the second round. A shutout over Damon Kotke put him in a winners’ side semifinal against Paul Scarboro.
His eventual hot seat opponent, Reagan Wallace (racing to 4) and also with a bye, gave up one rack each to Justin Outlaw and Kaitlyn Giddens before being challenged, double hill, by Tommy Prater in a winners’ side quarterfinal, winning it 4-5 (Prater racing to 6) and drew Frank Leahy in the other winners’ side semifinal
Page got into the hot seat match with an 8-2 win over Scarboro and was joined by Wallace, who’d defeated Leahy 4-2 (Leahy racing to 6). Page claimed the hot seat 8-2 over Wallace.
On the loss side, Childress benefited from an opening-round forfeit by Andy Harris, before setting out on the rest of his eight-match (six opponents) winning streak with victories over Giddens (2), Glenn Spikes (1), Damon Kotke (1), and Glenn Weatherly (4), at which point, he picked up Leahy, coming over from the winners’ side semifinal. Scarboro came over and drew Ricky Barrow, who’d lost his opener to Leahy and won six in a row, including the recent elimination of Tommy Prater 5-4 (Prater racing to 6) and a double-hill win over Jerry Cannon.
On Sunday morning, everyone who returned from Saturday night’s action was already ‘in the money.’ On the loss side, as the hot seat match got underway on the winners’ side, Barrow did his part to secure a quarterfinal rematch against Leahy, by winning his second straight, double-hill match, over Scarboro. Childress, in the meantime, spoiled Leahy’s bid to join him, eliminating him 10-2. Childress gave up just a single rack to Barrow in their quarterfinal match, ending his streak and then leapfrogged over the semifinal when Reagan Wallace forfeited.
Page was awarded two ‘beads on the wire’ in a race to 10 against Childress in the final. He won the eight he needed, before Childress had reached 7, and claimed his first (recorded) event title in eight years.
Tour director Herman Parker thanked Robert West and his Dot’s Cue Club staff for their hospitality, along with title sponsor PremierBilliards.com, digitalpool.com, BarPoolTables.net (Randy Tate), Breaktime Billiards in Winston-Salem, NC, TKO Custom Cues and Realty One Group results (Kirk Overcash), Dirty South Grind Apparel (Angela Harlan-Parker), Federal Savings Bank (Alex Narod), CHC Underground (Chris Clary), and AZBilliards.
The next stop on the PremierBilliards.com’s Q City 9-Ball Tour, scheduled for this weekend (Sept. 14-15), will be a $500-added event, hosted by The Clubhouse in Lynchburg, VA.
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