JT Ringgold
Eight months ago, with a distinct ‘home field’ advantage playing in his home town of New Bern, NC at Mickey Milligan’s Billiards, JT Ringgold chalked up what was his 13th overall victory on the Viking Cues’ Q City 9-Ball Tour. It was seven more than his closest competitor in the category, and the last time, in a handicapped tournament, that he would race to 10. On Saturday, June 15, Ringgold returned to Mickey Milligan’s to win his 14th event title on the tour. Unlike the quest for #13, #14 started and stayed on the winners’ side of the bracket. The 13th featured an opening-round loss, seven wins on the loss side (with an aggregate score of 74-16) and a double dip win in the final that saw him win all but three of the 23 matches he played. The 14th title came at the end of four matches, two of them against Justin Clark. The 13th title event drew 18 entrants to Mickey Milligan’s. The $250-added, 14th title event drew 15.
Ringgold and Clark met first in a winners’ side semifinal (match #3), as Larry Pierce and Ron Sellers squared off in the other one. Pierce sent Sellers to the loss side in a shutout, as Ringgold took his first of two over Clark 11-4. Ringgold settled into the hot seat after an 11-3 win over Pierce.
Sellers and Clark moved to the loss side and entered the matches that would determine whether they had a chance of going home with any cash. Clark did. Sellers didn’t. Clark got into the first-money-round quarterfinals with a 6-3 win over Matt Raden, who’d eliminated Walter Berry and Chris McSorley, both 7-3, to reach him. Danny Farren, who’d defeated Lisa Cossette 7-3 and Robert Perez 7-5, eliminated Sellers 7-1.
The next two battles were hotly contested, representing, as they did, a difference of $100 between the quarterfinal and semifinal winners and losers. Clark dropped Farren out of the race, double hill, in the quarterfinal to send him home with $50. Clark then eliminated Danny Pierce, double hill in the semifinals and saw him pocket $150.
The financial gap between 1st and 2nd place was $150 ($400/$250) and the battle for it, just as fierce. Clark, granted five on the wire at the beginning of a race to 11, chalked up one more rack against Ringgold than he had in the winners’ side semifinal and forced a 16th deciding game, but Ringgold added a 14th notch to his Viking Cues’ Q City 9-Ball ‘gun’ with an 11-5 win.
Tour directors Herman and Angela Parker thanked the ownership and staff at Mickey Milligan’s, as well as title sponsor Viking Cues, Viking Cues, Bar Pool Tables, Delta 13 Racks, AZ Billiards and Professor Q-Ball. The next stop on the Viking Cues’ Q City 9-Ball Tour, scheduled for this weekend (June 22-23), will be a $1,500-added event, hosted by a new venue for the tour – Break and Run Billiards in Chesnee, SC.
