Eric Roberts (File photo)
Janet Atwell and J. Pechauer Custom Cues have initiated a GoFundMe campaign for local relief
“It was the safest place to be,” said Janet Atwell, owner of the Brunswick Borderline Arena in Bristol, TN.
By the time the PremierBilliards.com’s Q City 9-Ball Tour’s stop in Bristol, TN got underway this past weekend (Sat., Sept. 28), Hurricane Helene had become a tropical storm, the center of which had moved on to Kentucky overnight on Friday. This didn’t stop it from continuing to dump a lot of rain into the region and affecting a lot of people and their ability to move around, including those who wanted to travel to the Borderline Brunswick Arena in Bristol. Road conditions – bridges down, including one between North Carolina and Tennessee, major highways closed – led more than a few to cancel plans to attend the pool tournament.
Atwell’s Borderline Brunswick Arena did not incur any damage, aside from some roof leakage, incurred during the heaviest rain. By Saturday, it wasn’t even raining. Those who did make it to the tournament, including a number of players who traveled 30 or 40 miles to do so, had left areas where power had yet to be restored and told harrowing stories of residents in surrounding communities who’d been devastated by the storm’s varied effects.
“One player, who I didn’t even know, texted me,” said Atwell. “He’d driven from Greenville, SC (normally, about a two-hour-and-45-minute drive) and told me that it took him 10 hours to get here.”
Atwell had been in Englewood, CO when the storm struck, competing in the WPBA’s Olhausen Colorado Classic, but was constantly getting texts and updates on the storm. The danger to her Borderline Brunswick Arena was real because, Atwell explained, Bristol, TN is in a flood zone. She learned, as time went on and she returned to Bristol, that while devastation struck communities less than an hour away, Bristol itself escaped serious damage.
“You might drive for a mile and see destruction, but five miles away, everything was clear,” she said. “Around here, it looked like it had just been a bad windstorm.”
Ballad Health’s single-story Unicoi County Hospital, about 40 miles north of Bristol in Erwin, TN suffered flood damage that led to the attempted evacuation of all of its patients and staff. About 54 of them had to be evacuated from the roof of the building by helicopter, when 5-8 feet of water from the flooded Nolichucky River slammed into the building, closing escape routes.
Mindful of the fact that Borderline Billiards was spared any significant damage (“It’s a blessing,” she said), Atwell returned to Bristol and in collaboration with J. Pechauer Custom Cues set up a GoFundMe campaign for residents in the surrounding areas affected by the storm (https://gofund.me/981af36e). The effort has already raised over $5,000. For each $10 donation, donors will be entered to win one of the two cues in the photo that accompanies this report. Winners will be selected on Thursday, Oct. 10.
“Our dear friend, Janet Atwell and her community were hit hard by the recent hurricane and we are coming together to help her rebuild her surrounding community,” said a J. Pechauer Custom Cues representative. “Any donation, big or small, will make a huge difference.”
Atwell is also in the early stages of planning for a future event that will continue to raise donations for hurricane relief.
And then, there was this pool tournament . . .
Eric Roberts has made more in each of the last three years he’s been competing (’22 to ‘24’) than he made in his first four (recorded) years combined. This past weekend (Sept. 28), he went undefeated at the stop on the PremierBilliards.com’s Q City 9-Ball Tour and made 2024 his best recorded earnings year since he reported his first cash payout in 2016. The event drew 23 intrepid competitors to Borderline Brunswick Billiards.
Roberts and Reid Vance battled twice for the title; hot seat match and final. Roberts won both times, much stronger in the final than the hot seat match.
Roberts, racing to 10 throughout, was awarded an opening round bye and then defeated DJ Cordle (1), David Shipman (double hill) and in a winners’ side semifinal, Zach Wilson 10-3. Vance, in the meantime, racing to 8, got by Donnie Lester (5), Lauren Kauffman (3), Scott Largen (2) and the other winners’ side semifinal, Mike Skeens (5). Roberts claimed the hot seat 10-5.
On the loss side, Wilson picked up Largen, who’d followed his loss to Vance with wins over Andy Bowden 6-3 and Bryan Pate 6-1. Skeens drew a rematch against Robert Hamilton, whom he’d defeated in the event’s opening round. Hamilton then chalked up four in a row, including a double-hill win over Michael Clevinger and the elimination of Shipman 6-2 to draw the rematch.
Wilson downed Largen 8-5 and in the quarterfinals, drew Skeens, who’d defeated a second time, 5-3. Skeens downed Wilson 5-5 (Wilson racing to 8), before Vance defeated him 8-4 in the semifinals. Roberts chalked up a commanding 10-1 victory over Vance in the finals to claim the event title.
Tour director Herman Parker thanked Janet Atwell and her Borderline Billiards 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.
Plans for this coming weekend for the PremierBilliards.com’s Q City 9-Ball were disrupted in the aftermath of the storm. Parker will provide updates regarding the tour’s on-going schedule as they become available on the tour’s Web site.
0 comments