As the owner of Bumper's Billiards in Birmingham, AL, and the tournament director of the Alabama State 9-Ball Championships, David Rowell has been trying to win his own event for 11 years. He finished second twice; once in 2009, and one other time, the date of which he couldn't remember. On the weekend of June 30-July 1, he broke through for the first time, winning six in a row on the loss side, and defeating Jonathan Tedder in the finals. The event, exclusively for residents of the state of Alabama, drew 25 entrants to his pool hall.
Rowell, after an opening round bye, was sent to the loss side by Robert Hall in a double hill match. They would meet again. Hall advanced to the winners' side final four to face Tedder, as Chris Nation squared off against Brandon Davenport. Tedder sent Hall west 9-5 for a fateful re-match against Rowell, and in the hot seat match, met Nation, who'd sent Davenport west 9-1. Tedder got into the hot seat with a 9-6 victory over Nation.
On the loss-side, Rowell was in the midst of the six-win, loss-side streak that would propel him into the finals against Tedder. With one notch on his belt already, he defeated Bill Smith 9-4, and Greg Summers 9-7, to earn his re-match versus Hall. Davenport drew Joe Cole, who'd been sent west by Tedder from among the winner's side final eight and defeated Tyson Allen and Lance Ireland, both 9-5.
Rowell exacted his revenge on Hall, in mirror fashion, surviving a double hill match, as Cole downed Davenport 9-4. Rowell then completely shut out Cole in the quarterfinals, and defeated Nation in the semifinals 9-5. Rowell completed his first victory at these Alabama State 9-Ball Championships with a 13-8 victory in the single-race finals.
Rowell couldn't identify any particular reason that this, his eleventh attempt, was more successful than previous efforts, noting that he had "just started playing real good" on Sunday morning.
"I was breaking good, too," he said, "and I was running a lot of racks."
