The Fury Amatuer 9-Ball Tour was unleashed in Florida this weekend at Stroker's Billiards in Palm Harbor, Florida with two events. The first event was on Saturday August 21, 2004 for a Fury Florida Ladies Amateur 9-Ball Tour Stop #5 and the second on Sunday August 22, 2004 for the Fury Florida Amateur 9-Ball Tour Stop #13. Both events excelled in expectations with great competitive skills and gave our newest addition, tournament director Karen Alford, her first test. Karen stepped up to the plate and proved to be a good asset to the company.
For the Fury Ladies Amateur 9-Ball Tour, 18 players showed up to compete in the one day $300 added event. Jennifer Nelson and Jennifer Prost met up in the 3rd round of the winners bracket where Jennifer Nelson took the lead and sent Jennifer Prost to the losers side with a 7-4 win. Jennifer Prost faced Ellen Van Buren on the losers side after Ellen lost to Debbie Schjodt. Ellen showed Jennifer Prost that she was there to play when she put Jennifer out of the tournament with a score of 5-3.
Jennifer Nelson and Debbie Schjodt, working their way through the winners bracket came face to face for the hot seat match that left last tournaments winner, Debbie Schjodt headed for the west side. Jennifer Nelson took control and headed off to the finals in a 7-3 victory.
Helene Caukin was working her way through the losers side and had been playing strong against players Terri Cockrell, Chrissy Whitfield and Amy Poulter but it was Jessica Barnes who sent Helene Caukin to 5th /6th place in close match that ended with the score 5-4.
This being Ellen Van Buren's first event with the Fury Tour proved that she was determined to work her way through the brackets. Ellen began working her way through the losers bracket against Stephanie Mitchell, Nikki Rasmussen, Jennifer Prost and Jessica Barnes with scores of 5-2, 5-4, 5-3 and 5-1, respectfully. The biggest match came when she came face to face with the opponent that put her in the losers bracket, Debbie Schjodt. Debbie showed that she was still in stroke and left Ellen in 3rd place.
Debbie Schjodt now had a chance to match up again with her opponent Jennifer Nelson that had sent her earlier to the one loss side. The play for the race to 9 finals appeared to mirror their first match with Jennifer Nelson taking a 6-3 lead. The play was intense as Debbie got two games to Jennifer's one with Jennifer still in the lead and bringing the score 7-5. The grueling match continued as Debbie fought back to bring the score to hill hill. A scratch on the break left Debbie giving the table to Jennifer who played till a miss on the 3 ball sent Debbie back to playing. Even though Debbie was playing a good match she missed on the 8 giving the impression that Jennifer was not out for the count yet. With Jennifer Nelson approaching the idea of maybe her first tournament win this seasn, to the dismay of all present she missed a hard shot on the 8 and Debbie took over for the win 9-8.
Complete Results:
1st place: Debbie Schjodt $295
2nd place Jennifer Nelson $180
3rd place Ellen Van Buren $115
4th place Jessica Barnes $70
The second day of events for the Fury Tour was on Sunday , August 22, 2004, for a $500 added at Stroker's Billiards in Palm Harbor Florida yielded a field of 69 players. The field presented itself with many of our regular participants and a whopping 20 new members.
The surprise was Joey Landi , a 19 year old from Springhill, Florida, who proved he could stand up to the large numbers and come out with a 1st place win. One of the tests was with Larry Walthall , 2004 points leader, in the quarter finals when a hill to hill match ensued where Joey came out on top with a 7-6 victory. While Joey and Larry were playing the other quarter finals match brought forth Robby Bradshaw, Palm Harbor, Florida, and Robert Noon, Lakeland, Florida. It was another hill to hill match. This match showed that Robert Noon was going to the hot seat match when he sent Robby Bradshaw to the west side with a score of 7-6.
In their first match of the event Mease Ratley sent last events winner, Normar Paula, to the loser's bracket. Nomar stroked through players Scott Mc Kenzie, Wesley Whitfiled, Jose DelRio (poolroom owner), John Matawa, Rich Shau, Jason Richko, and Adam Wheeler until he met with Robby Bradshaw who sent him to 5th/6th place in a 5-3 victory. In the other 5th/6th place match Larry Whathall and Julio Aquino were intensly playing but Larry came out on top with 5-2 and left Julio in 5th/6th joining Nomar.
Larry Walthall was then matched up with Robby Bradshaw who left Larry with 4th place.
In the hot seat match the day seemed to be going Joey's way when he met up with Robert Noon. Joey showed that he was definetly in stroke when he took the match with 7-0. Robert Noon was sent to the loser's bracket to match up with an opponent he himself had sent to the losers bracket in an earlier match.
Third place match was now between Robby Bradshaw and Robert Noon who had both been playing strong but Robert Noon proved he wanted to have a repeat match between him and Joey Landi when he left Robby in 3rd place with a 5-3 victory.
In the final race to 9 match all spectators had their eyes on the table as things got started. Joey jumped into the lead and held fast with Robert right behind. Both players played some fantastic shots even though tired from the day's activities. Joey had a 5-3 lead when Robert caught up with him. The games seemed to switched back and forth as the players fought for 1st place. A scratch on the hill to hill game for Robert Noon left Joey Landi in the 1st place spot and Robert in 2nd.
Complete Results:
1st place- Joey Landi $630
2nd place- Robert Noon $360
3rd place- Robby Bradshaw $250
4th place- Larry Walthall $160
5th/6th place- Nomar Paula, Julio Aquino $115 each
7th/8th place- Adam Wheeler, Joe Scarbrough $80 each
9th/12th place- Jim Sandaler, Marty Linzy, Jason Richko, Bobby Moore $ 65 each
13th/16th place- Artie Giannotti, Rich Shau, Dan Whitten, Anreas Koukiadakis $ 45 each
