Melvin Shelton
Tour continues to raise funds, currently $1,700, for one of its own, Thomas Sansone
With what seems like half the pool world settled into the 30th Annual Super Billiards Expo that drew 128 professionals and literally thousands of amateur and Pro-Am competitors to Pennsylvania this past weekend (April 11-13), the other half attended their regularly-scheduled regional tour events in somewhat smaller increments. The PremierBilliards.com’s Q City 9-Ball Tour, for example, settled into Breaktime Billiards in Winston-Salem, NC for a $500-added event that drew 25 entrants.
The event served a double purpose. In addition to its regular functions, the tour has been using its last two (and next two) stops to raise money on behalf of one of its regular competitors, Thomas Sansone, who has recently been diagnosed with Stage 4 liver cancer. Sansone, who won an event on the tour last month, was on-hand and competed at this event, finishing in the tie for 9th place. The tour will continue to raise money for Sansone at this coming weekend’s event (April 20-21) at Dot’s Cue Club in Rocky Mount, NC and the following week (April 27-28) at The Clubhouse in Lynchburg, VA.
Melvin Shelton, who entered the AZBilliards database in 2012 with a 5th place finish on the Great Southern Billiard Tour and had not been ‘heard from’ since, went undefeated to the hot seat of this past weekend’s event. He and tour veteran, Hank Powell, met twice at the tables and eventually negotiated a split of the top two prizes.
Shelton got by Kevin Walker and Travis Geurra, both 5-3, before running into junior competitor (and son of Breaktime Billiards owner, Sundeep Makhani), Jas Makhani and defeating him 5-6 (Makhani racing to 8). Shelton drew Hank Powell in one of the winners’ side semifinals. In the meantime, another junior competitor, 16-year-old (in July) Jayce Little defeated Ace Daewood 6-2, Will Havis, double hill and Christian Fuller 6-1 to pick up Tim Nelson in the other winners’ side semifinal.
With Powell racing to 8, it was Shelton who advanced to the hot seat match 5-4. Little joined him after sending Nelson to the loss side 6-2. Shelton claimed the seat with a 5-4 victory over Little (racing to 6).
On the loss side, Powell picked up Travis Guerra, who’d followed his loss to Shelton with a win over Daewood 5-1 and three straight, double-hill victories over Kirk Overcash, Daniel Jones and Christian Fuller. Nelson drew Makhani, who’d followed his winners’ side quarterfinal loss to Shelton with victories over Junior Link 8-2 and Derek Leonard 8-4 (in his previous match, Leonard had eliminated Thomas Sansone).
Powell advanced 8-1 over Guerra to the quarterfinals. Nelson joined him after sending Makhani ‘home’ 6-4 (not far, Breaktime Billiards being the junior competitor’s ‘home’ room, owned by his Dad). Powell made short work of Nelson, allowing him only a single match in those quarterfinals. Powell then eliminated Jayce Little in the semifinals, allowing him just two racks for a potential second shot at Shelton in the hot seat.
That ‘potential shot’ didn’t happen. Shelton and Powell negotiated their split, leaving Shelton, undefeated at that point, to be the event’s official winner.
Tour director Herman Parker thanked Sundeep Makhani and his Breaktime Billiards staff for their hospitality, along with title sponsor PremierBilliards.com, BarPoolTables.net (Randy Tate), 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.
As noted earlier, this coming weekend’s (April 20-21) stop on the Q City 9-Ball Tour will be a $500-added event, which will continue fund-raising activities to benefit Thomas Sansone. The following week (April 27-28), the tour will continue fund-raising for Sansone at The Clubhouse in Lynchburg, VA.
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