The Fury Amateur 9-Ball Tour opened the 2005 North Carolina division season at Babineau's in Raleigh on January 15. Over 3/4 of the field traveled from out of town and they were rewarded with strong competition at one of the Southeast's finest pool rooms. Top-notch equipment, great food and tough matches were the order of the day.
Before play even started, the excitement was already building when the tournament director announced the additional incentives to be offered by the tour's primary sponsor, Fury Cues, to this year's players.
Many new names were on the chart at this event, and although they may have been unknown on the tour, they clearly were not intimidated by the regulars. David Slawter tore through the winner's bracket with a virtually flawless 35-5 record to land in the hot seat. With wins over Bobby Strandberg, Delano Buchanan, Jeff Pruitt, Steve Lee, and Cary Dunn, Slawter wasn?t taking chances. Dunn, another newcomer, went 28-8 through his bracket, sending Chris Vollmar, Bob Ruffalo, Jim Supples and Chad Pike to the one loss side before being sent west by Slawter. Dunn then snuck past Jeff Pruitt in the semi-final, 5-4 to earn another shot at Slawter in the finals. This match was a nail-biter, while at hill-hill Pruitt seemed to be on his way to a victory in the case game, until a missed position play cost him the game and sent Dunn to the finals.
In the rematch between Slawter and Dunn, they traded games for the first seven racks in the race to 9. Slawter then took the lead to make it 6-3, but Dunn took the next 3 straight to tie the match at 6 a piece. But it was Slawter who took the last swing of momentum to take a 9-6 victory and first place at the first stop of the season.
Results:
1st David Slawter $415
2nd Cary Dunn $250
3rd Jeff Pruitt $165
4th Steve Lee $90
