The Desert Classic Tour took a month off from the World Beater’s and brought thirty “B/C” (roughly 8’s and under) rated players to Skip & Jan’s in Tempe on February 18th and 19th to do battle on the Diamond 7’ Smart Tables.
The two players who pushed themselves ahead of this pack of players were Steve Murray and Jim Hendrickson. Murray had notable wins over Todd Dilley and Tucson’s Mike Hamman, while Hendrickson had wins over Junior Jiron and Jason Polk.
The hot-seat match went down to the wire with Murray scoring a 7-6 win over Hendrickson.
On the one loss side, Jason Polk had just eliminated Hamman and was looking for a chance at revenge against Hendrickson.
The match between Polk and Hendrickson was a story of shifting tides as Polk raced out to a 3-0 lead and it looked like he would run over Hendrickson. Then Hendrickson took control and won four games to take the lead at 4-3. Next, it was Polk’s turn and he won two games to retake the lead at 5-4, before a Hendrickson win left the players tied at 5-5. Once again, the momentum shifted and Polk won the last two games to win the match 7-5 and earn himself a place in the finals against Murray.
The final match all came down to the break for Polk. He won the opening toss, broke, scratched and watched Murray run out the rack. Polk would tie the score at 1-1, but that would be the last time he was that close to Murray. Murray took a 3-1 lead and stayed comfortably ahead for the rest of the match. Polk did all he could to try to stay close, but Murray got to the hill at 6-3. Polk won the next game for 6-4, but in a case of deja-vu, Polk scratched on his next break and watched Murray run the rack for the 7-4 victory.
The Desert Classic Tour has rescheduled their next stop to March 31st and April 1st when the big boys will come back out to play at Skip & Jan’s in a $1,000 added Bartable 8-ball event.
