Billy Walker and BJ Ussery met three times in last weekend’s (Feb. 8-9) Viking Cues’ Q City 9-Ball Tour stop in Lynchburg, VA. According to FargoRate calculations, Walker, rated at 532, came into the match with a 10.2% chance of defeating the 732-rated Ussery in a match, with Ussery racing to 11 and Walker to 6. They met three times; once, in the hot seat match and twice in the finals. Walker took two out of three of those matches to claim the event title and presumably up his Fargo Rate in the process. He was looking for and eventually secured his first Viking Cues’ Q City 9-Ball Tour title and, in fact, his first recorded title anywhere. The $1,000-added event drew 46 entrants to The Clubhouse in Lynchburg, VA.

 

Ussery’s races to 11 can make his path to a winners’ circle tricky. Case in point: his winners’ side semifinal match against Billie Spadafora, who was racing to 5. They battled to double hill before Ussery won his 11th game and advanced to the hot seat match. Walker joined him after defeating Zach Hampton 6-4 in the other winners’ side semifinal. Walker then took the first of three against Ussery 6-8 to claim the hot seat.

 

On the loss side, Hampton picked up Janet Atwell, who’d defeated Victor Williams 7-1 and Dylan Carr 7-2. Spadafora would have drawn Jordyn Worley, who’d shut out Jonathan Ailstock and downed Collin Hall 4-3 to reach him (Hall racing to 7), but Spadafora did not make it back to the event’s second day.

 

Worley leapfrogged into the quarterfinals, where she was joined by Hampton, who’d eliminated Atwell 9-4. Worley took another step, downing Hampton 4-3 (Hampton racing to 9) in those quarterfinals.

 

Ussery put a stop to Worley’s aspirations with an 11-2 win in the semifinals that followed and then, riding that intangible mount known as momentum, took the opening set of the final against Walker. But just barely, with Walker chalking up a 5th rack to force a deciding 16th game. Ussery won that game and the opening set. Walker, though, had plenty left in the ‘tank’ and took the second set 6-9 to claim his first event title on the tour.

 

Tour directors Herman and Angela Parker thanked the ownership and staff at The Clubhouse, as well as title sponsor Viking Cues, Bar Pool Tables, Delta 13 Racks, AZ Billiards and Professor Q-Ball. The next stop on the tour, scheduled for Feb. 15-16, will be a $1,000-added Scotch Double event (combined high handicap of 15), hosted by Break & Run Billiards in Chesnee, SC.

2019 Tour Championships to end tour season this weekend in Chesnee, SC

 

On the weekend of December 14-15, BJ Ussery chalked up his seventh win* on the 2019 Viking Cues’ Q City 9-Ball Tour. It was also the 9th time that he had finished as either the winner or runner-up this year, and also the 11th time that he’d finished among the top five. He competed in 13 of the tour’s events, as well as the Star City 10-Ball Shootout in Roanoke, VA, where he was runner-up to James Aranas and one Atlanta stop on the J. Pechauer Southeast Open 9-Ball Tour, which he won, downing Bernardo Esteban in the finals. In fact, 2019 was Ussery’s best recorded earnings year, dating back to AZBilliards’ first notations of his winnings, nearly 20 years ago, when he finished 65th at the US Open 9-Ball Championships in 2000.

 

Ussery and Earl Kent were to have met in the finals of the $1,000-added event that drew 42 entrants to The Clubhouse in Lynchburg, VA. By mutual agreement, they split the top two prizes and opted out of a final match.

 

Kent came through the loss side to earn the right to face Ussery in the finals. It was Ussery and James Blackburn who met in the hot seat match. Ussery had faced and defeated Billy Walker 11-4 in one of the winners’ side semifinals, as Blackburn downed Jason Holmes 9-3 in the other one. In what proved to be Ussery’s final match, he claimed the hot seat 11-5 over Blackburn.

 

On the loss side, Kent defeated Jason Evans 5-3 and then, Scott Roberts 5-2 to advance into the event’s first money round against Jason Holmes. Walker picked up Joshua Shultz, who’d defeated Daniel Adams, double hill, and Dylan Carr 6-2 to reach him.

 

Walker moved into the quarterfinals on the heels of a 6-4 win over Shultz. Kent joined him after eliminating Holmes 5-2. Kent took the quarterfinal match 5-3 over Walker.

 

Kent and Blackburn squared off in the event’s final match, the semifinals. Kent downed Blackburn 5-2 and earned himself a split with Ussery.

 

Tour directors Herman and Angela Parker thanked the ownership and staff at The Clubhouse for their hospitality, as well as title sponsor Viking Cues, Bar Pool Tables, Delta 13 Racks, AZ Billiards and Professor Q-Ball. The next stop on the Viking Cues’ Q City 9-Ball Tour will be its annual Tour Championships, this year scheduled for December 21-22. The $1,000-added event will be hosted by Break & Run Billiards in Chesnee, SC.

It was a small, but strong field that traveled from the International 9-Ball Open to Wolf’s Den Billiards in Roanoke, Va for the Star City 10-Ball Shootout on November 6th – 10th. 

 

The Philippines’ James Aranas looked like he might run away with this one, after winning his first three matches (Derek Radford, Kent Lacy and Dylan Carr) by an average margin of 9-2. He was put to more of a test in his quarter-final 9-5 win over Jesus Atencio,  but then rolled over Jalal Yousef for the hot-seat 9-4. Aranas trailed that match 4-3 before winning six racks for the win. 

 

BJ Ussery was the player to beat on the one loss side. He dropped a final eight match to Aranas’ countryman Roberto Gomez, but came back with four wins on the left side of the board. Ussery was challenged by both Atencio and Gomez, beating Atencio 9-7 and then Gomez 9-8. The semi-final match between Ussery and Yousef started out close, tied at 3-3, before Ussery took control and won the match 9-5. 

 

The finals was one extended race to thirteen, and even with the alternating break format, the momentum of the match went back and forth. With Ussery leading 4-2, Aranas won five straight racks for a 7-4 lead. At 8-5 Aranas, Ussery took control and won seven straight racks to take the hill at 12-8. Ussery’s break abandoned him at 12-8 though, and Aranas took over control of the match. Aranas broke and ran two racks off his break, ran one from a dry Ussery break and ran out from a missed 2-ball by Ussery to tie things up at 12-12. Aranas had the break for the final rack, and he took full advantage with another break and run for the 13-12 win and first place. 

 

Last March, Andy Bowden was runner-up at a Viking Cues’ Q City 9-Ball Tour stop at the newly-renovated Clubhouse in Lynchburg, VA. In that event, he was sent to the loss side when he dropped a set to the eventual winner (Hank Powell) in the winners’ side semifinal. He won three on the loss side and the opening set of a true double elimination final, double hill, against Powell, who won the second set and claimed the event title. On the weekend of July 27-28, in a reversal of fortune scene, Bowden was the winner at a Q City 9-Ball Tour stop in Lynchburg, VA, sent Amory Capers to the loss side in a winners’ side semifinal match, and lost the opening set of the true double elimination final to Capers. Bowden won the second set to claim the title. The event drew 25 entrants to The Clubhouse.

 

As Bowden and Capers played out their winners’ side semifinal match to its 6-3 Bowden conclusion, Dylan Carr was busy in the other winners’ side semifinal, taking out the tour’s most prolific winner, JT Ringgold, 5-2 (Ringgold racing to 11). Bowden gave up only a single rack to Carr in the match that followed and waited in the hot seat for the return of Capers.

 

On the loss side, Capers drew Trey Frank, who’d faced and been defeated by Bowden in the semifinals of the March event and had eliminated Jonathan Ailstock 7-4 and Jordan Worley 7-3 to reach Capers. Ringgold picked up Brian Bryant, who’d taken out Scott Roberts, double hill, and David Parker 9-3.

 

Bryant locked up in a double hill battle against Ringgold and prevailed 9-10 to give Ringgold a rare three-win, two back-to-back losses run in a tournament. Capers downed Frank 7-4 to join Bryant in the quarterfinals.

 

Bryant ended up on the wrong end of his second straight double hill match, falling to Capers 7-8. Capers then spoiled Carr’s hopes for a rematch by defeating him 7-2 in the semifinals.

 

Capers took the opening set of the true double elimination final 7-3. He and Bowden battled back and forth to a single deciding 12th game in the second set, but it was Bowden who dropped the last ball to claim the event title.

 

Tour directors Herman and Angela Parker thanked the ownership and staff at The Clubhouse, as well as title sponsor Viking Cues, Bar Pool Tables, Delta 13 Racks, AZ Billiards and Professor Q-Ball. The next stop on the Viking Cues’ Q City 9-Ball Tour, scheduled for this weekend (August 3-4) will be hosted by Mickey Milligan’s in New Bern, NC.