Reno Villanueva and Brian Lane
It was, by all accounts, a busy weekend (Sept. 30-Oct. 1) at Q Master Billiards in Virginia Beach, VA, which hosted three separate Tiger Pool Tour events; two, $500-added, Fargo-specific tournaments (526 & above, 525 & below) and a $200-added Ladies tournament. The lower Fargo-rated, Division 2 tournament drew the most entrants (38), Division 1 hosted 19, while 13 Ladies showed up to compete in their event. Brian Lane went undefeated in Division 1, as did Paige Frost in winning the Ladies event. Quincy Tucker came back from a loss in the hot seat match to win the final and claim the Division 2 title.
Of the three winners, only one (Brian Lane) had any recorded prize-winning history (with us here at AZBilliards). Winning this past weekend, Lane recorded his first cash payout anywhere since the season opener of the PremierBilliards.com’s Q City 9-Ball Tour in 2018, an event at which he finished as runner-up. So, first-time winners all around, with all but Lane winning first-time tournament cash. At the regional-tour level, or sometimes at independent events, when cash is usually introduced for the first time, winning an event, at pretty much any level of competition, is like an item on a ‘talent’ alert to anyone perusing a list of names on a pre-tournament bracket. The confidence boost brought on by a handful of cash, especially top-prize cash, has a way of bringing competitors back to the tables quickly, for what is usually a dose of reality, related to knowing that no matter how talented you are, at any level of competition, ‘you can’t win ‘em all.’
Quincy Tucker and Braden Clark
In Division 2, Tucker claimed that title with seven wins and one double-hill, hot-seat match loss to Braden Clark. Tucker came back to defeat Clark in the finals, following a double-hill semifinal win over Stan Gower. Gower took home the Most Matches Played prize, winning three and losing one (to Tucker) on the winners’ side of the bracket before winning four on the loss side and losing a second time to Tucker in the semifinals. Though Tucker finished with the event’s highest game-winning percentage (55-22; 63%), his closest competitor in that department was Ryan Martin (63%; 39-23), who finished fourth, losing the quarterfinal match to Gower.
In Division 1, Brian Lane won his six, including the match that got him into the hot seat over Nigel Francis to claim the hot seat. Francis lost the semifinals to Reno Villanueva, who’d lost his opening match and set out on a six-match, loss-side streak that put him into the finals against Lane. Lane put a stop to the streak and claimed his first regional tour title.
Cheryl Pritchard and Paige Frost
In the Ladies division, Paige Frost won her first two matches by an aggregate score of 12-1. The next three, right into the winners’ circle, all went double-hill, beginning with Mary Hartley and then, twice against Cheryl Pritchard, whom she defeated, first to claim the hot seat. Pritchard moved west to the semifinals and ran into Renee Marple for a second time. Marple and Nancy Harned had both lost their opening match to Pritchard and faced each other in the quarterfinals, both, in a way, battling for a second shot at Pritchard. Marple earned the privilege, only to be defeated herself a second time by Pritchard, who earned her second shot at Frost, waiting for her in the hot seat. Frost took her down a second time, double hill, to claim the ladies title.
Tour directors Kris Wylie and Tiger Baker thanked the ownership and staff at Q Master Billiards for their hospitality, along with title sponsor, Tiger Products. There will be three more events on the Tiger Tour’s 2023 season, ahead of a 2024 season that will feature 12 events, one per month. The next 2023 event, scheduled for the weekend of October 21, will see the tour return to Q Master Billiards in Virginia Beach, VA.
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