 Tony Watson and Jonathan Hennessee |
The Tarheel Classic II went off without a hitch this weekend (September 8th and 9th) in Hickory, North Carolina at Randolph's Billiards. This $1500 added event was presented by The Great Southern Billiard Tour and Nick Varner Cues and Cases.
The usual suspects made their way to the venue with top picks including Shannon Daulton, Larry Nevel, Jonathan Hennessee, Tony Watson, Sparky Ferrell, and Jeff Abernathy. Some of the exciting initial match-ups on Saturday consisted of Jonathan Hennessee and Larry Nevel taking their match to the hill with Hennessee prevailing; Shannon Daulton playing Brian Capps (he recently took fourth in one of the GSBT events), but Daulton ended up being too much to handle; and Tony Watson controlling his match with Sparky Ferrell.
The start of Sunday showed great promise with the following sixteen players returning (results for those matches included):
Winners side match-ups:
Mackey Lowery over Jeff Abernathy 9-4
Josh Roberts over Michael Newsome 9-1
Tony Watson over Eddie Little 9-3
Jonathan Hennessee over Shannon Daulton 9-4
One-loss side:
Larry Nevel over Daniel Gamble
Jeff Pruitt over Anthony Arney 7-5
Dennis Setzer over Sammy Odom 7-4
Sparky Ferrell over Brian Capps 7-1
The field dwindled down to eight players after Nevel defeated Little 7-4, Daulton defeated Pruitt 7-2, Abernathy ended over Setzer, and Ferrell dominated Newsome 7-1. This made for some interesting matches for the remainder of the day including on the winners side: Roberts over Lowery, and Hennessee over Watson 9-4. While the one-loss side had Nevel and Daulton clashing with Daulton coming out on top 7-6, and Ferrell ending Abernathy's day with a final score of 7-1. Shortly thereafter, Ferrell, after having a great tournament and only allowing his opponents throughout the weekend to score one game (with the exception of one player who made it to five), faltered to Watson 7-1, and Lowery lost against Daulton 7-5.
The hot seat match was very intense. Josh Roberts was ahead of Jonathan Hennesse at one point 7-4, but Hennessee quickly got back into the match and battled back to ultimately defeat Roberts 9-7. The one-loss side saw Watson ending Daulton's day 7-3, and then after the match going back and forth for a while, cut Roberts' tournament life short with a 7-5 win. The final match was races to nine, true double elimination. Tony Watson had to beat Jonathan Hennessee twice in order to take the win and the title, but Hennessee would have none of that and scored a 9-3 victory promptly.
Special thanks to Randy and Becky Kanipe for supporting the tour by having us – it was a great tournament with the added bonus of wonderful food - it is always a pleasure to play at Randolph's Billiards. A couple of other honorable mentions: the winner of the Nick Varner cue raffle was Jeff Murrah – he is the owner of Karl's Korner in Columbia, South Carolina; and congratulations to Christi Causey of Gastonia, North Carolina for being the highest lady finisher in the event which earned her a $50 prize.
For those of you that have not made it out to one of The Great Southern Billiard Tour tournaments, your next chance is coming up next weekend (September 15th and 16th) for the $1500 added Mid-Carolina Classic II which will be held at Breakers in Rock Hill, South Carolina.
