Hunter White
Hunter White hadn’t won a stop on the PremierBilliards.com Q City 9-Ball Tour since the last weekend in February, 2021. It was the weekend that North Carolina’s governor, Roy Cooper, signed an executive order restoring indoor service to bars and increased seating capacity for indoor sporting events, after the height of the pandemic had passed. White continued to compete that year, cashing in nine events and in the end, making it his best earnings year since he recorded his first here at AZBilliards in 2014. His reported winnings in 2022, paled in comparison with only five cash finishes.
This past weekend (Sat., Jan. 28), White left little doubt that his head was ‘back in the game’ by opening his 2023 campaign with an undefeated run to the hot seat at a stop on the tour, winning, on average, four out of every five games he played (45-10; 82%). He and Jeff Abernathy, looking for his first victory on the tour since 2019, split the top two prizes when they opted out of playing a final match. The $500-added event drew 39 entrants to Randolph Billiards in Hickory, NC.
After an opening round bye, all 10 of the racks chalked up against White were recorded in his first three matches (3, 5, 2), which brought him to a winners’ side semifinal match against Matt Lumston, who’d just sent Abernathy to the loss side. Ian Watson and Marcus Pendley squared off in the other winners’ side semifinal.
White shut Lumston out. Watson joined him in the hot seat match after dispatching Pendley to the ‘west,’ 5-6 (Pendley racing to 8). White claimed the hot seat with his second shutout in a row.
On the loss side, Abernathy defeated Tim Williams 9-2 and Jason Blackwell 9-4, advancing to the first money round to face Pendley. Lumston drew Thomas Sansone, who’d defeated Joe Frasier 7-2 and Jerry Hilton 7-3, to reach him.
Abernathy and Sansone handed Pendley and Lumston their second straight loss; Abernathy downing Pendley 9-6, as Sansone eliminated Lumston 7-4. Abernathy then defeated Sansone 9-4 in the quarterfinals.
In what proved to be the final match of the event, Abernathy gave up only a single rack to Ian Watson and won their semifinal match. The split-cash accommodation, which had been reached prior to the semifinal match, left White, occupant of the hot seat, as the official winner of the event and Abernathy as its runner-up.
Tour director Herman Parker thanked the ownership and staff at Randolph Billiards for their hospitality, as well as title sponsor PremierBilliards.com, Breaktime Billiards (Winston-Salem, NC), BarPoolTables.net, Dirty South Grind Apparel Co., Realty One Group Results, Diamond Brat, AZBilliards.com, Federal Savings Bank Mortgage Division and TKO Custom Cues. The next stop on the Q City 9-Ball Tour, scheduled for this weekend (Feb. 4-5), will be a $500-added event, hosted by Action Billiards in Inman, SC.
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