Shaun Wilkie
In the Action Pool Tour's (APT) season finale, held on the weekend of December 6-7, Shaun Wilkie completed what tour director Ozzy Reynolds described as "a record that may very well never be broken," by winning his fourth straight stop on the tour. Wilkie's undefeated run through the field of 30 entrants at Long Shot Billiards in Chesapeake, VA left him at the top of the year-end APT rankings, which, in turn, earned him entry into all three divisions of the US Bar Table Championships in February, the airfare to get there, and hotel accommodations during his stay.
According to Reynolds, Wilkie started the year determined to win that first place prize. Then, he broke his foot.
"What would have sidelined most players, only made Wilkie more determined," said Reynolds, in announcing the victory and first place ranking prize. "For several events, he showed up and competed while hopping around the table on one foot."
Wilkie didn't win any of the events he spent hopping around on a broken foot, but he placed relatively high enough in all of them to stay competitive in the rankings with last year's tour champion, Brian Deska. Going into the season finale, the two were only separated by about 300 points, but Deska didn't compete, leaving the door open for Wilkie to march into the top spot on the tour, which he did.
Following victories over Chris Futrell, Kenny Miller, and Reymart Lim, during which he steadily reduced the number of racks being chalked up against him - from six to four to three - Wilkie moved into a winners' side semifinal against Joey Mastermaker. Joey's brother, Danny, in the meantime, squared off against Mike Davis in the other. Wilkie and Davis spoiled any hopes for a sibling hot seat match; Wilkie downing Joey 9-3, while Davis sent Danny loss-side packing 9-5. Wilkie completed his march to the hot seat with a 9-6 win over Davis and waited on his return.
On the loss side, things were shaping their way toward a sibling quarterfinal match. Joey drew Greg Sabins, who'd defeated Nick Turner 7-5 and survived a double hill fight against Kenny Miller. Danny picked up Reymart Lim, who, following his defeat at the hands of Wilkie in the third round, went on to victories over Shawn Carlson 7-3 and Chris Futrell 7-6.
The Mastermakers advanced. Joey survived a double hill struggle against Sabins, while Danny was busy eliminating Futrell 7-4. In a quarterfinal matchup that isn't likely to be the subject of a family conversation any time soon, or too often thereafter, Danny shut his brother out and turned to face Davis in the semifinal match. Davis gave up only two in the match and got his second shot at Wilkie in the hot seat. The two duplicated their hot seat scores 9-6, giving Wilkie his fourth straight, the tour ranking title, and tickets to Reno in February.
