Lucas and Adams split top prizes on Q City 9-Ball Tour stop in Rock Hill, SC
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Matt Lucas
Matt Lucas has been on the pool-community scene for about a decade now and has recorded a total of 18 cash finishes with us, all on the Q City 9-Ball Tour. He has been eligible to compete in a final four times, two of them as winner of a given event semifinal and the other two as the occupant of the hot seat and ‘official’ winner of the event title. All resulted in a split of the top two cash prizes. This past weekend, Sat., Aug. 2, at an event that drew 29 entrants to Sticks & Stones in Rock Hill, SC, Lucas added another ‘undefeated occupant of the hot seat’ win to his career resume, splitting the top two prizes with Daniel “Papa John” Adams, who’s won four Q City 9-Ball events in the past 12 years by winning a final match.
Lucas was being awarded ‘beads on the wire’ to start all but one of the five matches he played to grab the hot seat. This, according to tour director Herman Parker, is likely to raise his handicap in future events to a ‘6,’ a notch up from the number he started with this past weekend.
The one match that Lucas played without ‘beads’ at the start of a match was his opener, which was a straight-up race to 5 against Chris Tuton. He downed Tuton 5-2 and followed with two 5-4 wins over Collin Hall (Hall racing to 7) and Onyx Stinson (Stinson racing to 8). Lucas drew Aaron McClure in one of the winners’ side semifinals. Adams, in the meantime, who was giving out ‘beads’ from start to finish, began by awarding three of them to each of his first three opponents. Adams opened with a shutout over Frank Foley, gave up just a single rack to Brian Biggs and two to Jeremy Wilson. Adams drew Zach Martin in the other winners’ side semifinal.
Lucas downed McClure 5-2 (McClure racing to 6) as Adams sent Martin to the loss side 7-2 (Martin racing to 6). Lucas claimed the hot seat 5-2 over Adams.
McClure and Martin moved over and picked up Javier Oliu and Onyx Stinson, respectively. Oliu had lost a third-round match to Martin, so after eliminating Austen Russell 7-4 and Cayden Skipper 7-2, McClure became the last opponent he needed to defeat to secure a rematch. Stinson had lost his third-round match to Lucas and ran right into a double-hill challenge from Travis Guerra, another competitor with a few ‘W’s on the Q City 9-Ball Tour. Guerra got three ‘beads’ in a race to 8 and almost pulled it off. But it was Stinson who advanced to down Thomas Sansone 8-2 and pick up Martin.
Martin, who started his match against Stinson with a 2-0 lead, racing to 8, battled to double hill (effectively, 5-8 in racks), won the sixth rack he needed and became a quarterfinalist. McClure and Oliu almost got to double-hill, but fell short by a single rack that sent McClure to the quarterfinal against Martin.
In a straight-up race to 6, McClure and Martin battled back and forth in a double-hill quarterfinal. McClure had lost his opening match, double hill, over Ed Marriott and advanced to the semifinals, double hill, over Martin. In his third, double-hill match of seven matches played, McClure was eliminated by Adams.
Negotiations followed for the two-way split. As the undefeated occupant of the hot seat at the time, Lucas chalked up his second ‘official’ win on the Q City 9-Ball Tour.
Tour director Herman Parker thanked the ownership and staff at Sticks & Stones for their hospitality, along with tour sponsors BarPoolTables.net, BreakTime Billiards (Clemmons, NC), TKO Custom Cues (Kirk Overcash), Realty Group One Results, CHC Underground, Digitalpool.com, Dirty South Grind Apparel, Federal Savings Bank Mortgage Division and AZBilliards.
This coming weekend (Aug. 8-9), the Q City 9-Ball Tour will be back at Breaktime Billiards in Clemmons, NC for a $250-added, 9-Ball event.
