Great Southern Billiard Tour / Sanford, NC

by Skip Maloney

Greg Taylor shrugged off a 9-3 defeat in the opening set of a true double-elimination finals to take home top honors in the Great Southern Billiard Tour stop February 21-22. The $1,500-added, A-B handicapped amateur event drew 62 entrants to Speak Eazy Billiards in Sanford, NC.

Lewis and Taylor met first among the winners’ side final four, with Taylor advancing to the hot seat match on the heels of a 9-3 win. He faced Bobbie Hicks, who’d just sent Barry Mashburn west 9-4. Taylor gained the hot seat with a 7-3 win over Hicks and waited for Lewis to get by three opponents before moving back to face him.

Over on the one-loss side, Sam Monday and Phillip Britt advanced to meet Lewis and Mashburn. Monday, the only double-A handicap player in the event, had gotten by Anthony Arney 10-5 and Eddie Little 10-7 to draw Lewis. Britt bested Robert Ray 9-3 and Sidney Champion 9-7 to meet Mashburn. Lewis then survived a double-hill battle against Monday to get into the quarterfinals with Britt, who’d handily defeated Mashburn 9-1.

Lewis moved past Britt into the semifinals with a 9-6 win and then dropped Hicks into third place by the same score. In the double-elimination finals that followed, Lewis took advantage of some momentum to capture the first set 9-3. Taylor came back with a vengeance in the second set, defeating Lewis 7-3 and capturing the first-place prize. 

Greg Taylor shrugged off a 9-3 defeat in the opening set of a true double-elimination finals to take home top honors in the Great Southern Billiard Tour stop February 21-22.

Results:

1st Greg Taylor $1,000

2nd Scott Lewis $600

3rd Bobbie Hicks $400

4th Phillip Britt $200

5th Sam Monday $125

Barry Mashburn

7th Eddie Little $100

Sidney Champion

9th Anthony Arney $60

Chris Bruner

Glen Russell

Robert Ray