Frost Keeps His Cool at GSBT Event
Great Southern Billiard Tour / Fairfield, OH

by Lea Andrews

When the Great Southern Billiard Tour sets up camp in the North, one can expect the unexpected, like a Frost in the middle of summer. Robert Frost went undefeated through a tough 48-player field at the $1,500-added July 18-19 stop, which was held at Michael’s Billiards in Fairfield, OH, and sponsored by Nick Varner Cues and Cases.

A smooth 9-5 victory over B-ranked Joe Pierce put A-ranked Frost into the hot seat match against Joe Brown, who’d just sent fellow A player Alex Olinger west 9-7. That score got flipped on him against Frost, though, who sent him to the left side to try to earn his way back.

On the one-loss side, BEF Junior Nationals 14-and-Under Boys champion Billy Thorpe made his way past Bill Farmer 7-2 and last week’s winner Jordan Grubb 7-6 to meet up with Olinger. The 13-year-old Thorpe, who started the weekend as one of the three junior champions competing in the event (Boys 19-and-Under champ Landon Shuffett and Girls 19-and-Under champ Liz Lovely finished out of the money), ended the weekend as the one who went furthest, landing in fifth while Olinger moved on to the quarterfinals 9-5. Meanwhile, Mike Leek, who’d suffered an early loss to Brown 9-6, swept past Chris Collins 9-6 and Eric Hinx 9-5 to face Pierce, who ended Hinx’s chance at another go at Brown 7-6. In the quarterfinals, Olinger took care of Pierce smoothly 9-4 to match back up with Brown in the semifinals, where he earned his revenge and a spot in the finals 9-7.

The two evenly-matched A players battled back and forth to hill-hill in the true double-elimination final match, and in the final rack, after Olinger missed position on the 5 ball and hung up the cross bank, Frost cleaned up what was left to earn his victory in one set 9-8.

Results:
1st Robert Frost $1,000
2nd Alex Olinger $500
3rd Joe Brown $350
4th Joe Pierce $200
5th Billy Thorpe $125
Mike Leek
7th Jordan Grubb
Eric Hinx

---