Deuel Wins Battle Against Nevel

Seminole Pro Tour / Atlanta, GA

by Skip Maloney

Corey Deuel went undefeated this past weekend at the Seminole Pro Tour’s second event of the year, held in Atlanta, GA. Deuel defeated Larry “The Truth” Nevel 9-6 in a final game that never got beyond Deuel’s break.

Deuel had started his day meeting Jeremy “Double J” Jones in one of the two final match-ups in the winners’ bracket. Mitch Yarborough and Jonathan “Hennessee From Tennessee” Pinegar faced off in the other. Deuel and Jones stepped to the table having only lost 11 games between them in their last 3 matches (5 for Jones; 6 for Deuel). By comparison, Pinegar and Yarborough had lost 25 games in their last three match-ups. Jones moved to the one-loss bracket on the heels of an 8-3 victory for Deuel and Yarborough by an illness forfeit by Yarborough, which ended his tournament run.

Deuel moved into the hot seat with an 8-5 victory over Pinegar. Meanwhile, over on the one-loss side of the bracket, Archer and Nevel were still alive, as were Dave Grossman, Jessi Middlebrooks, Steve Moore, Tommy Kennedy, Sparky Ferrell (winner of the tour’s first event last month in Florida), and Jason Richko. Archer, Moore, Ferrell, and Nevel made it into the next round before Archer took out Moore 8-7 and Nevel defeated Ferrell 8-5. Jones, over from the winner’s bracket, knocked off Archer 8-7, while Nevel advanced on the basis of a second Yarborough forfeit.

Jones and Nevel then battled to hill-hill before Nevel took the last game and moved into the semifinals against Pinegar, whom he defeated 8-5. Nevel, who had crawled back through nine opponents on the one-loss side of the tournament bracket to face Deuel in the final, took the early lead in the finals match-up 4-1. Deuel then put together a strong run and came back to take a one-game lead 5-4. Nevel came back, winning the next two and Deuel answered with two of his own 7-6.

Late in the fourteenth game, Nevel missed an open shot on the 9 ball with an apparent clear shot on the 10 available to him afterwards, and before Deuel stepped up to take advantage, a visibly frustrated Nevel conceded the game by sweeping his stick across the table. Down 8-6, Nevel then watched as Deuel once again stepped to the table and employed a break technique he’d been using all weekend, which entailed a stroke that barely sent the rule-required four balls to a rail. Deuel had failed to pocket the 1 ball, but the break technique had left Nevel (not for the first time in the match) with limited options to even reach it on his first shot and a tight cluster of balls in the center of the table. Nevel stepped up, and for the second time in as many games, he swept his stick over the playing surface and ended the match right then and there.

Results:
1st Corey Deuel
2nd Larry Nevel
3rd Jonathan Pinegar
4th – Jeremy Jones
5th Johnny Archer
Mitch Yarborough
7th Sparky Ferrell
Steve Moore
9th Dave Grossman
Jesse Middlebrooks
Tommy Richko
13th Helena Thornfeldt
James Roberts
Ron Parks
Mike Davis