Derby City Classic One-Pocket Matches Reaching Epic Lengths

By Mike Fieldhammer, InsidePOOL Staff

Round seven of the one-pocket division at the Derby City Classic finished at 5:30 a.m. with Ralf Souquet outlasting Ron Casanzio.  The players drew each other in consecutive rounds, with Casanzio winning the first contest.  Eager to repay Casanzio but patient enough to grind out the win in a five-hour match, Souquet rushed off to bed to prepare for his 11 a.m. 9-ball match. 

Souquet completed his first-round 9-ball match with Paul Song from Atlanta and began his eighth round one-pocket match with Shannon Daulton.  Even more bizarre, Souquet drew Song again in the second round of the 439-player 9-ball tournament.  Souquet and Daulton’s marathon match tried the patience of the enthusiastic crowd from the start with a two-hour-long first game.  In the end, Souquet bested Daulton 3-1, handing “The Cannon” his first loss.  Daulton topped Cliff Joyner a lengthy match last night, too, and will use his re-buy to advance to round nine. 

Joyner ran into rested and red-hot Gabe “The Babe” Owen in round eight.  Owen said after the match, “Cliff’s break was so strong in the last game I had to take two fouls in a row to get out of it.”  Owen seized the match with a nifty nine-ball run, showing some more of his ball-running skills in the main tournament arena.  Owen ran an astounding 60 balls out of a possible 75 in the five-rack format of the one-pocket challenge earlier this week.

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Owen and Larry “The Truth” Nevel are the only players in the final 17 without one loss.  Nevel, who has played all of his matches listening to his headphones, defeated Rafael Martinez three games to one. 

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Results from eight great one-pocket matches and round two action of the 9-ball tournament will be coming soon.  Visit InsidePOOL for the latest news on the Tenth Annual Derby City Classic.