Derby City Classic Billiards Event Rolling Forward
The 12th Annual Derby City Classic continued on with play in the Bank Pool tournament. The event saw almost half of its 353 competitors knocked out at the end of the day.
Several noteable matches highlighted the talk around the event as a star-studded field of competitors battled throughout the day and evening. One of the most talked about matches involved Jesse Bowman and Chris Brown. Bowman, with the match called, showed up only seconds before the fifteen minute forfeit. He proceeded to chat with his competitor, Chris Brown, for a few minutes. After their short discussion, Bowman went on to win the first break and then run out the set. All in all, he ran fifteen banks in a row, to win 3-0, without Chris Brown even getting to shoot one shot.
Other highlights from Saturday include Robb Saez defeating two-time Derby City Bank champion Larry Price. Former Derby City All-Around champion Justin Miller bested forner Ring Bank champion Brian Gregg in a match that came down to the last ball.
The final live streamed match of the day featured defending all-around champion John Brumback versus Scott “The Freezer” Frost. The players displayed a lot of respect for each other throughout the match and even exchanged some one-liners and witty banter from time to time. At one point, Brumback called a foul on Frost and it took Frost ten seconds to realize that Brumback was serious. Frost conceited the foul, placed a coin on the rail as a reminder, and returned to his chair without so much as a peep. The match moved forward to the point of each player needing only one ball and ended with Brunback firing in the set winner.
Play is scheduled to resume Sunday at 10am with the fourth round draw. The size of the field is expected to be around 175 players at the beginning of the fourth round, but could change depending on the number of players that buy back into the tournament.