Dazzling White Diamond Billiards Victory for Ferrell
White Diamonds Billiards Winter Extravaganza / Lafayette, LA
by Lea Andrews
Sparky Ferrell met Joey Gray twice—and put him in his place twice—on his way to undefeated victory at the White Diamond Billiards Winter Extravaganza. The $1,000-added event, which was streamed live by Ray “Bigtruck” Hansen at poolactiontv.com, was an extravaganza indeed, drawing a full field of 128 players to White Diamond Billiards in Lafayette, LA, the weekend of January 9-10.
Ferrell got past 2009 Summer Extravaganza winner Jeremy Jones to reach the hot seat match, where he met up with Gray for the first time. Gray, who was coming off a win over Rafael Martinez, moved west after falling 7-3 to Ferrell.
On the left side of the bracket, Jerry Slivka landed in a ninth-place tie courtesy of David Trest, who moved on to face Bobby Pickle. Pickle, who’d just ousted Shane Waltrip, did the same to Trest to meet up with Martinez. Meanwhile, Joey Barnes notched a win over David Gutierrez to face Kevin Noel, who’d gotten past Sean Black. Barnes put Noel in seventh to face Jones and dashed his hopes of back-to-back Extravaganza victories 7-4.
In the quarterfinals Barnes met up with Martinez, who’d put Pickle in fifth, but it was the end of the road for Barnes. Martinez kept it close in the semifinals against Gray, but with the score at 6-5 Gray, Martinez attempted a thin cut on the 8 ball but hit nothing but the cushion behind it, giving up ball in hand and the set to Gray.
In the true double-elimination final match, Ferrell hit the string first after he broke and got out with a 2-9 combination. Gray returned with a break and run to tie it up, but Ferrell pulled ahead 4-1. Gray staged a comeback that began with a 9 on the break, going on to get the score to 4-4 and 6-5. His final break, though, put the cue ball in a pocket and spread the balls wide open, leaving Ferrell a clear path to victory.
The $1,000-added event, which was streamed live by Ray “Bigtruck” Hansen at poolactiontv.com, was an extravaganza indeed, drawing a full field of 128 players to White Diamond Billiards in Lafayette, LA, the weekend of January 9-10.
Results:
1st Sparky Ferrell $2,142
2nd Joey Gray $1,040
3rd Rafael Martinez $796
4th Joey Barnes $551
5th Jeremy Jones $367
Bobby Pickle
7th David Trest $214
Kevin Noel
9th Jerry Slivka $107
Shane Waltrip
David Gutierrez
Sean Black