Tennessee Lad Wins it All at Music City Open; Thornfeldt Repeats for Sixth Time

Tennessee Lad Wins it All at Music City Open; Thornfeldt Repeats for Sixth Time By Steve Trinward, InsidePOOL MagazineIt wasn't always easy, but that man from Tennessee found a way when the chips were down, as only one pool player emerged undefeated this week. With a stunning run of 10 out of 11 games, during which he allowed his opponent only the rare chance to leave his seat for a shot, Jonathan "Hennessee" Pinegar won the 17th Annual Music City Open at J.O.B. Billiards in Nashville, Tennessee.
His run took a couple of stunning performances because the opposition was as stiff as any he had faced all tournament. In the winners’ bracket final, David Gutierrez of Houston, Texas, ran up a 3-1 early lead and then had to mostly sit and watch as Hennessee fought back to a 4-all tie. Gutierrez won the next game but then missed a bank-shot and left the door open. Hennessee converted and ran the table for 5-all … and then proceeded to allow his opponent exactly one clear shot the rest of the match. on that one, the Texan tried a three-rail hit on a buried ball and barely missed the object ball; Hennessee ran for home and never looked back to win 11-5.On the elimination round side, Hennessee's previous victim, Scotty Townsend, faced off against the other surprise of the men's tournament, Chuck Raulston. The 19-year-old Poplar Bluffs, Missouri, resident, had previously annihilated two top players, beating Donnie Pinson 11-1 and then toppling Barry Emerson 11-3. It was a little tougher against Townsend, who had won this competition in the past, but after a nip-and-tuck battle, Raulston emerged with an 11-9 decision.A couple of hours later, playing Gutierrez for the right to face Hennessee for the tournament title, Raulston grabbed an early 3-0 lead, but the Texan climbed back to tie and then surge ahead 6-4. In the next game, they played cat and mouse for a few turns before Raulston sank a ball and ran the table for 6-5, never letting Gutierrez out of his seat until it was hill-6 in favor of Raulston. Gutierrez got back in two more times in the match, and brought the score to 10-8, but the younger player outlasted him in a safety battle and ran out the rack for the win 11-8.So now it was High Noon, or 6:00 p.m. Nashville time. To win, Raulston would have to win, and then win again, to overcome his single loss (way back in ancient history on Thursday evening at the hands of Arturo Sandanter). And at first, it seemed the youngster would do just that: Chuck Raulston opened the match against his elder (Hennessee recently turned 25) with a run of five straight games, doing the same thing to him that Hennessee had in closing out Gutierrez a few hours earlier. Pinegar sat in the electric chair, visibly frustrated at not even getting a chance to play the table. The one shot he had was an obstructed shot in the second game, and all he could do was manage to graze the object ball to avoid giving his opponent ball in hand. The rest of the string he could only sit and watch.Hennessee did get in at the end of one game to make it only a 4-game deficit, but his following break left him with no makeable shots, and his safety play only prolonged the agony as they swapped finesse moves until Raulston broke through and ran the next two games for 7-1. It was very much beginning to look like Pinegar would have to defend his perch from a level start in the second set. But in Game 9, Raulston failed to connect on an obscured object ball, and Hennessee began to heat up. He gave Raulston only a couple more chances to hit anything reasonable, running 7 straight games to take the lead 8-7. Raulston would win only one more game in the match; Hennessee closed him out with a 9 ball drop on the break to reach the hill and then survived an empty break on the final game, closing out the match after Raulston missed on the 4 ball, 11-8.On the women's side, it took both final sets to do it, but Helena Thornfeldt defended her five Music City titles with number six after a furious battle with young Rachael Abbink. Abbink had arisen from the dead by toppling the highly ranked Monica Webb and Pam Treadway 7-5 each time. She then manhandled winners' flight runner-up Toni Tucker 7-4 after spotting her opponent a 4-1 lead and then running the table for 6 straight games to win 7-4.Thornfeldt, meanwhile, had an easy time with Tucker and won 7-1. After the way she had carved through the field, nobody expected that the third-ranked woman in the WPBA would have much trouble with young Abbink. But Abbink stunned the packed-in crowd with the same kind of early-match play that Chuck Raulston was showing on the adjoining table in the men's finals. She ran off the first 3 games in short order, allowing Thornfeldt only a couple of shots at the table. After a single-game comeback by Thornfeldt, Abbink regained the ball and made like a good football offense, keeping the other team on the sidelines. She gave Thornfeldt only one more game in running it out to a 7-2 win.In the final set, Abbink was almost as effective, but the audience could see clearly that Thornfeldt was elevating her game a notch. Abbink won the first game and then dropped 3 in a row before clawing her way back to a 3-all tie. But when she failed to drop a ball on the break, the Swede charged back to regain the lead. Except for one lapse, which allowed Abbink to get back to a hill-4 deficit, Thornfeldt was fully in charge. In the final game, Abbink broke with a scratch, and Thornfeldt had easy pickings from her ball in hand to the final shot, 7-4.The scotch doubles event was won by the combo of Monica Webb and Barry Emerson, who bested defending champions Toni Tucker and Scott Smith in the final 5-2. They had previously beaten Jonathan Hennessee and Rachel Bumpus 5-2 and then bested the Bobby Pickle and Christy Simpson duo 5-3.Oh, and the traditional Midnight Madness mini-slam saw club favorite Pickle getting some measure of satisfaction after his ouster from the main tournament. Bobby toppled tourney winner Hennessee 11-4 and then beat last year's Music City Open runner-up Gabe Owen 11-7 to pocket that prize. Owen, meanwhile, had defeated Shannon Daulton 11-4 to get to Pickle's Lair, where the wily Nashvillian showed him who was the King of the Hill, at least in that tourney.All in all it was a long week of outstanding bar-table billiards, late-night partying, and good-natured fun for player and audience-member alike. Here's to the next one, which can't come soon enough!Visit InsidePOOL for the latest in the sport of billiards and pool.

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