By Johnny Archer

The Cinch Shot

Apples are my favorite fruit! I played extremely well at the Big Apple 9-Ball Challenge, held in August 2004, throughout the whole tournament in order to win. Many times an entire tournament can hinge o­n a player's decision regarding o­ne shot, and at hill-hill in the final match, that decision had better be to err o­n the side of caution.

I started the tournament off really o­n fire. I didn't have a scare my first couple of matches, and I won those 11-5 and 11-4, respectively. My next match was my archrival of late, Frankie Hernandez. He started off really strong again, and when I made o­ne or two mistakes, he got up 8-4. It looked like he was going to beat me again, but then something changed, and I came back and won 11-9. I felt like if I could get by that o­ne, I knew I could get over that hump.

My next match was with the always-tough Francisco Bustamante. We had a back-and-forth battle, and he made a couple of mistakes that I didn't think he was going to make, and that was enough for me to win. It was a nail biter, but I pulled it off 11-9. And from there, it didn't get any easier.

In the final four of the winners' bracket, I had to play Jeremy Jones, but that match went my way. He is playing really well, as good as anybody right now, and being so focused and deliberate makes him really tough to beat. Jeremy made o­nly a few mistakes, but it seemed that every time he broke, he didn't have a shot. o­n the other hand, every time I broke, I had a good shot. In an alternating-break format, that's a killer, and I played well o­n top of it to win 11-5.

The finals of the winners' side were with Jose Parica. I started out very well and got ahead 5-0, but then I made a couple of mistakes.  Parica started playing a little better and tied it up at 7 apiece.  Then he returned the favor with very uncharacteristic mistakes of his own, and I took the match 11-7 to reach the hot seat.

The finals came down to a rematch between Jeremy Jones and me. I started the match out great and got a big lead of 9-2 in the extended race to 13. Jeremy made a couple of mistakes early in the match, missing a couple of balls, and everything went against him again. But then I made o­ne error o­n the 5 ball, and he came roaring back, running out from his break and capitalizing o­n my mistakes. The match was tied at 10 when he hooked himself o­n his object ball and had to play safe.  I won that game, and then the match seesawed to hill-hill.

In the very last game, I broke and didn't make anything.  Jeremy tried to long-rail bank the 1 ball into the 9. He missed the 9 but caromed the 1 in, which was not what he wanted.  Without good shape o­n the 2 ball, he attempted a shot and scratched. I had the run-out, but when I reached the 6, I tried to stop for a straight-in shot o­n the 7 and got too much of an angle. I realized that if I tried to draw straight back, I would clip the 8. But I knew that to win the match, I had to cinch the 7 and make sure I was at least shooting at the 8. Sinking the 7 with pocket speed, I forced the cue ball to the side rail and stayed under the 8 o­n the same side. I went a little too far and had to cut the 8 into the corner, coming over perfectly for a good, easy shot o­n the 9, and from there I won the match 13-12. Being safe rather than sorry was my saving grace in the Big Apple.