BOWERS CORNER
2nd MONTHLY "SHUFFLER" SPOTLIGHT!
APRIL 1999
"BRIAN SHUFFLES HIS WAY TO U.S. OPEN"
NEW SECTION added March 1999 (SHY DI was the 1st SPOTLIGHT) - Send us a SHUFFLER SPOTLIGHT submission for upcoming months and let us know how you like this new section. Your comments and MONTHLY SPOTLIGHT submissions are greatly appreciated!
We have selected Brian Walker as the 2nd "SPOTLIGHT" from BOWERS' CORNER. Brian has contributed alot to shuffleboard in his shuffling years. He coaches and helps the new comers and is constantly promoting shuffleboard, assisting with and running major tournaments in Texas, and one of most proffessional, dedicated players and promoter of the game you will find anywhere. In March of 1999, Brian was instrumental in promoting and running the very first "Texas State Championship" tournament. A FIRST (of many years to come) YEAR LANDMARK for Texas Shufflers -- "First Texas State Championship"! The championship was hosted by Danny Norris at his Danny's Sports Bar (on Westheimer in Houston, Tx). "MANY THANKS TO BRIAN WALKER, DANNY NORRIS, and all the other Houston helpers!!" (From BOWERS CORNER and All the Texas Shufflers!)
Dickinson Man Shuffles to U.S. Open in Austin
Dickinson's Brian Walker shows his form during
the pro-am shuffleboard tournament. Walker
qualified for the U.S. Open in Austin this summer.
BY ROBERT AVERY
Reprint from: The Sports Edition (newspaper)
Vol.3, No.9, May 1990
CLEAR LAKE CITY -- Upsets don't necessarily have to unfold in a multi-million dollar stadium before thousands of spectators.
Surprises can also occur in dimly lit sports club on a silicon-sprinkled playing surface. Dickinson's Brian Walker is testimony to that.
Walker, an amateur shuffleboard player, with only a limited amount of tournament experience qualified for this summer's U.S. Open Shuffleboard Tournament after winning the championship in the 14-player Pro-Am U.S. Open Qualifying tournament held at Clear Lake's Third Base Sports Club, April 15.
By automatically qualifying for the U.S. Open, Walker is now able to waive the $200 entry fee.
Walker capped a 5-0 run through the two-day event by downing Don Valk in the title match, one of two professionals in the field and directs the U.S. Open which will be held in Austin in July.
With each match in the double elimination tournament, Walker took advantage of the fact that Valk was playing his sixth match of the day. That, coupled with Walker's ability to land his four pucks or "weights" at the end of the board, where a player can earn two or three points, depending where the puck comes to rest, was also instrumental in Walker's surprise triumph.
To shuffleboard players, that strategy is called "lagging" and it's as important an ingrediant to a victory in a game as it is for a pitcher in baseball to throw strikes.
"He (Walker) just started hitting the lags on the second game and my game wasn't sharp enough to handle it," said Valk, who had side-stepped elimination all day long with a run through the loser's bracket. Still, Valk was at a disadvantage.
Although he had shuffled his way to the title match, he had to win four of six games from Walker in order to take the top prize.
But with the championship match starting at 10:30 p.m., Valk appeared ready to keep the suspense lingering into the wee hours of the morning.
Trailing 4-3 through the fourth frame of the opening game, Valk scored seven points in the fifth to power his way to a 15-7 win.
"One of the things my father taught me was to never dwell on the past" Walker said.
Walker recalled that bit of parental advice with stunning results.
Over the next 24 frames that were needed to play the second and third games, Valk was to lead just one more time.
Walker, manager of an Eckerd store in Galveston, began to make vacation plans for a trip to Austin as soon as the middle game started.
Enroute to a 15-10 second game win, Walker padded an early 3-0 lead through two frames with a three spot in the fourth, two more in the sixth, and three points in the eighth for an 11-4 lead.
"That second game, I couldn't do anything wrong," said Walker, who was responsible for landing Valk in the loser's bracket in the first place, defeating him in an opening round match the day before.
Walker jumped to a 6-2 lead through four frames, but with Valk having scored his points in the odd-numbered frames, the door was open for the pro to chisel away at the deficit in round five.
Instead, Walker lagged well again, scoring two more points. Walker went on to win 15-3.
Going the maximum of three games with an opponent was nothing new to Walker. During the winner's bracket semi-finals, Walker again had to overcome a 1-0 deficit in games.
Facing George Lawrence in the semi-finals, the two men battled through seven ties and 24 frames in the opening game before Lawrence squeaked out a 15-14 win.
But Walker shook off the first game loss and rebounded with a 15-6 victory, setting up another drawn out affair for the right to play in the winner's bracket final.
In the third game, both players found points hard to come by in the early going. With the board unusually fast, the score was only 4-3 through eight frames and Walker on the short end of the score. But Walker out-pointed Lawrence 9-1 during the next six frames to win, 15-12.
"When the board is this fast, you have to take your one's and grin and bear it." Walker said, "You have to fight the board and not the opponent."
The frame-by-frame scoring point to Walker's assessment that the board was lightning quick.
In 19 of the 22 frames that were played in the third game, either one or no points were recorded in a frame.
After defeating Valk in the opening round in a match that took over two hours to play, Walker was forced to go three games with another opponent, Gene Mosely. Walker, however, took the quarter-final contest, 15-7, 13-15, 15-13.
Meanwhile, in the other winner's bracket semi-final game, Jim Griffin downed Johnny Ballard, the other pro in the field, setting up the winner's bracket finale between Walker and Griffin.
But for once, Walker didn't need to go the full three games to advance.
That outcome sent Griffin to the loser's bracket finale against Valk, who had just won his fifth straight match since losing his opening match to Walker.
But Griffin, hoping to upend his second pro of the day, never got untracked to the unflappable Valk. Valk won in two games, 15-5, 15-13.
"I shot against one of the best in Texas," Griffin said. "For me being a rookie and losing by one shot to one of the best, that gives you a good feeling."
By the end of this tournament, however, the one who felt the best and proved he was the best was Brian Walker.
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