Fairfield County’s Best: The Biggest Little Bar Box Tournament Around

By Keith Shaner

EEvery year, just before spring, pool players descend on the city of Lancaster, Ohio, in Fairfield County. It’s time for The Fairfield County’s Best Bar Box 8-Ball Tournament. It’s one of the country’s largest single-day (24-hour) tournaments. This event has grown from a locals-only tournament, with a little over a couple of dozen players, to an open event that regularly draws over 200 players who come from all over Ohio, the US, and beyond.

Ohio has a rich history with billiards, and there have always been big events that everyone looks forward to each year, but only a select few come even close to matching Fairfield County’s best in tradition, size, and popularity. It’s a badge of honor for many to say that they have run this gauntlet and come out on the winning side.

The fields are very tough, often with two hundred-plus players, and there are at least one hundred and eighty of them are capable of winning. There are many recognizable names that have played in this event over the years. Tony Mougey, Ed Hancock, Billy Thorpe, Cody Myers, Nathan Wallace, Shane Albaugh, and Shane Jackson, to name a few.

They also started a Ladies’ division several years ago, and they have had two junior events as well. Many of the ladies play in both divisions, and many juniors still enter with the adults. This year there were two hundred and thirty-eight players in the open division, with Nathan Owens, Fred Shelvey, and Tri Hinton taking the top 3 spots. Nathan is from West Virginia, Fred is from Ohio, and Tri lives in Ohio but plays out of West Virginia at The League Room. The main man behind this event is Chris Garey, and he was kind enough to sit down and answer a few questions about this incredible long-standing tournament.

KS; So, how long have you been involved in pool, and how did you get started?

CG: I was 15 years old, working with some friends every weekend. After work, I would go to their house and shoot pool for hours. I mostly lost. At 16 years old. I went into a local bar a few blocks from my house. I wasn’t supposed to be there. I gambled and won a couple of bucks. I really enjoyed playing pool competitively. I continued to play with friends throughout high school. I won my first tournament in 1991, in Groton, Connecticut, while serving in the Navy. I continued playing while in the Navy. I played in the Viking tour tournaments while in Connecticut and played all around Norfolk, Virginia.

KS: How did you get involved with the Fairfield County’s Best Tournament?

CG: Debbie Turner owned Main Street Café in Lancaster, Ohio. As far as I know, Debbie and Don Jeffers started Fairfield County’s Best. You had to live in or play a league in Fairfield County to play in this tournament. Whenever The Main Street Café, maybe 2000 or 2001? Joe Thompson told me he was going to take it over and asked if I would help. By this time, I had been learning how to set up and run a tournament. The first year we ran it (2001), I believe we

Chris Garey (interview subject)

had around 40 locals in the tournament. We held it at the Long Branch Saloon in Lancaster. Jimmy Southers had started running tournaments out of there.

KS: How long has the tournament been running, and can you give us a little history of its evolution?

CG: Joe decided it was too much and didn’t want to be involved with it anymore. It was a ton of work. I told Joe I would take it over. I asked Jimmy Southers to help. He could set up and run a board as good as anyone out there. He also played well while running the board. This is where it started to get exciting.

CG: Jimmy and I held it at the Longbranch for another year or two with the same amount of people. We were getting calls from all over to see if they could play. We then decided to open it up to anyone, but we have always excluded the pro players. We then had to find a building. We bought our first set of pool tables out of the Bronx in New York. Some of the tables had steel bars across the lockbox area. We bought 10 to start and never took money until we paid off the credit card. I also started Victory Billiards around that time.

CG: We have been running Fairfield County’s Best since 2001. 23 years strong. We moved from the Longbranch to our local Moose lodge and started using ten tables, setting up pool cue and supplies for sale. After the moose lodge, we found our way to the Amvets post-1985 where it has been ever since, except for one year when we tried it at the moose lodge again. The date was changed from the worse weekend for Ohio weather, the third week of January, to the first weekend in March for the last 13 years.

CG: Since our first tournament, we have changed the basic rules a few times and eventually landed on valley rules. We have changed from winner breaks all the way through to loser breaks all the way through.

CG: Our numbers continued to grow for the first ten years until we got to the point where we couldn’t take any more players and had a waiting list. We used to have to mail out flyers, hand addressing the envelopes, and stamping them. Players would mail in checks. We would mail out around 300 flyers per year.

CG: Every year, our staff gets bigger, and we try our best to make everything run smoothly. Our tables have been upgraded through the years by using championship tournament edition felt and ridgeback rails. We now have a streaming, CompuSport app to manage the brackets and shirt vendors. I can’t remember when we added the women’s event, but it has grown from 10 to about 43 women per year, with some of the best women players in Ohio. We have run two junior events as well, with over 40 junior players.

KS: What has been the reaction of the players and community support to the event, and how has it grown over the years?

CG: Most players come back year after year. They still complain that it’s too long, the wait between matches is long, and the race is short. They are all correct, but we look forward to seeing them year after year. Our local pool players have helped support this tournament yearly; having a bigger event in your local area is nice.

KS: It’s one of the largest single-day events in the area; what challenges do you face trying to get through such large fields in 24 hours?

CG: Our biggest struggle is getting started. the players who want to get registered the day of the event. We try to register everyone before the event so we can have the board ready to be drawn and the money ready to go. We have had our struggles. One year the draw was in alphabetical order, by the time we realized it, the tournament had started. We continued with that board the way it was drawn.

KS: What’s the largest field that has entered the event?

CG: 260 players

KS: Do you have many players that have come year after year?

CG: Yes, we have some that come every year. Most new players come back. Butch Kitts and his daughter Rashell Kitts have been to everyone so far. I believe they live a couple of hours away.

[ I spoke with Rashell at the tournament, and she is a traveling nurse, but she makes sure she comes back every year, no matter where she is, to compete in this event with her father. This year she flew in all the way from California]

KS: What have been some highlights of the tournament itself in terms of the pool? Exciting finishes, name players, Cinderella stories…etc.?

CG: Every year seems to be exciting; everyone seems to be tired. But when the finals start, the remaining crowd is watching. My best is a second-place finish, losing only to Ed Hancock. Jimmy has a third-place finish. Billy Thorpe won when he was 16 years old, working his way through a very tough field. We have had players from all over the US and Canada and from Florida, Michigan, New York, Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Ohio, Kentucky, and Indiana play here annually.

KS: What does it take to get this event underway? When do you start preparing for it, and how has it been maintaining it year after year?

CG: We start in December before the tournament. We get our flyer ready, and we usually begin fielding phone calls about when the tournament is, how to register… etc. It’s the first Saturday in March every year. In January, we post out flyers online and distribute printed copies and begin to pre-register players and take early payments online. February, we continue to pre-register players and order felt and supplies for the tournament. Then, one week prior to the start, we get all the help we can confirm, set up tables and stop and check nightly on table set-ups and work on finishing setting up the hall itself. Two days before we take off work and complete the setup and get ready for the Friday night minis and finish up pre-registrations and payments and be the last to leave, hopefully before midnight.

CG: The day of the event, we are the first ones there at 6 AM. Finish last-minute registrations or cancellations and then jump into running the tournament. I’m the last to leave, sometimes as late as 8:30 Sunday morning.

KS: Have you been able to learn things from other events and adapt them to yours? Format? Streaming?

CG: We learn from every event we do and always try to make something better. The format has changed from boards to online programs like CompuSport, and streaming has come a long way, and we allow a streaming table in our event.

[The stream usually draws a good number of viewers from a very wide area]

KS: As pool interest is on the upswing, what do you see for an event like this, say in the next five years?

CG: I believe if we could get more room, we could double our numbers.

KS: What do you like to do when you are not running a large event like this one? What are some things away from pool that you enjoy doing?

CG: Jimmy and I run tournaments all over Ohio, mostly for the private clubs such as the moose lodge, Amvets, and the American Legion. I also built myself a pool cue last year, under the tutelage of Garten Bierbower. [Garten Bierbower is a well-known cue maker from the Port Washington, Ohio, area and was a terrific player in his day. He also is a great source of historical knowledge on pool] coach girls’ softball, 12u and high school rec league. I own and operate Victory Billiards supply store. I also do cue repair at home and at LB billiards.

CG: I want to thank everyone that helps us year after year. We couldn’t do it without the help and support of our friends and families.

Chris, I want to thank you for your time today and for all the work you put into running such a great event and keeping a long-running tradition alive in the state of Ohio.