Question for CJ Wiley

Wedge

WO Wedge Lock
Silver Member
CJ, I grew up in Reading, PA and was a good friend of Jimmy Matz (RIP). He played a lot in Florida in the mid 1980's (Post Accident). Did you ever play him when you were a road player?

Thanks

Wedge
 
People still backed him, his game was pretty good

CJ, I grew up in Reading, PA and was a good friend of Jimmy Matz (RIP). He played a lot in Florida in the mid 1980's (Post Accident). Did you ever play him when you were a road player?

Thanks

Wedge

Yes, I played Jimmy in Miami.

He was living in the woods at the time, describing how he did his laundry and hung them to dry in great detail and expression.....he was a "character".

People still backed him, his game was pretty good - we won $3000. in about two hours....this was in 1984 or 85.
 
Why I asked

Yes, I played Jimmy in Miami.

He was living in the woods at the time, describing how he did his laundry and hung them to dry in great detail and expression.....he was a "character".

People still backed him, his game was pretty good - we won $3000. in about two hours....this was in 1984 or 85.

When I originally joined AZ in 2007 I started a thread about Jimmy Matz. I remembered two people talking about CJ Wiley in the thread. See below:

Quote:
Originally Posted by M HOUSE

Jimmy was often in my room in Davie, Fl. in the mid-eighties. This was post accident. It was obvious that the accident had affected Jimmy's mind a lot but it had very little affect on his ability to play pool. Someone (usually his backer) would bring Jimmy in to play tournaments or to match up. If the backer didn't feel like watching Jimmy constantly, he would hire what we called a "handler". The handler's sole job was to follow Jimmy around and make sure he didn't get a beer. It was the strangest thing, Jimmy had the ability to beat the best player in the world, but one drink of beer and he might not beat the worst player in the room. Problem was, Jimmy loved beer. I remember one tournament where in a race to seven he had Richie Ambrose 6-0. Jimmy took a break to go to the restroom. We later found out that Jimmy had talked someone into hiding a beer in the restroom for him. After the break, Jimmy never made another ball and lost 7-6.
C J Wyly was on the road at this time and stopped by the room. He was playing great and easily beating the best players in the area. Jimmy and his backer came in and it wasn't long before Jimmy and C J were matched up. After about an hour and a half of getting torched, C J quit. C J said, "What's up with this guy? He shoots at everything, never ducts, and plays like he has absolutely no fear." I told C J that Jimmy shoots with no fear because he doesn't know he's supposed to be afraid and the only duck he knows anything about has wings and swims in water a lot.


House speaks 100% truth during these stories. That was the week CJ & Big Arm John came to FL, played Matz, Toby Sweet and Tommy Brown...CJ booked three losers inna row!!!

Nice to see "M" post,
Big Steve from Miami <AKA> Voodoo
 
To CJ,
I know you said you played Vernon Elliott and broke even. I am curious when you played and where? Thanks CJ for your input. May Bernie (Vernon Elliott) RIP. I think you said you played "push out 9 ball'. I am curious who's idea it was to play this game.
 
we did beat Jimmy Metz out of 3k in about 2 hours.

This isn't true, I was with Big John, and we did beat Jimmy Metz out of 3k in about 2 hours.....this is a fact, and John can certainly verify it.

Jimmy didn't play that well, of course we had him "locked up," and he had no chance.


When I originally joined AZ in 2007 I started a thread about Jimmy Matz. I remembered two people talking about CJ Wiley in the thread. See below:

Quote:
Originally Posted by M HOUSE

Jimmy was often in my room in Davie, Fl. in the mid-eighties. This was post accident. It was obvious that the accident had affected Jimmy's mind a lot but it had very little affect on his ability to play pool. Someone (usually his backer) would bring Jimmy in to play tournaments or to match up. If the backer didn't feel like watching Jimmy constantly, he would hire what we called a "handler". The handler's sole job was to follow Jimmy around and make sure he didn't get a beer. It was the strangest thing, Jimmy had the ability to beat the best player in the world, but one drink of beer and he might not beat the worst player in the room. Problem was, Jimmy loved beer. I remember one tournament where in a race to seven he had Richie Ambrose 6-0. Jimmy took a break to go to the restroom. We later found out that Jimmy had talked someone into hiding a beer in the restroom for him. After the break, Jimmy never made another ball and lost 7-6.
C J Wyly was on the road at this time and stopped by the room. He was playing great and easily beating the best players in the area. Jimmy and his backer came in and it wasn't long before Jimmy and C J were matched up. After about an hour and a half of getting torched, C J quit. C J said, "What's up with this guy? He shoots at everything, never ducts, and plays like he has absolutely no fear." I told C J that Jimmy shoots with no fear because he doesn't know he's supposed to be afraid and the only duck he knows anything about has wings and swims in water a lot.


House speaks 100% truth during these stories. That was the week CJ & Big Arm John came to FL, played Matz, Toby Sweet and Tommy Brown...CJ booked three losers inna row!!!

Nice to see "M" post,
Big Steve from Miami <AKA> Voodoo
 
I learned a lot from that session with "The Faceless Man".

To CJ,
I know you said you played Vernon Elliott and broke even. I am curious when you played and where? Thanks CJ for your input. May Bernie (Vernon Elliott) RIP. I think you said you played "push out 9 ball'. I am curious who's idea it was to play this game.

We played in Indianapolis at Tommy Staton's bar. 'Two Shot Shoot Out' is what most people played in those days when gambling. I had already beat a few people in the bar and Vernon walked in dressed like a farmer, yawning and drinking a cup of coffee.

I learned a lot from that session with "The Faceless Man".....he was an awesome banker and also used the "touch of inside" on many of his shots.
 
I played Scotty several times in many states

CJ:

Any good Scotty Townsend stories??

Yes, I played Scotty several times in many states. He's a character, that's for sure. :D He was with me when I won the World Series of Tavern Pool at the MGM Grand....he ended up beating all the bar table champions from LA after the tournament....he can really play.
 
Yes, I played Scotty several times in many states. He's a character, that's for sure. :D He was with me when I won the World Series of Tavern Pool at the MGM Grand....he ended up beating all the bar table champions from LA after the tournament....he can really play.

I always enjoyed watching Scotty Townsend play. A beer in one hand a pool cue in the other. I liked his style. What ever happened to him. Is he still around?

Thanks :)

John
 
I always enjoyed watching Scotty Townsend play. A beer in one hand a pool cue in the other. I liked his style. What ever happened to him. Is he still around?

Thanks :)

John

Yes Scotty is still aroung and still playing well! He plays most of the tourneys in the southeast area. I think he is living in Alabama or Miss? I tell you it seems the more he drinks the better he plays! He came to one tourney in Newnan, GA and tells my buddy hey I will be outside if my match comes up so come get me....I go outside and I swear to god he is outside skinning a bobcat he run over or hit on the way to the tourney! He put it in his cooler and was skinning it out in between matches. He is a character for sure.
 
Scotty and Stevie Moore split a Tournament (it got to late to start the finals) about 6 weeks ago somewhere in AL or GA. He's still swingin at it...

R
 
I may have told this before but here it is again. A few years ago Scotty came to my house to play. He was wearing blue jean cut off shorts cowboy boots with no socks and no shirt. He even spent some time on the treadmill. He drank a case of beer in about 4 hours.
 
Little-known factoid:

Scotty Townsend and cuemaker Andy Gilbert are first cousins, and grew up close to each other.

Will Prout
 
Little-known factoid:

Scotty Townsend and cuemaker Andy Gilbert are first cousins, and grew up close to each other.

Will Prout

Andy once told me he and Scotty went on the road together and that Andy won most of the money. He said Scotty would just tell everyone he was the best in the world and if they didn't think so to bet something. He said nobody would play Scotty, but thinking Andy was Scotty's backer they would play him. Andy could play pretty good at one time himself, but no where near Scotty's speed.

Another Scotty story I saw in person was when Earl Strikland was still representing Meucci, he could shoot a spot shot and spin draw the cue ball so much that it would arch over to the side rail and come back down table and hit the end rail. Earl gave all the credit to his Meucci cue and said there was not another cue in the world you could do it with. So Scotty pulls up from all gambling matches and rents a table and shoots that shot hundreds and hundreds of times all night long until he could make it with his Schon cue.
 
Another Scotty story I saw in person was when Earl Strikland was still representing Meucci, he could shoot a spot shot and spin draw the cue ball so much that it would arch over to the side rail and come back down table and hit the end rail. Earl gave all the credit to his Meucci cue and said there was not another cue in the world you could do it with. So Scotty pulls up from all gambling matches and rents a table and shoots that shot hundreds and hundreds of times all night long until he could make it with his Schon cue.

I've done it with every kind of stick...a house cue, my Richard Blacks, my McDermott, my Titlists conversions, etc., etc...

It isn't the stick...it is the STROKE.

I used to do it on a bar table with the heavier cue ball.

I haven't tried it in a while, but I was just thinking about that shot a while back and you NEVER see anybody doing it now days.

Aloha.
 
guess even the police respect a man that can drink that much and still function.

I always enjoyed watching Scotty Townsend play. A beer in one hand a pool cue in the other. I liked his style. What ever happened to him. Is he still around?

Thanks :)

John

Scotty told me he pulled over to "rest" on the side of the road and a policeman knocked on his window to "check on him".

Scotty had beer bottles in the back seat and had been partying for a few days. The policeman ask him to blow in the BAC Unit to see what his Blood/Alcohol was and went back to his police car.

A few minutes later the cop came back and Scotty ask him "What did I blow officer"???

"According to this you're dead!!!"

He escorted Scotty home without a ticket......guess even the police respect a man that can drink that much and still function. ;)
 
I've done it with every kind of stick...a house cue, my Richard Blacks, my McDermott, my Titlists conversions, etc., etc...

It isn't the stick...it is the STROKE.

I used to do it on a bar table with the heavier cue ball.

I haven't tried it in a while, but I was just thinking about that shot a while back and you NEVER see anybody doing it now days.

Aloha.

Yes, it is the stroke...but several players still whip it out today...I've seen Corey Deuel do it numerous times, as well as SVB, Shannon Daulton, and Larry Nevel on occassion. It's impressive.
 
Joey Gold from Chicago at the Columbia Billiard Center

Yes, it is the stroke...but several players still whip it out today...I've seen Corey Deuel do it numerous times, as well as SVB, Shannon Daulton, and Larry Nevel on occassion. It's impressive.

The first player I saw do this was Joey Gold from Chicago at the Columbia Billiard Center. I used to go to Columbia Mo. to play when I was just 15 years old, borrowing a friends car and driving the 90 miles (this was an adventure considering I wasn't old enough to drive legally) to play the weekend with Craig Bickford, Donnie, Tom Draper, Rick Thompson, BJ "the Mailman" and "Keith".....they all helped me "cut my teeth" gambling in "the big city".

Joey Gold was the best player that came through Columbia at that time - he started out giving me the "last 4" and it was a tough game for both of us. He could definitely do some things I'd never seen before and I believe he ended up making Cognescenti Cues.
 
Back
Top