Climbing to the Top, Krah Takes First

by Tori Hilty

Matt Krah came back from the o­ne-loss side unruffled to avenge his earlier defeat and to take first place o­n the eleventh stop of the Hampton Ridge 9-Ball Tour o­n August 14-15, 2004.  A regular o­n the tour and third o­n its points list, Krah outdid his fourth-place showing at last week's event with this west-side comeback.

Originally scheduled to be held elsewhere, the event venue was changed to Castle Billiards in East Rutherford, NJ, at the last minute.  The Hampton Ridge Tour would like to thank Minnie and Scott Morison and their staff for hosting the event in such a short notice and to thank the players for adjusting to the change.

Battling for position, Josh Brothers and Rob Hart met to see who would move o­n, and who would settle for fourth place.  It was a great match, but Hart took control to defeat Brothers 7-4.

Leading the way o­n the winners' side were Carmen Lombardo and Matt Krah.  Lombardo was in stroke and defeated tour points leader Brothers 7-3 to get in position to battle for the hot seat against Krah.  With Lombardo still in stroke and a few mistakes from Krah, the hot seat match was o­ne-sided.  There was nothing Krah could do as Lombardo easily defeated him 7-1.

With Lombardo in the hot seat, Krah was forced to the o­ne-loss side where he went up against a tough player in Hart, who just came off a big win in the quarterfinals.  Krah jumped into an early lead and never looked back.  Hart gave all he had but came up short, giving the match up 7-3 and taking third place respectfully.

The final match was a rematch from earlier that day with Krah coming back at Lombardo looking for a win.  After the drubbing he took in the hot seat, Krah stated that if he got to the finals, things were going to be different.   The match went back and forth, and after 11 racks the score was Krah 6 and Lombardo 5. That was the closest Lombardo was able to get as Krah went o­n to win the next three racks give him 9-5 win.
 
Results:

1st Matt Krah
2nd Carmen Lambardo
3rd Rob Hart
4th Josh Brothers
5th Phil Sherman, Wilson Cruz

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