Ed Crespo works at Clifton Billiards in Clifton, NJ and on two separate occasions in 2014, he'd made it to the finals of a Tri-State Tour stop at his workplace. Scott Abramowitz came from the loss side to knock him out of the hot seat in January, while in March, he and Teddy Lapadula, who was in the hot seat, opted out of playing a final match. On November 29, Crespo came from the loss side to meet and defeat Paul Spaanstra in the finals of a $1,000-added event that drew 35 entrants to Clifton Billiards.
Crespo opened his day with a 7-4 victory over Paul Murphy, but was then moved to the loss bracket (7-5) by Shivam Gupta, with whom he would clash later. Spaanstra, who'd come from the loss side a week earlier, only to be defeated in the finals by Miguel Laboy, was busy chalking up five winners' side victories, including a double hill win over Gupta to get into the hot seat match. He faced Roberto Castilla, who'd defeated Jaydev Zaveri 6-4. Spaanstra and Castillo battled to double hill before Spaanstra prevailed to await the return of Crespo.
On the loss side, Crespo worked his way through four matches, including a 7-4 win over Arturo Reyes and 7-3 win over Stewart Warnock for a second chance against Gupta. Zaveri drew Dennis Quinn, who'd gotten by Roger Duronio 6-5 and Allison Honeymar 6-4. Crespo successfully wreaked his vengeance against Gupta 7-5 and in the quarterfinals, met Quinn, who'd eliminated Zaveri 6-3.
Crespo ended Quinn's day 7-5. He then battled to double hill before prevailing in his semifinal match versus Castillo.
Crespo and Spaanstra opened the event finals by trading racks to a 2-2 tie, with Spaanstra taking the single-rack lead each time. In rack #5, Crespo took the initiative, and won four in a row. Spaanstra fought back to win a single game, before Crespo completed his first successful Tri-State bid of the year with three in a row.
Tour representatives thanked the ownership and staff at Clifton Billiards for their hospitality, as well as sponsors Ozone Billiards, Sterling-Gaming, Qpod, Kamui Tips, Ron Vitello, Focus Cases by John Bartron, Phil Capelle, BlueBook Publishing, Human Kinetics, and Focus Apparel. The next stop on the Tri-State Tour, scheduled for December 6, will be hosted by Castle Billiards in East Rutherford, NJ.
