An apparently determined Bobby Emmons shrugged off a loss in the hot seat match to give up only a single rack in the semifinals and return to win both sets of a double elimination final against Tony Confalone in the Desert Classic Tour stop on the weekend of October 16-17. The $1,000-added event drew 28 competitors to Kolby’s Corner Pocket in Tempe, AZ.
All three matches among the winners’ side final four were 8-7 double hill battles – Emmons over Chris Paradowski, Confalone over L.V. Abernathy and the hot seat match that sent Emmons to the semifinals. The last of these would prove to be Confalone’s last victory.
On the one-loss side, Navin Talreja was making a little noise that would propel him into the semifinals against Emmons. He moved past Jim Galati and Pete Lhotka to pick up Abernathy. Paradowski drew Mitch Ellerman, who’d defeated Junior Jiron and Brian Reich. Talreja and Paradowski advanced to the quarterfinals with identical 8-5 victories over Abernathy and Ellerman. Talreja chalked up his final west win in an 8-3 victory over Paradowski.
The determined Emmons gave up the single rack in an 8-1 semifinal victory over Talreja and then, turned his attention to Confalone. Emmons took both sets of the true double elimination final with 8-3 scores to complete the event.
