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Tamba comes from the loss side to win Predator Amateur stop; Robles goes undefeated in Open

Tony Robles

The Predator Tour, which spends a lot of its time in the Tri-State New York area, paid a visit to Rhode Island on the weekend of September 14-15, and (no surprise) was treated to a host of the New England area's top players. As the Red Sox were busy completing their sweep of the Yankees at Fenway Park, Ranulf Tamba, who's spent the past few years plying his trade primarily on the New England-based Rack 'Em Up, and J. Pechauer Ride the 9 Tours went to work in the Amateur division of the Predator stop, and came from the loss side to defeat the Tri-State New York area-based Stewart Warnock. In the Open division, another New England-based regular, Nelson Oliviera, was runner-up to Tony Robles, who he challenged in the hot seat and finals. The $1,000-added Amateur event drew 30 entrants to Snookers, in Providence, RI, while the $1,000-added Open event drew a short field of 12.
 
In the Amateur event, Tamba was sent to the loss side from among the winners' side final eight 7-1 by Abel Barriento, who advanced to face Warnock in one of the winners' side semifinals. Gail Glazebrook squared off against Irvin Simkins in the other. Warnock got into the hot seat match with a 9-6 win over Barriento, and was met there by Simkins, who'd sent Glazebrook west 7-5. Warnock and Simkins battled to double hill before Warnock prevailed to sit in the hot seat, unaware as he waited for Tamba, that he'd won his final match.
 
Tamba, in the meantime, went right back to work on the loss side, defeating Brooke Meyer 7-1 and James Stevens 7-5, to pick up Glazebrook. Justin Muller won a double hill match against Billy Santiago and downed Kevin Falco 8-4 to pick up Barriento. Barriento advanced 8-6 over Muller, but Tamba handed Glazebrook her second straight loss 7-4.
 
Tamba then defeated both Barriento in the quarterfinals and Simkins in the semifinals 7-5. He and Warnock fought tooth and nail to double hill in the finals, but Tamba sunk the final ball to claim the title.
 
Robles got into the hot seat match in the Open event after downing Tom D'Alfonso 8-4. Oliviera had defeated Justin Muller (tied for 5th in the Amateur event) 8-3 to meet him. Robles took the first of their two 8-4 and waited in the hot seat for the second.
 
Neither Muller, nor D'Alfonso made it out of their first loss-side match. Phil Davis, who'd gotten by Dan Cintron 8-5 and Clayton Rocha 8-4, beat Muller in a double hill match. D'Alfonso was defeated 8-5 by Ray McNamara, who'd eliminated Jay McCaughey 8-3 and won a double hill battle against Joey Dupuis. 
 
Davis took the quarterfinal match over McNamara 8-4, but was downed 8-5 by Oliviera in the semifinals. Oliviera took Robles right to the brink, but Robles completed his undefeated run through the short field of 12 to claim the event title.