Laughable

It’s been 10 eventful days since I returned from Manila. On the blogging front, it has been a total silence, not helped by an especially nasty bout of flu and the throat infection that followed. Body breaks down (recovered generally), mind breaks down (still recovering), mobile phone goes to the shop (back in working order), home desktop PC dies (still at the shop), and one other big change in my life which I shall no discuss here.

What I would like to talk about is the football team I have supported since I was 10 and have come to a point of deciding I have just about had enough of them – the England national team, the entire set-up around it, have just got to be the biggest joke ever seen. And you don’t even have to be in England to realise how bad it is.

This morning, at the unGodly hour of 4am, I got up to watch the so-called Three Lions host Croatia at the new Wembley. What transpired over the next two hours was nothing short of laughable – a totally inept display with no passion, no organisation, no drive, no ideas – it’s the very lack of ideas that make me wonder why every week these guys are looked upon as heroes by millions of fans across Asia.

To start with, England should never have been in this position – how many bites of the cherry does one get? After the ineptness of their early qualifying performances, they went to Moscow looking to earn a point that will make their final match against Croatia easier. They failed. Relying on Israel to do them a favour, England somehow got that lifeline they were seeking when Israel did indeed beat Russia, which left them the task of at least earning a draw – at home – against Croatia. And they failed, miserably.

WHY??? I put the blame squarely on the fat cats at Soho Square. Not only does Steve McClaren need to step down (or be sacked), those people that put him there also need to go. For their lack of ability to make the right decisions and make the tough calls for the betterment of the game, those at the FA need to fall on their swords, and NOW. You know that makes sense.

Peach holds it together

By now, the world should know that Daryl Peach is the new World 9 Ball Pool Champion. Say what you want about the quality of the final. The final analysis should be that when it mattered, Peach held it together. He is worth every minute of the 17-15 win and I will write more about what transpired here when I get back to Singapore.

I can however tell you that I have the very first, and for now, the ONLY media pass which Daryl Peach signed with the words “2007 World Pool Champion”. The bottom’s fallen out of the Daryl Peach autograph market since, as he stuck around for an eternity in the media room signing autographs, taking pictures with fans, and telling his story of the final.

And, exclusively for readers of sportsaddick.wordpress.com, here’s Daryl’s answer to the three questions I asked him:

Sports Addick: Who is Daryl Peach?

Daryl Peach, World Pool Champion 2007: Who is Daryl Peach? Daryl Peach, he’s a… he’s a new champion of the world, he’s a down to earth guy, you know, he keeps his feet on the ground and a family man, and a, I’d like to say he’s a pretty good pool player.

SA: you’ve got ice flowing through your veins on the table there?

DP, WPC 2007: Sometimes, you know, there were occasions when it was starting to leak. But uh, that’s my strongest asset, it’s um.. keeping cool and keeping my head.

SA: I think you are getting a US$10,00 bonus as well, you’re wearing it on your sleeves.

DP, WPC 2007:  Yeah that’s right, World3DPoker, they said the agreement was that if I win the tournament, I’d get a $10,000 bonus. So it’s a nice little touch.

So there you have it. My beer’s getting warm. One final word, Gomez did not cry.

Day 9 – WPC 2007 final Peach vs Gomez

Crack! Crack! Crack! Ahhh… the lovely sound of the cue ball crashing open a rack of phenolic resin pool balls (yes Hubert, it’s the Super Aramith Pro-Cup TV set yadda yadda…).

Anyway, WE ARE HEARING CRACKS! For the first time since the players figured out that soft breaks work best on the TV table, we are finally seeing some real action! Now there has been some heated exchanges on the forums about the soft break on the TV Table, and I have it by good authority that they are actually quarreling about this issue on the Taiwanese forums (I can’t read Chinese, unfortunately). I mean fans at up in arms!

Well, how about the players? I can tell you the players themselves would like nothing more than to stand at the table and power the cue ball to the rack at 40mph. I mean these guys are performers, showmen no less. They want to let everyone know they have the cojones to whack four, five… no, six balls into the pockets off that power break, leaving the TV camera to zoom in on the cue ball spinning on a spot at the middle of the table. Hell yeah, thwack, jump up, break cue bending on the felt, pling, plong, zwoop, cue ball spinning, YEAH! Adjust the trousers, walk back to chair, change cues, run out the table. (Cue music from The Good, the Bad and the Ugly…)

Umm… I lie. The players would like nothing more than US$100,000 and the title of World Pool Champion 2007, and if it means making chicken breaks to get there, well, power me down and call me sissy. That’s Mr Sissy World Pool Champion to you, thank you very much. There’s a way to play on the TV table, low risk, sure to win, so long you are the one shooting. No point putting on a show and risk losing that prize. There’s time for a show after I bank that cheque.

So, that’s that point made. Now on to today. It’s a different table for the final, hence all the excitement on the table today. But it’s quiet here at the Media Centre and down at the arena, which is absolutely jam-packed, it’s mighty quiet too. That’s because the ebb and flow that the organisers wanted to create by changing the table has come true. No more chicken break, both Peach and Gomez are going for it, and the game is all the better for it.

Surprisingly, it’s Peach, not Gomez, who has settled down early. Despite Gomez winning the lag, it’s Peach who opens accounts after Gomez fluffs the 3 ball. And it’s been all action thus far with Peach going 2-0 up, then Gomez tying it at 2-2. Then Peach again, and then 3-3. But Peach silences the crowd by going 6-3, then 8-3 up. The Englishman that my Taiwanese colleagues call ’shui mi tao hsien shen’ (Mr Peach – the fruit) is making the most of his day in the sun. Peach does not have a wiki entry, he is an unknown here. Certainly, I’d make it a point to find out more about Daryl before he leaves Manila. Perhaps later.

Gomez meantime sits uneasily in his chair. At this point, let me thank everyone who has visited my blog in the past 24 hours. I see a sudden spike in page views after last night, with visitors from all the pool forums including AZ Biliard, Matchroom, the WPC official site, from German forums (Guten Tag!) and from PoolFanatic.com, my friends in Singapore. Thank you all very much, and thousand apologies for my verbosity. I write as I think.

And I would here like to explain that I don’t mean to say Roberto Gomez is a crybaby. You have to understand, he is a young player. Ok, he is 28, but only making his second trip to the WPC. Last year, he was the standout player in the Group stage before losing to Ronnie Alcano who barely squeaked into the final 64. And we all know what Alcano did after that.

Gomez had to beg for his chance to play in the Guinness 9 Ball Tour, despite Django and Efren not taking part due to their San Miguel ties. There were far too many better known players ahead of him – Alcano, Corteza, De Luna, Orcollo, Lining, Gabica all went ahead of him. Because of lack of opportunities, he had to take what he gets and make the most of it. Which is why winning – and losing – meant so much more to him than they did to most of the other players. At Genting Highlands, some players who got knocked out went to the casino. When Gomez got knocked out, he stayed in his room. Pool was all that mattered, and you can’t fault a guy with this attitude. I’d rather support a player who cares passionately about the game than one who is riding on his reputation and not giving his best every time.

Day 8 – Superman soars!

After all that hullabaloo, and with Hungarian Vilmos Foldes accounting for 2001 champion Finland’s Mika Immonen (11-7, Immonen started cold and never really got going), only one Asian was going to make the final four, either Roberto Gomez or Kuo Po-Cheng.

For the record, since the since the tournament moved to Asia, Asians have held sway – Alex Pagulayan in Taipei in 2004 (beating Chang Pei-Wei), Wu Chia-Ching in Kaohsiung in 2005 (beating Kuo) and Ronnie Alcano last year here in Manila (beating Ralf Souquet). In the five years in Cardiff prior to this, what I would consider the golden age of pool on TV, Reyes and Chao won in 99 and 2000, then Immonen, Strickland and Hohmann. So it has been a dry spell for non-Asians, not a prolonged one though.

Kuo or Gomez? The Pinoy Superman, the player I introduced on TV as The Reporter for the Genting leg of the Guinness 9-Ball Tour (my bad), continued where he left off the evening before. Kuo was staring down the barrel of a shutout before he broke the duck egg, or balut for the locals. The final score of 11-4 to Gomez is a good reflection of what happened at the table.

The Taiwanese team leader Sherman Liu said to Kuo after the match that Gomez looked so comfortable clearing the table time and again, while Kuo looked ill at ease with his runouts. Kuo was disappointed though not despondent. “I think I simply wanted it too much. In the end, I just seized up. I wasn’t feeling it anymore in the end. Maybe next year.”

Yes, maybe next year. But meantime, there was there is still this year, and the business is yet unfinished. Four men remain: Peach plays Foldes and Boyes plays Gomez. And it had to be done today.

At the main TV table, Foldes was struggling. And Peach, well, pardon me the pun, he was having a peach of a time. 11-2, Foldes folds. We have an Englishman in the final.

Meanwhile, the action was at TV Table 2 where Karl Boyes had sprung to a 4-0 lead. Was this going to be an all English final, an all-Blackpool final? C’mon!!!

The crowd cheered when Gomez got on board. Then again, and again. 4-0 became 4-4. Then 6-4. Gomez was in full flight once again. Feeding off the crowd who cheered every successful break and runout, he took 11 straight racks to reach the biggest match of his life.

Roberto Gomez is a passionate man. Go past that chunky physique, he’s handsome, certainly trumps Efren, Django and Ronnie Alcano in the looks stakes, and perhaps Alex too. He could be the next big Philippine superstar if he gets the job done tomorrow against Daryl Peach. And he knows he is the favourite to do it. His last five matches in the knockout stages has been 11-4 (Boyes); 11-4 (Kuo); 11-0 (Feijen), 11-2 (Chao) and 11-1 (Alex Lely). You can say he’s knocked them out cold.

Dux and I first saw Gomez play in Genting Highlands in June when he lost a hill-hill quarter-final match to Ricky Yang. He’d be gunning for an opportunity to play in the Guinness Tour right from the start but for reasons best known to the people who run cuesports in the Philippines, he’d not been unleashed until the third leg of the Tour. Gomez was 8-6 up against R Yang, playing alternate breaks, mind you, before crumbling 9-8. I heard he’d gone to his room and cried his heart out. Dux and I both agreed then that Gomez may have the game to win the World Pool Championship.

In Singapore a month later, Gomez again made the final eight, and went 5-0 against Alex Pagulayan. Alex closed back to 5-3, Gomez won another rack and hit the wall. Alex took six straight racks to win 9-6. It’s not surprising to string a few racks together in winner’s break, like we’re playing right now for the Worlds, but on alternate rack, you’ve got to have a major meltdown for that to happen. Stunned, Gomez again went back to his room and sobbed. At the time, I thought, maybe I ain’t any good at assessing the players after all, he had game, that goes without saying, but does he have the head for it?

Gomez made the final eight in Shanghai where he met Yang Ching-Shun. Needing to win through to at least the final four to make the Grand Final in Bali, Gomez made a heroic run from 5-8 down to tie the score. But again he fell short. Don’t ask me about the crying game, I wasn’t there in Shanghai, I was busy managing the Media Centre at the Singapore Women’s Squash Masters and celebrating Nicol David’s win. But is you ask me about Gomez, I’d happily tell you that had the Filipino pool authories entered Gomez for the first two legs, he’d have qualified for Bali in a canter. The politics of Filipino cuesports is one I would not go near. It’s messy and unbelievably short-sighted at times; they were lucky that Lee Vann Corteza even got to Bali to accompany Ronnie Alcano. They could’ve had more players for sure.

So here we are now, in Manila, on the eve of the 2007 World Pool Championship final. It’s Daryl Peach vs Roberto Gomez. Can the Pinoy Superman hold it together for yet another day?

If you have read this far, and thank you all six of you who are reading, here’s the big news for tomorrow.

The tables are being swapped! In the interest of making it more of a game, seeing as how all the players seemed to have mastered the break on TV Table 1 (soft break, control the cue-ball, run out), the tournament organisers have decided to finally do something. The Main TV Table is right this very moment being dismantled, and TV Table 2 where the players have been breaking a lot harder will be the one used for the final. It will be moved over.

At the same time, the air-conditioning at the Araneta Coliseum will be kept off until 2 hours before the game, and the TV lights kept off as well. Daryl Peach has been informed, and he’s fine with that. The man from Matchroom is getting hold of Gomez’s manager to inform her about it, and I have just confirmed that Gomez is aware of the swap.

What we’d all be hoping for tomorrow is a harder break, more ball action, and an end to what the Taiwanese call the “bird-break”. That, hopefully, should be the end of all that limp-wristed stuff that we’ve seen ALL the power breakers deliver over the past few days. Listen out for the loud cracks as we race to 17 tomorrow!

Day 8 – Ing-ger-lund!

I woke up to the news that Wayne Rooney is out for four weeks as England prepares to face Croatia. Now, like the best of skeptics, or some say realists, I think England’s journey to Euro 2008 ended on the plastic pitch in Moscow with that Pavlyuchenko goal. And even if Israel manage to take points off Russia, there is no guarantee England would be able to beat Croatia, by far the standout team in their group. England fans are dying to start The Great Escape chant, but will they have a chance?

Here in Manila, it’s a red letter day for England as far as pool is concerned. Have only ever had two players reach the final eight – Steve Knight in 1999 when he lost to Chao Fong-Pang, and Steve Davis in 2000 who lost to Corey Deuel – two Blackpool lads, Karl Boyes and Daryl Peach have surpassed that record in emphatic fashion. Boyes and Peach both won through to the final four and could well set up a first-ever all-English final in the history of the World Pool Championship.

While Karl Boyes continued to shoot steadily, despatching his new friend Joven Bustamante 11-8, on the main TV Table it was pure drama. Francisco Bustamante, the prohibitive favourite at this stage of the competition, with eight players left in the draw, was up against Peach.

Against all expectations, it was Django who was chasing the match. Starting cold, Django quickly fell1-6 behind before getting back three racks. Peach then went 9-4 in front before Django got back to the table. Cue Django magic: 5-9 became 6-9, then 7-9, and 8-9. At 9-9, even Django himself began to sense this was going to be his day, with the table breaking easy and the crowd behind him. Django went 10-9 up and the crowd roared. You don’t need Ali and Frazier here to get the Araneta Coliseum going.

Then came this tournament’s defining moment: out of position on the three ball, Django played the ball off the bottom cushion to get at the three. The cue ball connected both the 3 and 9 balls and the yellow-striped ball travelled up the table and into the top corner pocket. Amazing! a 3-9 carrom to end the match! Django roared, turned around and started shaking hands with his fans.

But wait! In the media room, shouts of ‘foul shot’ rang out. I turned and watched the TV screen. At the table, Peach was livid. I saw the normally soft-spoken Englishman spinning around shouting an invective – the four-letter word that rhymes with ‘duck’ was lost amid the noise. The camera panned to Django, and suddenly, there was uncertainty in Django’s eyes. Apparently, referee Nigel Rees had called a halt to the proceedings, the game was not over, the ref wants a second look.

Thomas Overbeck, the WPA’s Sports Director and the top rules man for this tournament had got out of his chair at the media centre and is now down at the table. Rees was having a second look at the replays. At this very moment, I was proud to have once worked for ESPN STAR Sports. Say what you want about the coverage, those cameras are perfectly placed. TV viewers got to see replays from various angles – diagonal right, side on left and of course, the top camera mounted among the light fixtures. They went to slow-mo, then super slow-mo. The cue ball came off the cushion and contacted the 9 ball first before kissing the 3. It was a foul shot.

Rees conferred with Head Referee Michaela Tabb, then with Overbeck. Here’s what Overbeck said about the rules: the referee is allowed to use any and all means to determine if a shot was legal, which includes conferring with fellow referees and using TV replays. In any case, Rees has the final call on this situation. And he made the correct call, ruling it a foul shot. The crowd was understandably unhappy, could this be another situation of a white man robbing an Asian of victory? Damn it, there is no need to go down that road. Everything’s on TV, see for yourself.

The TV evidence is clear, it was a foul shot. Django tried to argue it was a simultaneous contact, and many in the crowd were in agreement. Yes, the mind can choose to see what it wants to see, that don’t make it right. Rees re-spotted the 9-ball and it was ball in hand to Peach. But Django was not done, he wanted to see Overbeck, the situation was boiling over. Overbeck met with Django and explained that it was the correct decision, the two are good friends from when Django was based in Germany. Django finished his smoke and went back to the table. Amid the murmurs of discontent, the match resumed.

Peach held his nerve and slowly worked the balls off the table to tie the score. A good break and another slow and deliberate run-out later, and Peach was through. Half-hearted boos rang out, and Django got his bag and walked out of the arena. Pausing to a moment to unscrew his cues, he then plodded away. Another year, another chance missed. Would his turn ever come?

As the spectators left their chairs, a senior Filipino cuesport journalist who shall remain unnamed was clearly dissatisfied. “I’m through with the World Pool Championship,” he huffed to the silver-haired president of the BSCP (Billiards and Snooker Congress of the Philippines) Ernesto Fajardo. Fajardo blinked and said nothing in reply. What could he say? Was is an unpopular decision what had happened earlier? Sure it was. Was it the right decision? Tough one for Mr Fajardo, I would expect.
In the media room, Peach spoke of his reaction after Django had sunk the bank shot. “I knew it was a foul. I wasn’t ready to lose.”

Asked how he was feeling coming back to the table, “My arms were like jelly. I was surprised I kept on going.”

Two Englishmen from Blackpool, ending the campaigns of two Bustamantes… and The Great Escape for Daryl Peach, di di di di….

Elation!

I am not sure when I became a fan of Taiwanese players. I watched Chao Fong-Pang winning the 2000 final and listened to his interview with Mats Hsu (whom I became colleagues with later) and I saw Wu Chia-Ching reel off all those racks in 2005 and his slobbering post-victory display. I am dispassionate at best. I’d rather enjoyed seeing Alex Pagulayan leaping on the table and then asking Colette Wong for a kiss. In fact, I remember there was an incident in one of Chao’s early round matches in 2000 when his Japanese opponent accused him of sharking; he’d been in the Japanese player’s line of sight and had apparently moved just as the shot was made. Sharking, sledging, Earl Strickland type behaviour, they don’t impress me much.

But as fortune would have it, I got to know the Taiwanese contingent a lot better in my course of work this year. Running the media room for the Guinness 9 Ball Tour has opened up a brand new world for me. In fact, I got to know the Malaysian and Indonesian teams well too and through my good friend Dux, some of the Filipino players. You get to know them better when you are able to speak their language: the Taiwanese speak Mandarin and Ming-nan dialect (which is Hokkien) and Bahasa Indonesia is close enough to Malay for me to be able to translate effectively.

This is when I found out all these big stars of pool are the most unassuming, normal guys. They may be mega-stars in the pool universe but they are just the most everyday guys you can ever meet. They lead everyday lives, have everyday concerns, they worry about money and family, fret about hotel and flight arrangements which they have mostly to pay for themselves, but the difference between them and me is that they shoot a mean game of pool – consistently. At the table, they can weave magic.

Earlier, I found myself helping Kuo Po-Cheng pin his latest sponsor’s patches on his back and on his sleeve. This came right after Kuo had won a tense final 16 match against Corey Deuel to enter the final eight, the only Taiwanese player remaining in the draw. As he left the playing arena, the intrepid marketing people from World3DPoker.com approached him to ask if he would wear their branding on his shirt. It was a neat little deal, Kuo would get US$500 to wear their brand from here on in in this tournament. Initially, there was some confusion that the fee was US$500 a day, but that was quickly cleared up to be a one-off US$500 deal. BUT, should Kuo win the tournament outright, World3DPoker would pay him a US$10,000 bonus!

They paid Kuo in cash, five crisp Ben Franklins in a white envelope. I’d love to see him get 100 of those on Sunday. Anyway, I helped Kuo pin the long patch on his back and another rectangular one on his sleeve while he answered questions from the Taiwanese reporters. We’d sweated with him as he engaged in safety battles with Deuel but unlike yesterday against Chang Jung-Lin, Corey wasn’t getting the rub of the table.

Rack 17 was particularly memorable. 6-10 behind, Deuel scratched, and then amazingly scratched again. Kuo had a not impossible snooker shot to make to hide the 1 ball behind a line of 4, 5 and 9 balls. But the snooker was not well executed and Deuel in turn was able to snooker Kuo back. Kuo fouled off his next shot, unable to reach the 1 and banking in the blue 2 ball instead. Ball in hand, Deuel executed a perfect 1-9 carrom to get back a rack. It seemed then the tide has turned.

Deuel broke to stay in the match and on his first shot, he missed. It was a long shot on the 1 ball, no doubt, but it was still one he has made a million times. Not this time though, and Kuo cleaned up quickly.

For the first time in the World Championship, England has TWO players in the final eight, Daryl Peach sent Harald Stolka home 11-5. Hungarian Vilmos Foldes ended Lu Hui-Chan’s campaign by the same score. I watched Lu scratching when he was 5-6 behind and when Foldes went 8-5 up, I left for my dinner, not having the stomach, so to speak, to watch another Taiwanese fall.

Perhaps the most amazing result was the final match tonight on the Main TV Table. Roberto the Pinoy Superman Gomez blanked – BLANKED – Niels The Terminator Feijen. 11-0. Eleven zip. Read it, write it any which way, Gomez terminated The Terminator.

Tomorrow would be interesting. My good friend Takao Takayama, Japan’s No 1 cuesports blogger has decided he would be Taiwanese from now on. Call me Mr Kao San, he said. We will need all the luck we can get on our side. Kuo Po-Cheng will play Gomez at the Main TV Table, right after Peach meets Bustamante. On TV Table 2, Immonen takes on Foldes before Joven Bustamante play Boyes.

There are murmurs of discontent around the Araneta Coliseum and on the forums about the soft breaks on the Main TV Table. Yes everyone, the players have figured out quite quickly that soft breaks work best on this table since the wing balls are almost certain to go in. There has been plenty of talk about this and Rodney Morris is on the verge of starting a petition to redress the situation for future tournaments. It has not been good TV at all but it’s too late to change things. I will talk more about this tomorrow.

Day 7 – Round of 16 First Session

Pardon me for the abrupt ending yesterday, it was a blogging blowout. After witnessing five Taiwanese players exit the tournament, including sitting by the table as Corey Deuel come from 6-9 behind to cut down Chang Jung-Lin, my heart wasn’t in it. So much for journalistic objectivity. I guess that’s the liberty a blogger has, to write as he feels.

Four matches down and if I were a betting man, I’d have been totally wiped out. Given the schedule last night, I’d ticked four names from the first four matches: Stepanov, Kawabata, Pagulayan and Martel. Of the four, none remain. NADA!

Stepanov chose the wrong time to get an attack of the nerves. He’d been absolutely cruising up to this stage but on TV Table 1, I counted three of four miscues. At 5-1 down, Stepanov got back to the table and reeled off three straight racks to close to 5-4. Then, inexplicably, he slipped up again, and Englishman Karl Boyes just keep his cool to pull away and win.

It’s a surprise for all to learn that Boyes have only been playing 9 ball seriously for the past year, after being part of the defunct IPT. He has a no-frills game and is unlikely to excite even the most manic of pool fans. But on a table playing so predictably off the break, you need to make the most of your turns and Boyes surely made it count at the right time.

Kawabata meantime had Joven Bustamante in trouble but the local boy hung in there, making the big shots to go 10-8 up. Kawabata got back a rack but again slipped up, allowing Joven to get to the finish line. Either one of Boyes or Bustamante are set for the biggest game of their lives tomorrow – one more win and it’s the final four, two more wins and it’s the final. Wonder if they can sleep well tonight?

While 2001 champion Mika Immonen was taking care of Alain Martel at TV Table 2, it was full house at the Main Table for arguably the day’s biggest match, an all-Filipino final 16 match between Francisco Bustamante and Alex Pagulayan. Django is playing the pool of his life at the moment, he looks comfortable on and off the table. Alex? Well, Alex is just Alex, isn’t it? From 2-0 down, Alex got back to 2-2. And that was that.

I went for a walk just at that point and got back from Shopwise with my fags, gum, Mentos (spearmint flavour) and Yakult right into a crowded media room. That could only mean one thing: the Pinoys are meeting the press now. Django and Alex put on a show for the local media, trying hard not to dissect what has been a blowout 11-2 win for the older man. One thing I have to say about Django – the man needs a new hairdresser. That haircut doesn’t cut it even for a fashion klutz like me.

Other than that, Django is by far the most dangerous player right now. He knows how the TV table works. And so long he does not have a mental yawn like the one he had yesterday against Nick van den Berg, this could be his year. It’s five years on since he last made it to the final when he lost to Earl Strickland. In those five years, Django’s game has not diminished as much as Earl’s mind has. He will have either Daryl Peach or Harald Stolka for the quarter-finals, and is on track to meet Mika Immonen in the semis.

Immonen meantime has quietly made his way into the final eight, beating Alain Martel 11-8.

Agonising

My last post ended with Kuo Po-Cheng and Oliver Ortmann locked at 6-6, the laptop had to be plugged back to the mains to recharge. Meantime, I got pulled away to be translator for local journalists wishing to interview Wu Yu-Lun. That young man needs a mentor, BADLY. An amazing talent with little or no discipline, and no one in Taiwan seems to want to reign him in and make him the next great champion. Again, a story for another day.

Coming back from that interview, things had gone wrong for Wu Chia-Ching at the Main Table, and despite leading 7-6, he suffered a crucial scratch off the soft break. Joven Bustamante went on to take a 9-7 lead before Wu pulled one back. But again the break failed Wu; it wasn’t a scratch this time, there were no clear shots. To cut a long story short, Joven won.

Right after, I helped to be translator for Filipino journalists as they asked Wu some questions about how he got started, his achievements etc. I then helped the same two with their interview of Wu Chia-Ching.

Patrick and Carmela write the 2BU Section for the Philippine Daily Inquirer, the No 1 paper in the Philippines. 2BU covers youth activities exclusively, and they were especially interested in Taiwan’s Little Pool Tigers – Ko Ping-Yi, Wu Yu-Lun and Wu Chia-Ching. Ko had been ousted yesterday and did not turn up at the Coliseum. I must say there is a gulf in maturity between Yu-Lun and Chia-Ching. Yu-Lun is still lost in teenage reverie but Chia-Ching is mature beyond his years.

Coach Steven said if the best of all three – Ko is the hardest working of the lot – are combined into one, Taiwan will have an unbeatable player.

They certainly needed one today. Seven entered the fray and at day’s end, only two are standing. Kuo managed to pull away to win 10-7; and later on, Lu Hui-Chan despatched Radoslaw Babica 10-3. In between, Lee Kun-Fang lost 7-10 to Daryl Peach, Chao Fong-Pang won the lag against Pinoy Superman Roberto Gomez, missed his first shot, and it all went downhill from there. The 10-2 scoreline was just about right.

There was still the matter of Chang Jung-Lin vs Corey Deuel and surely things couldn’t go wrong. I went to watch him and Chang was in full stride, potting with confidence to go 9-6 up. And then came the unravelling. It all started with a failed jump-ball attempt. The next three racks were agonising. Chang never had an easy moment as Deuel outwitting him in every safety battle. The American’s break was working like magic, and his cue ball positioning precise. Chang’s campaign ended there at TV Table 2.

I went to watch Korea’s surprise package Ryu Seung-Woo play England’s Karl Boyes. Ryu had the lead at 8-6 but Boyes hung tough, clawing his way back to 8-8, then lead and win. I left the arena when the scores were tied, it was too agonising to watch. Boyes rode the wave and won 10-8, earning a meeting with Russian Konstantin Stepanov. Their match will lead off the TV coverage tomorrow.

Stepanov has been one of the tournament’s revelations, truly. He accounted for Jeff De Luna 10-4, making it two Pinoys in a row now. And if he wins against, he might be up against Bustamante, Joven that is. Joven’s no slouch, he is on fire, but he will need to be on top form against Japan’s No 1 Satoshi Kawabata.

Getting back to the hotel last night, I ran into Alex Pagulayan. I am proud to be sharing a hotel with The Lion.

Day 6 – First session

I’m in a daze. The first session involves three Taiwanese players and all three are down at the moment. It’s hard to decide which one to watch: Wu Chia-Ching is on TV against the lesser-known Bustamante, but Joven is playing like Django right now and giving Wu few opportunities at the table. 4-1 up, the Filipino is looking deadly.

On the side Table, Table 4, Wu Yu-Lun is in deep trouble. German Harald Stolka has gone 7-2 up and not letting up. Here at Table 2, compatriot Oliver Ortmann is breaking, he’s sunk two and played a safety. At 6-4, he could afford to do that. Kuo Po-Cheng is at the table, he’s managed to get out of the snooker, playing off the bottom cushion, but he’s left Ortmann with a shot. It’s not looking good here either.

Surprisingly, Ortmann missed, and back at the table, Kuo plays a safety. The cue ball is hiding behind the pink and orange, while at the far end of the table, the blue hides behind the green and brown. Ortmann goes for a long jump shot, the cue ball bounces once and actually connects with the blue but lacking control, the blue flies off the table.

Ball in hand, Kuo now works the table clinically. Three down, now the brown. The cue ball screws back for an off-center shot on the 9. He sinks that, and it’s 5-6. Kuo takes a toilet break, as does Ortmann, who look cool in his denim jacket. Obviously, the arena is still too cold for him.

Wu Yu-Lun is in dire straits; Stolka is now 8-2 up. Goran Mladenovich is down by a similar score against Alain Martel at Table 7. Looks like the Serbian’s sensational run will end today.

The Coliseum is quiet now, whic could only mean one thing. The Joven juggernaut must have slowed down, and indeed Wu Chia-Ching has pulled it back to 3-4. Loud cheers just erupted, drats! That could only mean 5-3 to Joven, and it is.

Kuo sinks two off the break but could only play a safety. Ortmann comes back with a safety of his own, and Kuo gives him a half chance. Ortmann goes for it and misses a cut to the centre pocket. Again, Kuo plays a safety, this one is a beaut. The cue ball is tucked right up to the red, the object yellow ball is at the far cushion, there are obstacles in between. Ortmann’s not happy. He finds a way out banking off the bottom cushion, and Kuo sets him another question. This safety joust will decide the rack.

Ortmann tries for the pot off the side cushion but misses narrowly, fortune smiles on him as Kuo does not have a shot. Another safety exchange ensues. This has gone on for a while. Kuo blinks first, scratching into the centre left pocket. Ortmann is up in a flash. He works fast, too fast.. and misses a straight pink to the bottom corner pocket, leaving it hanging at the lip. Kuo does not spurn the gift, and cleans out to tie the score.

My power’s run out, and it’s the same fate for Wu Yu-Lun and Goran Mladenovich. Both go down 10-2; I’ve said yesterday, Alain Martel is shooting good and he is going to be dangerous.

Day 5 – Yang departs, the magic’s broken

Late in the evening, my favourite player Yang Ching-Shun plays Japan’s last remaining player Satoshi Kawabata. If it had been a triumphant day for Japan yesterday, it has been anything but today. Naoyuki Oi led last year’s runner-up Ralf Souquet early on but the German the call The Kaiser stepped up a gear, and won 10-8. Meanwhile, Day 1 star Kenichi Uchigaki had what should’ve been a winnable match against South Korea’s Ryu Seung-woo. But the Korean (and he looks the least like a Korean, I might say) turned the tables to win 10-7.

Kawabata’s match against Yang looked much like the least winnable of the lot, but pool is unpredictable at best, and Kawabata went 8-2 up. I rushed to watch Yang, hoping some of the magic would rub off on Yang, seeing as none of the players I support that I’ve watched ringside has yet to lose. But there is no magic, I kinda knew it already. Yang managed to pull back a rack when I was watching, but watching him play, I knew this is the Yang who can’t wait to get out of the arena fast enough. He was not cueing fluently, he looked rushed, he didn’t look happy, then again Yang never does. A miss allowed Kawabata back on the table, and he cleaned up to keep the Japanese flag flying for another day.

It’s not been a good day for the pinoys. Sending 13 players into the last 64, it’s now 12.30am, eight hours after action started this afternoon. And only five Filipino players are through from a potential 11, as two of the matches were all-Filipino ones. First to fall was reigning Philippine Open Champion Lee Vann Corteza, going down 7-10 to compatriot Jeff De Luna. Then, another standout player Dennis Orcollo fell 6-10 to Joven Bustamante.

Taiwan’s baby-faced Kuo Po-Cheng accounted for Ramil Gallego (10-5), Wu Yu-Lun took out Leonardo Andam (10-5) and Poland’s Radoslaw Babica was enroute to blanking Marlon Manalo, before Marvellous Marlon got on board. It was still a 10-1 humiliation.

American Shane van Boening sent Antonio Gabica home 10-7, and just as I started typing this, England’s Daryl Peach ended the reign of Ronnie Alcano 10-6. The Tornado had been regaledwith loud cheers when he got to the TV table, and now there is a deathly hush.

It’s a toss-up which was worse, Alcano losing to Peach, or Efren Reyes losing to Russia’s Konstantin Stepanov. Yes, Efren the Magician is out, and it wasn’t even close – 10-5 was the final score.

The tournament is left with five local draws: Roberto Gomez, Francisco Bustamente, Joven Bustamante, Jeff De Luna, and the loudest of them all, Alex the Lion Pagulayan. Pagulayan actually roared when he was breaking against Pham Tuan Ngoc today, and why not? He’s got a point to prove after being denied the chance to play the Shanghai leg of the Guinness 9-Ball Tour and with it the chance to qualify in the lucrative Grand Final. There was plenty of fallout from that, mainly unsavoury local politics with Alex writing an open letter to the local pool authorities. They couldn’t stop him from playing in the WPA World Pool Championship, and beating Pham 10-6 takes him another step closer to a second title.

Gomez continues to impress, ceding the first rack to Dutchman Alex Lely before running 10 racks in a row to win. The Pinoy Superman has chosen the right time to come into form. Let’s hope he can keep his mind strong, because if there is any weakness in Gomez, its his inability to deal with mounting pressure.

Django similarly dismantled Spain’s David Alcaide 10-1 and could be enroute to winning a title that has so far eluded him.

Taiwan have a reason to be confident, they only lost three of their players today, Ko Pin-Yi crashing 8-10 to Serbian sensation Goran Mladenovich, Fu Che-Wei losing to 2001 champion Mika Immonen from Finland, and Yang.

Two-time champion Chao Fong-Pang delivered the day’s only 10-0 shutout to Australia’s James Delahunty. Guinness 9 Ball Tour champion Chang Jung-Lin made hard work of his win over Germany’s Thomas Engert (10-7), as did 2005 champion Wu over Fabio Petroni (see my earlier entry). Also in the mix is Kuo, three-time world junior champion Wu Yu-Lun, two-time world junior champion Lu Hui Chan and veteran Lee Kun Fang who comes with world pool championship pedigree. In 1997, Lee made the final of this event only to lose to Johnny Archer. It would be good to see either Lee or his contemporary Chao recapturing some of that form.

Speaking of veterans, Malta’s Tony Drago, the original Tornado I might add, is in the final 32. He faces Immonen next. Ralf Souquet is also in, he has European Mosconi Cup teammate Niels Feijen in his way. Bustamante also faces a Dutchman, Nick van den Berg. And Big Alain Martel from Canada is in with a chance, his opponent is Goran Mladenovich who like him is built like a truck.

The final 32 looks like this:
> Peach vs Lee Kun Fang; Harald Stolka (GER) vs Wu Yu-Lun; Django vs van den Berg; Pagulayan vs Louis Condo (AUS)
> Maldenovich vs Martel; Immonen vs Drago; van Boening vs Vilmos Foldes (HUN); Lu Hui-Chan vs Babica
> Luong Chi Dung vs Kawabata; Wu Chia-Ching vs Joven Bustamante; Stepanov vs De Luna; Ryu Seung Woo vs Karl Boyes (ENG)
>Kuo Po-Cheng vs Oliver Ortmann; Chang Jung-Lin vs Corey Deuel (USA); Souquet vs Feijen; Chao vs Gomez

I might add that in the midst of things, a couple of big names may have been unduly ignored. Corey Deuel has quietly made his way into the final 32, as has 40-year-old German Oliver Ortmann who was World Champion in 1995. The German complained of the cold playing in the outer tables, he will not have to worry about that tomorrow. He will lead off on TV Table 2 against Kuo Po-Cheng, under the bright lights.

The hard days are over, this is the business end of the tournament, and the fun’s about to begin.