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.
November 11, 2007 at 3:50 pm
Thanks for the many kind words you have written about our (Philippines’)new pool hero Roberto Gomez. He is really a longshot, a virtual unknown even to us Filipino fans. So the fact that he has reached this far is already a big accomplishment. It was asking too much from him to ride out the extreme pressure.
Gomez really needs a lot more experience and seasoning. It showed in his safeties and kickshots which were not the best. Hopefully he will get more respect after his performance here.
Daryll Peach showed his class inspite of the crowd being against him. Sorry for that, that’s just the way Filipino fans are, whatever the game is. We have so few things to cheer for, what with the way our country is being run. Sports unites us and it gives us the opportunity to feel proud about ourselves.
I hope the international pool community supports our Filipino pool players. You must agree, for sheer creativity and imagination, the Filipino pool player has few peers. Hard shots, impossible situations do not faze us. We take risks; we make gutsy plays; we play our hearts out; we cry when we lose. Even when we’redown, we get up again. And we look forward to the next game when we can make “bawi” (or “exact revenge”). Our players will be back in the World Pool Championships finals again. And we’ll thrill the world with another dramatic game of the sport we all love.