Battle in the Wolfs Den for the 2008 International Challenge of Champions.

SATOSHI KAWABATA (JAPAN)  VS  DENNIS ORCOLLO (PHILIPPINES)

At 3:00 PM Wednesday, August 13th in the Wolf Den Arena at the Mohegan Sun Casino in Conneticut, with the arena packed with fans ready to cheer on the first two challengers in this event, the action got under way.

The International Challenge of Champions is held at Mohegan Sun every year, this year featuring group of eight all-star champions invited from around the world. The format features two-set matches and if there is a tie, a 1-game sudden death tiebreaker would determine the winner.

This 3:00 PM match-up that afternoon featured Dennis Orcollo of the Philippines and Satoshi Kawabata of Japan.

Be sure to read the story for the in depth breakdown!

Satoshi won the lag, breaks and runs to the four, then gets out of position on the five. He then misses and leaves an easy runout for Orcollo to go capture the first game. Orcollo then breaks the second rack dropping both the 1 and 2 balls, and makes an easy run out to go 2 up.

Satoshi drops two balls on the break, and makes an easy run out, making it 2-1 to Dennis. Orcollo breaks the 4th rack making 3 balls on the break and runs out, making it 3-1 to Orcollo.  Kawabata then made 2 balls on the break to run out the 5th rack, now 3-2 to Orcollo. At the start of this run out he had to make a very difficult shot to pocket the 1 ball, which was blocked by the 4 ball. He came off the long rail and cut the 1 into the corner pocket.

Orcollo then soft broke, making one ball on the break, but leaving most of the balls bunched around the racking area. He made two balls before snookering himself. He attempted a poorly executed jump shot, and left the rest of the balls for Kawabata to run out; leveling the score at 3-3.

Kawabata broke the next rack, dropping a ball on the break, leaving himself a one-seven combo, which he made and proceeded to run out the rack, making it 4-3 to Kawabata.

Orcullo continued with his soft break, making one ball, but once again leaving too many balls bunched around the racking area. However, he managed to run out the rest of the rack, having to use all of his skills in doing so. Score now at 4-4.

Kawabata broke the 9th rack, coming up dry. Orcollo tried to bank the one ball in the top corner pocket, and at the same time, play the cue ball safe to the other end of the table. He missed the one-ball, leaving it on the top short rail. Kawabata played a great shot, banking the one ball downtable to pocket the five-ball, which was sitting in the bottom pocket. Unfortunately, after making the one ball, he rattled the six ball in the same pocket, leaving  Dennis an easy runout to win the first set.

The second set saw Kawabata win the first two games, with Dennis winning the next two, making the score 2-2. Kawabata went on to pick up the following two games, making the score 4-2. The next game went to Orcollo, putting the score 4-3 to Kawabata.  Kawabata the ran out the next rack finishing with two nine carom to take the set.

Being tied one set a piece, Kawabata and Orcollo played a one-game sudden death lagged with Dennis winning the lag, and running out the rack easily.

Dennis will now play Jung-Lin Chang on Thursday afternoon at 3:00 PM

SHANE VAN BOENING (USA)  VS  JIAN-BO FU (CHINA)

FIRST SET

Shane Van Boening won the lag, broke, and run out the first rack effortlessly.

Fu breaks the second rack making a ball, but leaves himself a difficult run out. Proceeding to make two banks, and a combo to leave a very fine cut on the six into the side pocket., which he under cut, leaving an easy run out for Shane.

Shane, now two games up, breaks leaving a relatively easy run out, and miscues on the seven, leaving Fu no shot. Fu played safe leaving the cue ball at the opposite end of the table, with Shane well and truly snookered. Shane managed to hit the ball, but left an easy run out for Fu. Score now at 2-1.

Fu broke, playing a sloppy safe, leaving Shane an easy runout, for a score of 3-1.

Shane broke rack five, and duly runs out the balls easily, to make the score now 4-1.

Fu broke rack six, making two balls on the break–but got out of position after just two shots. Fu attempted a jump, but missed. Shane mopped up the rest of the rack, to win the set five games to one.

At this point, I thought we were in for a match dominated by Mr. Van Boening, but read on for the outcome of the following bizarre set.

SECOND SET

Fu broke and made a ball, then lucked in the 1-ball, and runs out the rest of the rack.

Shane broke rack two and left himself hooked, then jumped and made the shot, but missed the next shot, leaving Fu an easy run out. Score now 2-0, Fu leading.

Fu broke in rack three, making a ball, but missed the next shot leaving Shane no shot on the two ball. Shane elected to kick at the two, hoping to make the seven that was close to the pocket. He hit the ball so hard, that he not only made no ball, but ended opening up the whole table for an easy runout for Fu. Score now 3-0.

I felt that Shane had underestimated his opponent’s ability to play pool, and it came back to bite him in the end.

Shane broke the fourth game, leaving himself with no shot on the two ball. He kicks at it, and leaves Fu another easy run out. Score 4-0.

Fu breaks and makes the 1-ball, then proceeds to run out an easy rack, to win the set.

The comedy of errors is now almost over.

Shane won the lag perfectly, with the cue ball resting on the bottom cushion and Fu’s ball only a quarter of an inch behind it. Shane broke and pocketed a ball, then began what would be an easy runout. On his third ball, he miscues, yet still makes the ball, but the cue ball runs all the way downtown, and scratches in the bottom pocket.

Fu then runs out the rest of the balls, to the delight of the crowd… what an upset!

Shane’s demise at the end of the day was a combination of not respecting the talent that he was playing against, and the layout of the balls after the break, which at times were pretty brutal.

NIELS FEIJEN - (NETHERLANDS)  VS  SEUNG-WOO RYU -(KOREA)

Niels, who won the event last year, and is my pick to win (making this two consecutive titles) was the superior player in both sets. Ryu had his chances, but  unfortunately never seemed to be able to capitalize on them, when time after time he got out of position or missed shots.

Niels played well, and rack after rack, only had to come to the table to mop up the proceedings.

The final scores for the two sets were 5-2  5-2

THURSDAYS AFTERNOONS SEMIFINAL MATCH UPS

DENNIS ORCOLLO  Philippines    VS    JUNG-LIG CHANG  Taipei               3:00 PM

JIAN-BO FU  China                          VS   NIELS FEIJEN  Netherlands              4:30 PM

FINALS

6:30 PM

Story Written by NYCgrind.com contributing writer Geoff Conway