The Philippines and Great Britain are Set to Face Off in the World Team Finals Tomorrow

Ronnie Alcano showed his strength in the semifinals.

WORLD TEAM CHAMPIONSHIP - HANOVER, GERMANY -  SEMIFINALS

February 6, 2010

By NYC Grind Contributor, Geoff Conway - Pool Junkie

The match between the Philippines and Russia went to the way I thought it would, but it was not as close as I thought it would be. The Philippines team played some great pool, and after sharing the two team Scotch Doubles games and putting the score at 1-1, they then ran away with it 4-1.

In the singles 9-ball matches, Lee Van Corteza was the first to take down Roman Pruchai (8-4). Then Antonio Lining beat Egor Plishkin by the same score 8-4.

Next up in the 10-ball discipline, it was 2-time US Open runner-up Ronnie Alcano, who destroyed Ruslan Chinahov (7-1), to put the match score at 4-1 putting them in the final on Sunday afternoon. It should be noted the they did not even have to use Dennis Orcollo in the singles matches. (It must be nice to have a spare of this caliber waiting in the wings.)

PHILIPPINES  4   v  RUSSIA  1

…

Starting at the same time was the semi final match between GREAT BRITAIN I and GREECE. This match also went the way I thought it would, but turned out to be a much closer match than the pedigree of the teams would lead you to believe.

Like the other match-up, the first two Scotch Doubles matches went one a piece,putting the score at 1-1. The next W to be posted was by Imran Majid in his 9-ball game with a score of 8-6. Imran’s match was not pretty, but he got the job done.  Score now at 2-1 to the GB team. The next W came from fellow GB team mate Mark Gray who put the score at 3-1 with his 8-4 win.

Now there were only two more games being played in the 10 ball discipline.  Daryl Peach against Aristides Damoylakis, and Darren Appleton against Evangelis Vettas. At this point GB cannot lose if they lose both of these games, as it would put
them into a Shoot Out. (See explanation in our Thursday story on how the Shoot Out works.)

Well Daryl who got of to a flying start, but then seemed to lose his focus, which was probably due to his keeping an eye on his team mate Darren’s match, which was going on just a few feet away, with the score at 0-3 down.

At this point Daryl had the score at 4-3, but it was not to be Daryl’s night, as the score line only went up for his opponent and the match closed out at 7-4 in Greece’s favor, putting the overall match score at 3-2 in favor of the GB team.

When I first looked at the Appleton match the score was 0-3 in favor of Mr. Vettas. Oh, it looks like they are headed for a Shoot Out I thought. Well I guess you do not become the 2008 World 10-ball Champion for nothing.

Well just like the “Energizer Bunny,” Darren just kept going and going, and got the score back to 3-3. He lost the next game putting the score at 3-4 to Greece. Darren caught a gear from  this point on, and never allowed his opponent to put another game on the board.

Darren closed out the match 7-4, putting the overall score at 4-2. I can only imagine the jubilation in the Great Britain camp at that point. Especially as they did not have to get involved in another shootout.

The UK's "Dynamite" Darren Appleton climbed back from a 3-0 deficit to defeat Evangelis Vettas of Greece

GREAT BRITAIN  4  V  GREECE  2

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An Insider Scoop with Daryl Peach

I spoke to Daryl Peach late on Friday night, and he told me that they had to settle their match with China, which ended up tied at 3-3 with a Shoot Out.

Daryl mentioned that,”It was one of the best nights in my life, as far as pool goes.  The tension and the drama were unbelievable.” He also said that they put the 8-ball about 8 inches from the bottom rail, and in the center of the table, and the cue ball on the center of the headstring. The object is to put the 8 ball into either of the bottom corner pockets.

Then four players from each team rotate until one team reaches six. But the only problem is that you have to be ahead by 2 points to win. Well he said that there had been one score as high as 11-9 to decide the winner.

He told me, “You will never believe it when I tell you we went to 27-25 before we came out the winners.”  Daryl also had the pleasure of making the winning shot. He also said that “the standard was so high, and the audience–some 700 strong–was just going wild.”

There is a video recording of the shoot out which will be posted on YouTube, so make sure you watch for it.

Now, you will never believe this next snippet of information that was given to me by Daryl.

For finishing in the final four of this World Championship after being ejected from the event earlier this evening by Great Britain, each of the team members from Greece are to receive from their government….wait for it….

A HOUSE anywhere in Greece, a CAR, and a CASH BONUS!

To which Daryl followed by saying, “Our government doesn’t even know that we’re here!”

Well, tomorrow afternoon at 3:00 pm in the Exhibition Center in Hanover Germany, team Philippines will face off against team Great Britain I in a final showdown. Team Philippines have breezed through the event unbeaten, where as GB I surprisingly lost to Sweden in
an early round of the competition.

On paper it may look like the Philippines might tip the scales on this one, having won almost all of their matches by a big margin, where as GB I have had to scrape through with some close matches, and that one loss.

However, as the format of this event covers both 8-ball, 9-ball, and 10-ball disciplines, I think that it will be a close match from two star-studded teams, who individually are experts in some of the disciplines, but not all of them.

In that respect I favor, but only by a smidgen, the GB I team, who overall have the experience to handle the different disciplines that will be thrown at them.

See you tomorrow with more news.

- Geoff Conway - Pool Junkie