Team Great Britain are the New World Champions!

FINAL DAY AT WORLD TEAM A CHAMPIONSHIP IN HANOVER - GERMANY

FEBRUARY 7th, 2010

By NYC Grind Contributor, Geoff Conway - Pool Junkie

(Photo courtesy of www.touch-magazine.net )

After what has been eight days of grueling pool, played in three disciplines, the finals were completed yesterday in a great showcase of 50 teams from around the world. The two finalists were the Philippines and Great Britain I. The Philippines were the favorites on paper, but were up against a veteran team, which I thought would edge them out with their overall experience in all of the disciplines.

At 3:00 pm on Sunday, February 7, the show got on the road, with the first of the 8-ball Scotch doubles matches (Warren Kiamco & Dennis Orcullo vs Daryl Peach & Karl Boyes) going the way of the Philippines with a lopsided score of 6-1.  However, Great Britain quickly responded with 6-1 in their favor, which tied the score at 1-1, with Darren Appleton & Mark Gray defeating Marlon Manalo & Ronnie Alcano.

Next up in the first of the two 9-ball matches was Antonio Lining (PHI) against Mark Gray (GB I).  Mark, who established himself this last week as probably one of the best 9-ball players on the planet, quickly jumped out to a 4-0 lead.

Antonio made a token effort and won the next game making it 4-1 in Gray’s favor. Mark took the next game to make it 5-1, Antonio took the next game 5-2, but that was all he wrote, as Mark then just ran away with the match winning 8-2. (Overall match score now 2-1 to the GB side)

Next up was young Lee Van Corteza (PHI) against another young gun Karl Boyes (GB I), who has recently re-dedicated himself to the game, and is now quite a force to be reckoned with. Karl soon had the score to 5-3 in his favor, but let off the leash a little, and allowed Lee to get it back to 5-5.

It did not take long for Corteza to get it to 7-5, needing only one more game to clinch the match. However, the organizers had other thoughts on the matter, and decided to call a halt to the match for an hour and a quarter. The PHI side protested this decision as they argued that as they only needed one more game they should be allowed to proceed without a break, but the protest was denied.

After the break, another twenty-minute break was taken to give their staff at the tables a break. Well, all in all this delay certainly seemed to effect Mr. Corteza more than it did Mr. Boyes, as Karl took the next three games to come out the winner 8-7. (Overall score now 3-1 to the GB side)

Well, now the pressure was off the GB side, as they could not lose even if they lost the next two matches, as the PHI team could only possibly tie the match at 3-3 if they won the following two matches. This would call for a shoot out to decide the winner.

Now it was up to Darren Appleton (GB I) against Dennis Orcollo (PHI) to win his match in the 10-ball discipline, and secure the win for his team.  Darren soon stamped his authority on the proceedings by jumping out to a 4-0 lead, before Dennis could put a game on the board, making it 4-1.

Darren, who was certainly out to make a statement, never let Dennis win another game, and came out an easy winner 7-1. Darren immediately collapsed to the floor crying his eyes out, and screaming at the top of his lungs. They had just won with an overall score of 4-1

Daryl Peach, who had been playing on an adjoining table with the score at 2-1 in favor of Ronnie Alcano, ran from his game to congratulate Darren, with the rest of the team in hot pursuit.

The GB I team had just defied all the odds to take down the favorites, and are now the 2010 World Team Champions. There were not enough tissues to go around as the tears were flowing from all of the players.

They calmed down momentarily for the English National Anthem, but with their right hand on their heart, they could not hold back the tears as their emotions got the better of them.

After losing to Sweden earlier in the week, numerous scores that were too close for comfort, including a shoot out that will forever go into the record books at 27-25. They are surely worthy winners of the wonderful trophy and the winners medals, and especially the first prize of $100,000.  The Philippines team will go home with $50,000, which may help to soften the blow a little.

Teamwork was definitely the key to the GB team’s success, and they were kept on a positive path by World Champion Daryl Peach who has been there done that, and was a great influence on the team’s performance overall.

I would also like to extol the merits of Mark Gray, especially in the 9-ball area. Although he is relatively unknown in the US, Mark is the #1-ranked player on the GB 9-ball Tour and is now showing the rest of the world that his play is champion-quality.

On a more serious note. I was somewhat saddened this week to hear that politics had to come into play in this event. In the second round of the tournament, the Kuwaiti team was matched up to play Israel. However, governing body in Kuwait stepped in and disallowed their team to play the match, despite both teams being willing to play one another.

Subsequently, the WPA tournament organizers disqualified the team from competing in the rest of the event due to their forfeiture. According to one of the Israeli team members, the necessary steps are being taken by their organization to prevent such such occurrences in the future.  After all, if players were allowed to pick and choose who they do or do not want to play, perhaps I would enter a tournament and tell the organizers that I want to avoid Dennis Hatch in the draw. (It ain’t gonna happen.)

On a lighter note, I suggest that pool players all over the USA lobby their government officials to get the kind of perks that the Greek pool team received for coming in third in this event.

They are to receive a new house (anywhere in Greece) and a new car (Not a Prius–just joking!), along with a cash bonus.

Maybe pool is gaining some momentum in certain parts of the world, but I don’t see President Obama sending me a new jump stick any time soon.

Geoff Conway - Pool Junkie