QC side avenges loss to World

Team Philippines toppled the World side in the team event, 7-3, last night to keep the contest close going into the final day of the QC Philippines vs The World “The Grand Villards Showdown” at the Trinoma in Quezon City.

Francisco “Django” Bustamante, Alex “The Lion” Pagulayan, Ronnie Alcano and Warren Kiamco overpowered American Charlie Williams, Chinese Taipei’s Yang Ching Shun, Chinese Fu Jian Bo and Indian Raj Hundal that sent the Filipinos two matches behind their foreign rivals at 3-5.

The final showdown for the day was in the singles between Lee Van Corteza and Williams, which was played at press time.

The win avenged the 4-7 loss suffered by Efren “Bata” Reyes, Corteza, Roberto Gomez and Dennis Orcollo to Mika “The Iceman” Immonen of Finland, Wu Chia Ching of Chinese Taipei, Rodney Morris of the US and Thorsten Hohmann of Germany in Tuesday’s opener.

Earlier, Reyes teamed up with Corteza to outclass Morris and Thorsten Hohmann in the doubles, 7-4, to give the RP team its second win in the showdown with the world’s best pool players.

Down 0-2 against the talented pair of Morris and The Hit Man, Reyes and Corteza wheeled back into the fight after trailing by two racks to snatch the much-needed win that cut the host country’s deficit to 2-4.

Immonen of Finland earlier bucked a poor start to turn back Orcollo in a thriller of a finish, 7-6, that sent the international side to a big 4-1 start.

Then Hawaii-based Morris and Hohmann kept the initiative for the World by leading Reyes and Corteza earlier in the contest.

But Morris, who partnered with fellow American Charlie Williams in ruling this year’s World Cup, pulled off a dry break on the third rack that gave Reyes an opportunity to turn things around before teaming with Corteza to take six of the last eight frames to seal the win that drew cheers from the big crowd.

“We hit our shots better than yesterday (Tuesday),” said Reyes, referring to a poor 1-3 start by the team in the opener of the three-day billiards bash.

The shattering defeat by Reyes, Orcollo, Corteza and Gomez to Immonen, Morris, Hohmann, and the prodigious Wu Chia Ching of Chinese Taipei worked heavily on the Filipinos bid.

Ronnie Alcano, the 2006 World Pool and World 8-ball champion, also dropped his singles match to Money Game King Yang Ching Shun of Chinese Taipei, 5-7, so did Bustamante and Kiamco to Williams and Hundal, 4-7, in the doubles.

But former champion Alex “The Lion” Pagulayan edged Chinese Fu Jian Bo in a pulsating duel, 7-6 to avert an RP shutout.

The tournament is being sponsored by Sen. Manny Villar and Quezon City Mayor Feliciano “Sonny” Belmonte and supported by the Billiards Managers and Players Association of the Philippines (BMPAP) with The Philippine STAR, Solar Sports, RPN-9 and Business Mirror as media partners.