Orcollo, Gomez crush Croats, enter Last 16

MANILA, Philippines - Dennis Orcollo and Roberto Gomez showed nerves of steel in a tense duel with Croatian rivals, carving out an 8-4 win to join compatriots Efren “Bata” Reyes and Francisco “Django” Bustamante in the second round of the World Cup of Pool 2010 at the Midtown Wing of Robinson’s Place Ermita last night.

Orcollo and Gomez rode the breaks before beating Karlo Dalmatin and Philipp Stojanovic to earn a spot in the Sweet Sixteen versus the winner of the Spain-Vietnam tussle today.

The two RP pairs may even meet in the finals, being in separate brackets in the six-day pool classic offering $60,000 to the winning duo.

The biggest break that went RP-B’s way was a foul assessed Dalmatin with the count tied at 4-4. The referee ruled a foul, saying Dalmatin’s shirt hit the 9-ball as he was cueing over it.

Orcollo and Gomez ran out the rack to regain momentum, and they surged all the way to the next round.

Reigning world 8-ball champion Karl Boyes and world 9-ball title-holder Daryl Peach had to dig deep into their arsenal to overcome the fighting Qataris, 8-7.

Boyes and Peach, the fourth seed tandem, forced the hill-hill finish and eventually moved past Mohammad Al Bin Ali and Bashar Hussain to advance to Round 2 versus Frenchmen Stephan Cohen and Francois Cottance.

The English and the French are both on line for a possible semifinal confrontation with Reyes and Bustamante.

“No disrespect ( to the Qataris) but that would’ve been my worst defeat ever. You set yourself goals and one of my goals coming here is to not just win the tournament but to play and beat Reyes and Bustamante in the semis,” said Boyes.

“No match is easy and you’re playing on TV so there is pressure. People think we should not miss but we aren’t machines and everyone has an off day. That was an off day. We got lucky but we’re still in it and a lot of the other teams will be peeved that we’re still in it,” said Peach.

Japan edged Slovenia, 8-7, and Poland tripped Malta, 8-6, in other nerve-wracking matches.

The seventh seeded Taiwan pair of Ko Pin-yi and Chang Jung-lin joined thefavorites to the next round with an 8-2 rout of Malaysians Ibrahim Bin Amir and Lee Poh Soon.

An error by Boyes and later on a scratch by Peach led the Qataris to take the hill at 7-6.

Ali, however, made a dry, illegal break on the 14th rack, thus, giving the English a new lease on life.

On the hill-hill duel, Boyes knocked in the 3 ball on a tricky shot and the English went on to gain passage to Round 2.

Cohen and Cottance, ranked No. 13, set a second-round match-up with Boyes and Peach in topping Australia’s James Delahunty and Ricky Emery, 8-5, in an error-laden match.

It’s a ho-hum contest with both teams missing elementary shots. There’s even Cottance missing a hanger on the blue 2, allowing Australia to get on board at 1-2.

Reyes and Bustamante will be back in action in Round 2 versus the Indon pair of Muhammad Zulfikri and Ricky Yang at around 7:30 p.m. tonight.

“There won’t be easy match here. The Indons will be a big threat,” said Reyes.

Japanese Naoyuki Oi and Toru Kuribayashi emerged victorious in a hill-hill encounter with Matjaz Erculj and Matej Sulek, thus, moving to the next round versus either the Taiwan team.


source phil star