ENGLAND'S DARYL PEACH WINS WPC

NERVES CAUSES GOMEZ THE WPC TITLE

DARYL PEACH showed the world that England is still a force to be
reckoned in the sport of Pool especially hosting the Olympic Games in
2012 in London. The 35-year-old Black pool England cue artists beat Filipino Roberto Gomez in a race to 17 finals last night with a cliff hanging 17-15 victory at the Big Dome. He also took home the $100,000 cash prize. Gomez on the other hand, took home $40,000.

With the win, Peach is already seeded in the main draw of World Pool Championships in five straight years by winning the title while Gomez could only be seeded in next year's edition which possibly will again be hosted by the Philippines.

In the road to the finals, Peach lost to Matias Ercul of Slovakia (1-9) but liminated Rodolfo Luat of the Philippines (9-3) and Lily (9-5) in the group stage matches to progress. Then he eliminated last year's champion Ronato Alcano of the Philippines (10-6)in the last 64, Lee Kun Fang of Taiwan (10-7) in the last 32, Harold Stolka of Germany (11-5), Francisco "Django" Bustamante (11-10) in the last 8 and Vilmos Voldes of Hungrary (11-2)in the last 4 semifinals.

"Nerves, pressure, but it was an amazing match," said Peach, "He is a champion, it's a lot of pressure in my part," added Peach, who broke the Asian domination from Alex Pagulayan in 2004 edition, Wu Chia-Ching of Taipei in 2005 and Ronato 'The Volcano' Alcano in 2006.

Gomez, on the other hand reached the finals by crushing Neils Feijen of the Netherlands (9-6) and Dharminder Sing Lilly of India (9-4) in their group stage matches, then beat Alex Lely of the Netherlands (10-1) in the last 64, Chao Fong-pao of Taiwan (11-4) in the last 32, rematch Feijen in the last 8, Kuo Po-cheng of Taiwan in the last 16 and Karl Boyes of England (11-4) in the semifinals.

"Ito na ang pinakamataas na tournament na pangarap kong makuha," said the tearful Gomez.

"Komportable ako bago magsimula pero dahil na din sa suporta ng crowd, 'yung ingay nila ay lalo akong na pressure," he added. "Kailangan kong kontrolin ang pressure," said Gomez.

The drama in the 31st rack which Peach saw a table-length bank on the blue 2 rattle in the jaws of the bottom left pocket but stay on the cloth.

However, Gomez then missed the orange 5, as soon as he saw that the ball failed to drop, he stood there motionless, knowing that he could have just blown his chance to win the championship.

There was yet another further twist as Peach lost position going from the 8-ball to the 9-ball. That left a tougher shot than anticipated and he then missed a table-length bank on the 9-ball.

But the drama was not over yet. Gomez had a shot at the 9-ball, which would have looked easy for him throughout this tournament. Though this was the pressure-cooker of the World Championship final and the pressure got to him as he missed. Peach then sunk the 9-ball to move to the hill, and eventually win the championship in the next frame.


I LOST MY LUCKY CHALK - GOMEZ

Roberto Gomez admitted last night that he lost his lucky charm chalk. This affected his game.

"Nawala ko 'yung chalk na ginagamit ko, 'yung ang lucky charm ko eh,"
said Gomez in a local media.

Report from MARLON BERNARDINO