Holland 7-2 Scotland
England B 7-4 Portugal
Philippines 7-4 Croatia
THERE were wins for three of the fancied teams at the 888.com World Cup of Pool as England B, Holland and the Philippines all made their way into the second round as play continued at the York Hall in London.
The Philippines pair of Dennis Orcollo and Lee Vann Corteza closed out the evening beating Croatia – Karlo Dalmatin and Ivica Putnik – 7-4. The Croatians were in with a chance as they stayed with their opponents in the early stages, but a succession of errors saw the team spirit drain away.
With a strong Filipino contingent in the crowd, including the Ambassador, the duo from Manila completed the win.
In the second match, England B – Chris Melling and Daryl Peach – were big favourites against a Portuguese team making their 888.com World Cup of Pool debut and they justified the bookmaker’s faith with a scrappy 7-4 win to book a second round game against Germany.
It wasn’t their greatest showing but if getting into the second round was their goal, they achieved it. They took the early 3-0 lead, but then Melling failed to get out of a snooker and with ball in hand, Portugal reduced the deficit. The Portuguese pair of Manual Gama and Guilherme Sousa started to shed their early nerves and after a poor miss on the brown 7 by Melling they got the score back to 3-4.
They shared the next two racks and at 5-4 down, Portugal had every chance of springing an upset. However, they couldn’t capitalise on it and the English pair held their nerve to get over the line
“Most players only play a table as quick as this in Matchroom events. It is a quality table and I don’t think you can find a table as quick as that,” said Melling.
“Most people at home don’t understand the pressure you are under. At the end of the day as long as you win that is main thing. We will both go back and assess our game because we both made some mistakes but we both made some great shots as well and that is the beauty of pool.”
Peach added, “It is a little bit nerve wracking but it’s nice to get the first match and the first win under your belt.”
Earlier, Holland, with the dependable duo of Niels Feijen and Nick Van Den Berg, took out Scotland 7-2 to advance to the last 16. With a wealth of scotch doubles experience, both in the Mosconi Cup and this event, they always had a little too much for the Scottish team comprised of American-based up and comer Jayson Shaw and seasoned vet Jonni Fulcher.
Feijen was delighted to get through what could potentially have been a banana skin; “It was the first match of the tournament and we had to get used to the table as it slides a lot and also the lights and the crowd.
“We grew in confidence though after both teams made a couple of mistakes. We’re a good doubles pair and have got a lot of experience and at this venue where we both helped take down the Mosconi Cup last December. Hopefully we can keep it going.”
The 2013 888.com World Cup of Pool runs from Tuesday September 17 to Sunday, September 22 at the famous York Hall in Bethnal Green, East London. The field features 32 teams from 31 countries in a single elimination format. The total prize fund is US$250,000 with $60,000 going to the eventual champions.
Play continues tomorrow with three more first round matches:
Japan v Sweden
China v Hungary
Russia v Hong Kong
For live streaming of the 888.com World Cup of Pool go to http://www.pool.livesport.tv/home
The 2013 World Cup of Pool runs from 17 – 22 September and takes place at the York Hall, London. For those wanting to watch the action in person, all tickets are available from www.seetickets.com (Search ‘World Cup of Pool’)
