By Saw Lidong • UrbanWire
email reporter • email story • printer friendly version

In movies, whenever there's a bar fight scene with a pool table in close proximity, you'll almost instinctively expect bodies to be slammed onto the table, cue sticks to be broken and balls to be flying in every direction, rendering people unconscious. This year's World Pool Championship in Taipei saw just as much, if not more action, minus the violence, of course.

All the usual suspects were present for the tournament; the defending champion Thorsten Hohmann, last year's runner-up Alex Pagulayan, the ever resilient Francisco Bustamante, Filipino champion and winner of the recently concluded San Miguel Asian 9-ball tour, Efren Reyes and the bad boy of pool himself, Earl Strickland.

There weren't many surprises in the 1st round group stages; cue sticks extended and legs kicked out in aggression, balls whizzed around, but thankfully only within the confines of the pool table top, with the occasional venomous glare from Strickland directed towards his opponent. Hohmann made it through comfortably to the 2nd round, winning all of his 7 group stage games. The Filipinos too made short work of their opponents and progressed. Pagulayan, however had a tougher time, winning only 4 games and just managing to scrape through.

Now, you'd expect Earl Strickland to blow the competition away in the early going, after all, he's a 3-time world champion and should easily advance. Then again, being the John McEnroe of 9-ball pool, controversy never strays too far behind him. Strickland, whether on purpose or not, brought the "finger extensions" which he had used last year, to his first game, only to be informed by the referee that they had been banned this year. A couple of protests and some bartering later, he started the match without the aids, and despite the "handicap", Strickland, in typical fashion, or rather irritation, went on to win the game convincingly. But he wasn't done yet. At the post-match interview, he scowled for the cameras claiming that the organisers of the tournament were out to rob him of his chances at a 4th World Championship title. Oh yes, he went on to win all his remaining group games. I almost forgot to mention that. Somehow, Strickland's antics always overshadow his abilities to the point where you don't realise just how good he really is, not that it's a bad thing.

On to the knockout stages, this time, it was Pagulayan who cruised through to the last 8. Hohmann, on the other hand, shocked fans all over the world by bowing out of the tournament with a whimper, losing 1-9 to Kang Chin-Ching of Taipei. The Taiwanese were ecstatic. They had more reasons to cheer later in the week as 3 Taiwanese, Kuo Po-Cheng, Chao Fong-Pang, and Chang Pei-Wei, found themselves in the last 8. Bustamante and Reyes faltered as well, both ironically to compatriot Marlon Manalo who's of lower ranking. As for Earl Strickland, well, he failed to reach (pun intended) the last 8 without his "finger extensions", losing to Kuo. You couldn't really tell which was louder; the cheers for Kuo's victory or the jeers as Strickland stomped his way out of the arena.

And then there were 2. Pagulayan, with his 1st round jitters well behind him, dispatched Chao and Kuo en route to the finals, but 1 last hometown hero stood in his way to being the champion. Chang, equally impressive, showed that his date with Pagulayan in the finals was no fluke with hard-earned victories against veteran players; he even went 8-2 up on Pagulayan in a race to 17 in the finals. However, experience eventually won the day as Pagulayan roared back to take the championship 17-13.

So after slightly more than a week's worth of intense table-top action, Alex Pagulayan finally discarded his bridesmaid tag as he triumphantly lifted the World Championship trophy. Chang can walk away with his head held high after a brilliant performance to the finals, the furthest he has ever been in the tournament. And Earl Strickland can continue to gripe about the injustice the world has done to him and his "finger extensions". Perhaps next year's tournament should be held in a bar with a bartender attending to Earl and his miseries.

Images taken from official website