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For
the first time in the history of Pool Billiards, a match between an All
Star Team of host Chinese Taipei and a World Team was organized. The game
was 9-Ball and the event was held in a shopping mall in Taoyuan City. Each
team consisted of 10 players who played each three matches for their team.
The first day, five doubles with changing shots were played in races to 9.
On day 2 and day 3, a total of 20 singles were played in races to 7.
At the players meeting I was elected team captain by
the World All Stars team.
The first day, I made the
following doubles play the matches:
Chao / Chang - Souquet / Hohmann: 3-9
Lee / Fu – Jeong / Park: 9-5
C.S. Yang / Lu – Morris / Williams: 7-9
Hsia / Kang – Hinokiyama / Yamamoto: 6-9
T.Y. Yang / Kuo – Pagulayan / Immonen: 2-
9
The intermediate score of
4-1 for the World All Stars Team was very promising for he remaining
singles. But on day two, the players of Captain F.P. Chao had a better
start and took the lead after the last single of the day:
Kang – Hinokiyama: 7-4
Chao – Souquet: 0-7
Lu – Yamamoto: 7-1
C.S. Yang – Morris: 3-7
T.Y. Yang – Park: 7-3
Hsia – Pagulayan: 7-2
Fu – Williams: 4-7
Chang – Immonen: 7-6
Lee – Jeong: 7-1
The score of 7-8 was not
really alarming, but on the last day, we had to win 6 out of the remaining
10 matches:
Kuo – Jeong: 7-2
Kang – Hohmann: 7-5
Hsia – Immonen: 7-2
C.S. Yang – Pagulayan: 6-7
Fu – Williams: 7-2
Lu – Morris: 0-7
Chang – Souquet: 4-7
Chao – Yamamoto: 7-4
T.Y. Yang – Hinokiyama: 7-1
Lee – Park: 7-2
Unfortunately, we lost the first 3 matches and the intermediate score was
7-11 and 8-12. Rodney
Morris and I managed to win the following two matches and to come back to
10-12. But F.P. Chao, with his first victory, triggered the decision in
favour of the team from Taiwan. We also lost the two last matches for a
final score of 10-15. All in all, the victory of Team Chinese Taipei was
deserved. In the singles, they played better than we did, but then again,
they also were lucky when they needed to.
The highlight was certainly the match C.S. Yang vs. A. Pagulayan. The
runner-up of the World Championships played very well, but had two
scratches on the second last ball. At the score of 5-0, this did only cost
him a rack, but at 6-1, just before the match point, he almost lost the
match. His opponent from Taiwan remained at the table until 6-6 and
committed his only mistake in our favour as late as in the very last rack.
Three players remained undefeated. From the winning Team Chinese Taipei
the runner-up of the World Championships in 1997 K.F. Lee and from the
World All Stars R. Morris and R. Souquet.
At the medal ceremony the most appreciated player of
each team was elected and honoured. In spite of three defeats, Chinese
Taipei player C.S. Yang was elected. In the World All Stars Team, I was
very much honoured to receive this distinction
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