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NEWS October 6, 2008 WC 10-Ball – Darren “Dynamite“ Appleton is World Champion |
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The
discipline 10-Ball has only been admitted officially in the sports program
of the world federation WPA less than a year ago. To establish this fourth
discipline as soon as possible, the organization of the first WC was trusted
to the Philippine promoter Raya Sports. Owner Yen Makabenta cooperates very
closely with the Billard and Snooker Congress of the Philippines (BSCP), the
official member of the Asian federation APBU, however leading to the
situation that the competing federation, the Billiards Managers and Players
Association of the Philippines (BMPAP), forbade its players the
participation in this first WC. A pity, since players such as Reyes,
Bustamante, Orcullo, Alcano, Gomez, Van Corteza and Pagulayan had to watch
in their own country how the other top players competed fort he first 10
Ball WC title. The
format was a double KO bracket in races to 9 with winner break. I
was seeded number two and was opposed in the first round to the Italian
player Patrick Menillo who lives in Switzerland. In spite of two position
errors in the first three racks, I could run out these tables and tale a 3-0
lead. After a black break, Menillo scored the 1-3, before he dropped the cue
ball upon his break. After this, I only let my opponent come back to the
table twice with tough safety positions and I finally won 9-1. The
second match against Scotsman Jonni Fulcher who also happens to live in
Switzerland turned out to be a tough fight for several reasons. During the
night, I had terrible pain above the left hip hindering me from sleeping.
After a visit to the hotel’s doctor in the morning, I got some pain relief
pills, but their effects did not last very long. After two hours midday
break, the match started and as expected, I made a lot of mistakes. I tried
to pull myself together and to make the best out of this situation. However,
when trailing 2-5, things looked pretty bad. Then, Fulcher made two
unexpected mistakes which brought me back into the match and I could gain a
8-6 lead. I lost one more rack and could finally, under heavy pain, enter
the final KO bracket of the last 64 players. Right after the match, a friend
from Manila brought me to the emergency room of a hospital, where the
doctors made several tests. Butt these tests did not bring any result, so
that I just got a pain relief injection and we traveled back. The same
evening, the injection caused some heavy side effects. I had stomach cramps
and diarrhea. |
Chia-Ching Wu
| In the round of the last 32 players, I was opposed to the Hungarian player Vilmos Földes. The match was played on the TV table and the match turned out to be a thriller at 3-1 in my favor. Rack 5 lasted not less than 45 minutes and this was due to the fact that the balls were located in an impossible way. The 6 ball was positioned right on the edge of the middle pocket and none of us wanted to try something impossible. It went back and forth, until I spotted an opportunity to play the 6 ball away from the corner edge by playing a safety. The crowd seemed to be relieved, since most of the other matches in this round were much more advanced or even already finished. From now on, it went better and I could increase my lead to 5-1 and 7-2. Shortly after, I entered round 4 with a 9-4 success. My opponent was Haitao Liu from China and he was more or less unknown to me. At the beginning, I played very well and was leading 4-2. But I did not make use of the rack to take a 5-2 lead and repeated this mistake several times. At 5-4, I missed the opportunity to increase to 6-4 and right after this, I failed again to transform the 6-5 to 7-5. At 7-6, I missed any easy combination 3-9 and the chance to score the 8-6. Even if I managed to always keep one rack in advance, I always made a mistake when I could have increased my lead to two racks. I also scored the 8-7 and had the possibility to win the match. But when pocketing the 1 ball, I had an unfortunate contact with the 3 ball, which traveled to a difficult position close to the middle pocket edge. My position from 2 ball to 3 ball was not as desired, so that I had to try a risky draw shot. I scratched and the cue ball fell. The 8-8 was a pure formality for Liu. In the last and decisive rack, Liu shot a black break, but I had to play a Push-out for a jump shot. My opponent refused and I missed the jump shot. But my Push-out had left a difficult configuration on the table so that I could still hope form y opponent to make a mistake. My opponent did me this favor and missed a 6-9 combination. But he was lucky enough to leave me with a safety to play. I managed to hit the 6 ball with a three cushion rail shot, but the 6 ball remained in a good position in front of the corner pocket. Now, just a little miracle could have helped me, but it did not happen. Liu ran out the table to win 9-8 and my dream of my second World title in 2008 was over. I had missed a lot of good opportunities and could not complain that I finally ended on rank 9. |
Darren Appleton
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The
semi-finals: Demosthenes
Pulpul (PHI) – Chia-Ching Wu (TWN) Wu
played up to his status as the favorite of this match and took a quick 5-0
lead. But then, the match turned around and the so far unknown Philippine
player nicknamed Plong Plong showed why he had reached the semi-finals. He
turned the 0-5 into a 7-5 and was the big surprise for the billiards world.
But when Pulpul started to think about what was happening, his game
collapsed and he could only score one more rack. The high-level semi-final
ended with a 11-8 success fort he top player Wu. The
second semi-final between the two European players Niels Feijen (NED) and
Darren Appleton (GBR) was the contrary. Both players could not play up to
their potential and the match was a series of mistakes on both sides. It was
unusual to watch both players commit errors by the dozen and how they fought
their way through a 4 hours match. At the end and to the surprise of most
spectators, Englishman Darren Appleton won 11-9 and hindered the Dutch
player for the second time to enter a WC final in just a few weeks. The
bronze medal match, played fort he first time at a WPA World Championship,
Feijen and Pulpul showed a top level match and the new 14-1 World Champion
Niels Feijen win 11-8 and the bronze medal. The Philippine player Pulpul
ended on the worst of all ranks, rank 4, but at least, he had a consolation
of 15.000 US$. Besides the bronze medal, Feijen could take a nice check back
home - 25.000 US$. He
final in a race to 13 between Chia-Ching Wu and Darren Appleton was a great
match right from the start. First, Appleton could take the lead 3-0 and 6-1,
but then the Taiwanese player came back to 5-6, but then shot a black break.
Appleton increased his lead to 10-5, just to be caught again by Wu. At 11-12
and own break to come, the match could have been finished, but Wu shot
another black break. The table was open and the entry ball on the 1 ball and
the position on the 2 ball were the most difficult tasks. Appleton pocketed
the 1 ball in the middle pocket and then had to play a feasible, but not
easy 2 ball. He stayed cool, mastered the situation and ran out the table to
win 13-11. So, he crowned himself as the first 10-Ball World Champion in the
history of billiards and he won the sum of 100.000 US$. The silver medal
winner could also enjoy a check of 40.000 US$. |
Darren Appleton
Wu-Appleton-Feijen-Pulpul
