Team World VS Team Philippines showdown.

The long awaited team event finally happened. Philippines had compiled the best of the best and now boldly challenging the World team to a shoot-out. I can't blame them though, they had plenty of arsenal. Seriously, They could have picked any of their top 16 players and still have about the same fire-power.

Team Philippines: Efren Reyes, Fransisco Bustamante, Alex Pagulayan, Ronnie Alcano, Dennis Orcollo, Lee Van Corteza, Warren Kiamco and Roberto Gomez.

Team World: Rodney Morris, Thorsten Hohmann, Wu Chia-Ching, Yang Chin-sung, Djan Bo Fu, Charlie Williams, Raj Hundal and myself.

We started out strong, winning 3 out of first 4. On the second day, I started with a victory over Dennis Orcollo.

Then Team Philippines started pulling back. We managed to hold the lead by a narrow margin after day two, 5-4.

After trailing for the first two days, the filipinos charged to a 8-6 lead, winning four out of the first 5 games. Francisco “Django” Bustamante edged Hundal, 7-6; Reyes subdued Morris, 7-5; the foursome of Bustamante, Pagulayan, Orcollo and Gomez prevailed over the quartet of Hundal, Yang Ching-shun, Mika Immonen and Wu, 7-6; and Gomez blasted Yang, 7-3, for an 8-6 lead in a race-to-nine duel.

Then Charlie williams against Dennis Orcollo in the singles. It was a race to 9, so we could not afford to loose. Charlie fought his heart out and came trough with a 7-5 victory.

The team of Efren “Bata” Reyes, Ronnie Alcano, Warren Kiamco and Lee Van Corteza lost a 5-2 advantage and fell to the squad of Rodney Morris, Williams, Thorsten Hohmann and Fu Jianbo, 7-6, paving the way for the hill-to-hill battle.

As the draw would have it, again it was a four on four for the title. I had to sit in the sidelines, probably more nervous there. the final four for World Team consisted of Morris, Hundal, Williams and Wu. The Filipinos had the squad of Pagulayan, Gomez, Kiamco and Orcollo.

It looked as though the thought of a loss had finally creeped in the Filipinos minds and the pressure was adding up. We had a great momentum after being down. Specially Wu came with some fantastic shots to put us in the "drivers seat". It was 6-5 for Team world when Alex was breaking to make it hill-hill, but had a dry break. Then even the usually emotionless Wu was practically giggling and started wiping down his cue in excitement for the run-out. The last three shots of the tournament were by no means easy. Wu was shooting a tough 7 on the back rail bridged over the 8, Hundal speared a long 8 from the back rail, and Williams deservingly clinched the title with a 9 near the head spot, again cueball near the rail by the side.

I jumped over the railing in joy, and the whole team was jumping around in disbelief. It was a comeback to remember!

Wohhoooohohooooo!