Team West rules Kings Cup pool

TEAM West survived a late rally by Team East and relied on its triples team to finally nail the crown, 10-8, Sunday in the inaugural Kings Cup Asia vs Europe/United States pool championship at Resorts World Manila.

West captain and two-time world champion Mika Immonen of Finland, combined with American Shane Van Boening and Austrian Albin Ouschan to outplay East’s Francisco “Django” Bustamante and reigning World No. 1 Ko Pin-yi and brother Ko Ping-chung of Chinese Taipei for the crucial 5-3 win.

Team West, also made up of English Darren Appleton, had moved within one match of the title at 9-6 but the host team, led by skipper Efren “Bata” Reyes, rallied and closed to within 9-8.

“We we’re pretty confident that we could win at 10-6 but they started breathing on our backs in the match,” said Immonen. “They made a great comeback and put us under pressure again.”

Team East trailed 4-0 in the four-on-four before mounting a mighty uprising to take the match 5-4 and wake up the crowd that stayed up all night.

Reyes, the 1999 world 9-ball and 2004

8-ball champion and widely regarded as the best pool player ever, said they pushed their luck too far and in the end could not match up with Team West’s solid shotmaking.

Team West closed the first two days with an imposing 7-5 lead with Shane Van Boening starring in the last three victories.

Teams played singles, doubles, triples and quadruples in the continental meet which employed 10-ball rules on race-to-10 matches.