PBB: Daryl Peach rallies, topples Ronnie Alcano

MANILA, Philippines—Great Britain’s Daryl “The Dazzler” Peach rallied from a 2-7 deficit and overcame Ronato Alcano, 9-7, in their Philippine Bigtime Billiards (PBB) Face-Off Series Saturday night at the Pagcor Airport Casino in Parañaque.

Peach, the 2007 World 9-ball champion, pocketed the $5,000 (about P217,000) winner’s purse in his showdown against the Filipino two-time world titlist, who was odds-on favorite to win both in the house and e-games.

“He’s (Alcano) a great player and it’s always tough playing against him,” said Peach. “I was so nervous when he took a 7-2 lead, but I decided to calm down and just take it one rack at a time.”

Peach exploited the winner’s-break format in the 10-ball, race-to-9 duel by taking the last seven racks.

“I was lucky in the first few racks, but suddenly my luck ran out,” said Alcano in Filipino. He went home with $2,500.

Alcano, the 2006 9-ball and 2007 8-ball world champion, got his chance at the table in the 15th rack at 7-all when Peach scratched. But his touch was gone and he failed to run it out, paving the way for the Briton to reach the hill en route to the win.

“I guess it wasn’t my day,” added the 39-year-old Alcano, who beat Peach during the 2007 World 8-ball Championships held at the United Arab Emirates.

It was the third straight defeat by the Filipino cue masters in the weekly showdown after German Ralf Souquet drubbed World No. 1 Dennis “Robocop” Orcollo and Carlo “Carlo” Biado in previous matches.

Peach, who won his world title over Roberto Gomez at the Araneta Coliseum, will try his luck against another Filipino great, former world 9-ball champ Francisco “Django” Bustamante, on Nov. 26.

Peach had previously beaten Alcano in the 2006 International Pool Tour in Las Vegas and 2007 World Pool Championships in Manila.