German champ tells Pinoys: Euro cue artists now the best

Former world champion Thorsten Hohmann was downright factual when he said that the Europeans are the ones lording over the world pool scene nowadays.

“It’s us, Europeans, who’re making waves,” said the 29-year-old German, who is one of the eight international players seeing action in the Q.C. Invasion: Quezon City-Philippines vs the World Grand VILLARDS Showdown.

The much-anticipated event, presented by Senator Manny Villar’s Villards: Tulong sa Pagsulong ng Philippine Sport in cooperation with the Quezon City government led by Mayor Sonny Belmonte, will start tomorrow at the Trinoma Mall in Quezon City.

“We know that the Philippines have the best – or should I say the most number of best – billiards players in the world. But this year, most of the major tournaments were won by Europeans,” added Hohmann, the 2003 World 9-Ball titlist, who won the Asian 10-Ball Championship last month in Korea.

He said most of the world titles now are kept by Europeans. The World 9-Ball diadem is in the hands of Englishman Darryl Peach, while the World 8-Ball crown is with Ralf Souquet of Germany, and the World Straight Pool tiara is being kept by Niels Feijen of the Netherlands. Even the boycotted World 10-Ball Championship was ruled by Darren Appleton of England.

And the US Open, also considered one of the toughest tournaments in the world, was also won by Finland’s Mika Immonen, who also ruled the just-concluded All-Japan Open.

“We admit that the Philippines is No.1 in terms of having the most number of top-caliber players. But it is being the best? Well, let’s just see.”

Joining Hohmann in testing whether the Philippines’ reputation as the best billiards-playing nation is still true are fellow Europeans Immonen and Raj Hundal of England, along with Rodney Morris and Charlie Williams of the United States, and Asians Wu Chia-ching and Yang Ching-shun from Chinese-Taipei and Fu Jianbo of China.

Morris is one-half of the pair that won this year’s World Cup of Pool, while Yang is the reigning Guinness Asian 9-Ball Tour grand champion.

The Team World will try to invade the so-called “epicenter of pool”, which will be defended by eight of the best Filipino cue artists led by the maestro Efren “Bata” Reyes.

Fellow former world champions Alex Pagulayan and Ronnie Alcano, reigning world No.1 Dennis Orcollo, Francisco “Django” Bustamante, Roberto Gomez, Lee Van Corteza and Warren Kiamco complete the Team Quezon City-Philippines vying in this three-day competition sponsored by Camella Communities and also supported by the Billiards Managers and Players Association of the Philippines (BMPAP) with Solar Sports, RPN-9, The Philippine STAR and BusinessMirror as media partners.

The two squads will figure in singles, doubles and team events similar to that of the famed Mosconi Cup with the winner receiving $40,000 cash prize.