Our final day in Fujairah
began with a playoff for third place between Darren Appleton
and David Alcaide. Alcaide dominated the match as Appleton
only came to the table sparingly. Alcaide won 9-2.
Then it was time for the
Championship match between Dennis Orcullo of the Philippines
and Niels Feijen of the Netherlands. Orcullo won the lag and
broke and ran the first rack. It then became the Orcullo
break ad run show as repeated this performance ever and over
until the score stood at 5-0. Orcullo had to play in local
qualifiers to get into the tournament and he was making the
most of the opportunity. When he broke the rack in game 6 he
scratched in the side pocket and Feijen had his first
opportunity.
Feijen polished off that rack
to put his first mark on the board at 5-1 down. He then
suffered a dry break but left a tough run of balls for
Orcullo. Orcullo had to bank the three ball cross corner to
get his run begun and then had a very tough lay of the land
to navigate. He took his time surveying each shot and did a
simply marvelous job of getting through the rack with one
tough position after another. But he left himself long on
the 8 ball and it rattled in the jaws, returning Feijen to
the table.
Feijen had a big problem with
the 14 ball. Everything else had a pocket but the 14 was
blocked from the corner by the 8 ball. He would need to
slide into a narrow window between the two to play the 14
up-table, attempt a bank, or try to move the 14 with another
shot. Or he could play a safe and try to get ball in hand.
He chose the safe, locking Orcullo behind the 13 ball way
up-table. Orcullo called the 8 in the corner and measured
his kick shot. He missed the 8 ball and scratched, again
awarding ball in hand to Feijen. Feijen positioned the cue
between the 8 and the 12 ball which he had moved next to the
14 on his safety, made the shot and finished off the table
to bring our score to 5-2.
Feijen made two balls on the
next snap and had an easy layout. He very quickly made it
5-3. He was running throughout he next rack with ease when
he got what appeared to be a skid on the 4 ball and it
stayed up between the corner jaws. Orcullo was back at the
table. He cleared up and the score became 6-3 in our race to
ten games. Orcullo made a great spread of the balls on the
next break and finished that rack easily to lead 7-3.
The outlook began to truly
dim for Feijen when Orcullo made three balls on the next
break and faced an open table of well-spread balls. It was
soon 8-3 Orcullo. But Orcullo scratched in the side pocket
on the break to bring some light to Feijen's chances. But he
missed a long shot to the corner early on and Orcullo
finished off the balls to claim his spot on the hill.
Orcullo now stood one rack
away from his first World title. He made two balls on the
break but the table was not an easy one to finish off. But
he made it look easy and sank the final 8 ball to a
celebration of fans in the arena. FInal score 10-3.
