Day 1 - Saturday, January 30

Yesterday evening one of the biggest pool tournaments that was ever held in Europe started. Around 40 teams and 200 players from all over the world attended for the first World Team Championship in Hannover/Germany and 16 of them already played their first matches.

Overall 32 K-Steel II tables are arranged in one of the biggest halls of the Hannover fair. 16 of them are in an arena for more than 3000 spectators whilst the other 16 are practice tables in between the billards exhibition that also takes place. Besides that there are also two more fairs – one of them is the biggest Harley Davidson exhibition with loads of the most beautiful and for sure most expensive Harleys – so it is secured that thousands of peoples have the possibility to watch the matches and take a look at the billards exhibition. 

Whilst teams like the Philippines, USA, Germany 1 and also The Netherlands didn’t play yesterday the most exciting match was certainly Team Canada versus Germany 2 with Oliver Ortmann and Teen-Sensation Dominic Jentsch. After more than four hours it was finally Ortmann who secured the win for his team against Jason Klatt who failed to finish the match as he missed two shots right at the end.

Jentsch played probably the best match of the whole day as he dominated Tyler Edey with an impressing 7:1 win in 10-Ball.

Besides all this good news about the tournament itself there are also some really bad news about the announced livestream. The given information is that there won’t be any livestream during the week. Maybe a team from Cueball Vision (www.cueball-vision.de) will show up soon and record some matches. It is not clear yet how they will be broadcasted.

Results and Livescore: www.wpapoolonline.com      official website: www.wtc-2010.com
Official pictures and reports: www.touch-magazine.net
German press releases: http://portal.billardarea.de/cms_blog

On day two of the world team championships in Hannover/Germany most of the seeded teams had their first appearance. The Philippines with twice world champ Ronnie Alcano, Germany 1 with the reigning 8-Ball world champion Ralf Souquet and the Britain  team with Darren Appleton finally entered the arena.

But the first highlight of the day was definitely the match between Czech Republic and Korea. After being down 0:3 the guys from Prague had a great comeback and tied the score. So the Shoot-Out had to decide. Korea was up 5:2 and just need one more point but the Czech guys came back again and won 8:6 in a very exciting match.

Meanwhile Denmark also needed the Shoot-Out to win the match against the young guns from Hungary.

In less than two and a half hours the Philippines had won 4:0 against the second team from Great Britain. Every single match was quite close but in the end it was Alcano & Co. to win 4:0. With the same result the german squad with Thorsten Hohmann and Ralf Souquet reached the next round. Team Serbia had no chance to make a point against the very well supported germans.

Although the final result of 4:1 for the Chinese quartet sounds quite clearly the match against Germany 2 was very thrilling for the spectators. Germany went down 0:3 as Oliver Ortmann kept his team alive by beating Li He-Wen 8:6 in 9-Ball. In the final two 10-Ball games Ortmann was up the whole match until he scratched in the deciding game….At the same time Dominic Jentsch was on the winning road after being down 0:4. Too bad for the local heroes from Hannover.

Tomorrow evening 6.00 p.m. CET the US-Boys will enter the tournament. Johnny Archer and his team mates are in a very good mood and looking forward to their first appearance at the WTC. Straight Pool World Champ Stephanè Cohen and his friends are already waiting for that very promising clash.

Day 3 - Monday, February 1

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Today was only one session at the World Team Championships in Hannover/Germany. But with Team USA one of the big favorites of the tournament had their first appearance against the French team with Straight Pool Champ Stephane Cohen.

In the 8-Ball doubles France could keep the score even but in the singles matches it was Oscar Dominguez, Corey Deuel and Johnny Archer how decided the match very quickly. On Thursday evening 6.00 p.m. CET the US-Boys will face the guys from Morocco to go through to single elimination (last 16).

We also saw two Shoot-Outs today. One was Germany 2 versus the United Arab Emirates and the second was between Team Canada and the very young team from Austria. Team Canada was down 1:3 as Jason Klatt and Erik Hjorleifson secured the Shoot-Out. The Austrian guys seemed to get nervous and it was only the youngest player in the team – Mario He – who was successful in the Shout-Out. Team Canada with Alain Martel and Tyler Edey looked very confident and scored on point after the other – 6:2 was the final result and Canada went through to the next round while Austria with Jasmin Ouschan is already out of the tournament.

The first big surprise of the tournament almost happened in the german match against the Emirates. Oliver Ortmann and his team mates needed the Shoot-Out to go stay in the tournament. Thomas Lüttich and Dominic Jentsch kept one’s nerv and made 5 points out of the needed 6.

Since today the tournament can also be watched on www.cueball-vision.de. You can choose between the match of Germany and Serbia from yesterday and today’s recording from USA versus France should be online soon. Please check out the website from the people from Cueball Vision.

Meanwhile the exhibitions besides the WTC still goes on and there are about five to ten thousand visitors every day. That is in fact a big benefit for the tournament as there are lots of “non-Billards people” watching the games.

Day 4 - Tuesday, February 2

Day Four was the day of the favorites at the ongoing World Team Championships. Germany as well as the USA, the Philippines and China had no problems to go through to the next stage which is now single elimination (last 16).

Germany is still the only team that had not lost a single match. The Greece team with Evangelos Vettas was chanceless and went off the tables with a 0:4. The United States scored the same result by beating the guys from Morocco. The Philippines lost their first point against the Czech Republic but the victory was indeed not at risk.

Sweden and Kuwait make sure the first surprises of the tournament. The “Tre Kronors” from Northern Europe including Marcus Chamat came out with a 4:2 against the “heavy weights” of Great Britain. On the one loss side Kuwait kicked out France.

Very thrilling was the match between the Netherlands and the young-guns from Russia. After the 6 games the match was tied and the Shoot-Out must decide. Both teams scored very fast until it was 7:7. At the end it was Russia who kept their nerve and made it 9:7.

Also Denmark and Switzerland needed the Shoot-Out to decide the match. And this time the crowd went made. At the end both teams received standing ovations as Danmark came back four times after matchball for Switzerland. Finally Bahram Lotfy missed so Switzerland went through to the single elimination stage.

Please remember that the team from Cueball-Vision is still recording some matches. You can watch same on their website which is www.cueball-vision.de.

Day 5 - Wednesday, February 3

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On day five of the world team championships in Hannover/Germany only the one-loss side was in action. A little surprise is for sure that the Netherlands with Niels Feijen and Nick van den Berg have been eliminated by the Japanese team. The asian squad was up 3:0 as Alex Lely and Huidji See made it 3:2. Feijen played a hill-hill match against Masaaki Tanaka as his opponent run-out the table.

Great Britain 1 had a very easy match against Israel. After four matches everything was already over. At the same time the second british quartet was in the Shoot-Out against Greece and lost it 3:6. Also Serbia needed the Shoot-Out to finally beat the Czech Republic.

Comparing to that Germany (4:1 vs. Croatia), Norway (4:1 vs. Morocco) and Finland (4:0 vs. Slovakia) had easy business and secured their place in the last 16 of the tournament.

Danmark killed the Canadian dreams in a very exciting match. 4:2 was the result after the six matches. Jason Klatt was ahead 6:5 in his 10-Ball match as he missed an easy seven. Kasper Thygesen took the chance and run out this and the next game.

Today we also saw the first livestream. Please check out www.cueball-vision.de for all the needed information.

For the first time in pool-history there was a field-reporter in action who interviewed the coaches during the matches. Johan Ruijsink from the dutch team was the first “victim” of this very special and interesting world premiere.

Day 6 - Thursday, February 4  *1/8-finals*

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USA Out ! Germany Out ! Two of the biggest favorites fell on the sixth day of the World Pool Championship.

Whilst Germany was eliminated by the Britain squad with a clear 4:0 the match between the US-Boys and the outsiders from Greece was one of the most exiting that took place yet. Greece was ahead 3:1 as Johnny Archer and Shane van Boening tied the score in two close matches. The Shoot-Out was the longest of the WTC yet. After overall around 50 tries and twenty strikes it was the Greece team that finally made two in a row while Oscar Dominguez failed. The final score was 12:10 and the Greece team showed the world that the USA can be beaten indeed.

The hopes of the host country Germany is now with the second team. In a seven hour fight the Ortmann-army beat the Swedish tre-kroners in a dramatic shoot-out. Thomas Luettich was the man of the game as he scored the deciding eights point to make it 8:6. Around five hundred spectators went mad and it was a bit like Mosconi-Cup-feeling.

Poland and the Russian troop are the teams in the hot seat. Poland eliminated Finland with the Iceman Mika Immonen 4:0 and Russia was in control of the Danish dynamite. These young teams from eastern Europe are tough and very difficult to beat !

Also in the quarter finals are China (4:1 over Serbia) and the surprising team of Switzerland. European straight pool champion Dimitri Jungo and his friends overrun Japan with 4:1.

Today we’ll see the quarter finals and the matches are as follows:

Philippines – Poland
Russia – Germany 2
Great Britain – China
Switzerland – Greece

Watch out for the livestream on www.cueball-vision.de. It’s worth watching.

Day 7 - Friday, February 5  *1/4-finals*

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It’s still a great show here at the world team championship in Hannover/Germany. On day seven the quarterfinals took place. In the focus of the spectators was of course the team from Germany 2 which had a great fight against the young-guns from Russia.

After the first double and the first 9-Ball-singles the score was tied as Oliver Ortmann failed to give his team mate position for the deciding 8 to make it 2:1 for germany. Dominic Jentsch missed and Russia had an easy layout to win the game.

Germany seemed to be a little shocked about that. Neither Ortmann nor Jentsch and also John Blacklaw played on their best level so Konstantin Stepanov and Ruslan Chinahov had more or less no problems to mark the third and fourth point. So Russia went through to the semis.

The Philippines also entered the round of the last 4 teams. The match against the polish team was quite close but Dennis Orcullo decided the match with a 7:3 in 10-Ball over Radoslav Babica.

The Greece team with Evangelos Vettas is still on cloud nine. After the thrilling win over the US-Boys in the last 16 it was now Switzerland who was chanceless. Only one match was close whilst the other three have been easy wins for the Greece guys. 4:0 was the final result.

The highlight of the day was for sure China against Great Britain. In the deciding match it was former world champ Darren Appleton who fought back after being down 2:6 in the final and deciding match against Liu Haitao. In the last rack very strange things happened. Appleton scratched on the six very unlucky but Liu also scratched right away from Ball in Hand !!

So we saw another Shoot-Out in the Hannover’s Pool-Arena. And this Shoot-Out was by far the best and exciting Pool-action that took place these days. Normally it is a race to six bit this time it was a race to 27 !

One team must at least be two points ahead and this finally happened after more than half an hour of shooting. It was 9-Ball world champ Daryl Peach who secured the place in the semis for him and his friends from the UK.

Today we’ll see the semi-finals which are:

Philippines – Russia
Greece – Great Britain

Day 8 - Saturday, February 6  *1/2-finals*

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The final of the first World Team Championships in Hannover/Germany is determined.

In the first semi-final it was Team Philippines who played against the young-guns from Russia. And it was juniors world champ Ruslan Chinakov and his partner Roman Pruchay who secured the first point for Russia by winning the 8-Ball double against Ronnie Alcano/Dennis Orcullo. But just a few minutes later the score was tied as Marlon Manalo and Warren Kiamco beat Konstantin Stepanov/Egor Plishkin.

The 9-Ball singles saw easy wins by the Phillipines as well as the 10-Ball match between Alcano and Chinakov. So with a final result of 4:1 the asian guys made it to the finals.

There the opponent will be Great Britain. The quintet with the two world champs Daryl Peach and Darren Appleton had to deal with the surprising team from Greece. And after the doubles where both of the team made one point it looks again like a close match. Remember that UK had yesterday that unbelievable Shoot-Out against China and the day before it was Greece who kicked out the USA with 13:11 in a very exciting Shoot-Out.

But in 9-Ball the guys from the UK changed into the third gear and celebrated two wins to make it 3:1. So just one more point was needed.

In 10-Ball it was Peach who failed so the score was 3:2 and Darren Appletons match had to decide. The former world champ took early advantage over Evangelos Vettas and was always 2 or 3 games ahead. After an overall time of 4 hours Darren finally potted the last ten to make it  to the final.

Today we’ll see the final at 3.00 p.m. CET.
Watch out for the livestream on www.cueball-vision.de.