Queens Cup Women’s Team event a breath of fresh air for pool
After three days of giggles, high fives, great shots, missed opportunities, and the occasional R-rated language sneaking into the broadcast thanks to the mics the players wore, the inaugural Jbet.com Queens Cup is finally history.
The experiment from Dragon Promotions, the first ever team women's event on Philippine TV, can be considered a huge success. The Queens Cup used a mix of singles, doubles, triples, and quadruples matches.
The Asia team, bannered by newly-crowned Womens World 10 Ball champ Rubilen Amit, China's Chen Si Ming, Korea's Ga Young Kim, and Tapiei's Penny Tsai, walloped Team West by a score of 10 matches to 4.
The Westerners were simply outclassed by the East. The two Englishwomen, Kelly and Allison Fisher (no relation), plus Texan Vivian Villareal and Austria's Jasmin Ouschan, were unable to keep up with the blistering standard of their Eastern opponents at the Newport Mall in Resorts World Manila.
Tsai, especially, was superb. In her singles match with Jasmin Ouschan on Day 2 she was locked at hill-hill against Jasmin Ouschan in their singles race-to-four and cold-bloodedly broke and ran out the rack for victory to give Asia a 6-2 lead.
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The rout only confirms that the balance of power in Women's Pool has shifted dramatically to Asia, with scores of Chinese players, like Chen, Fu Xiao Fang, Liu Sha Sha, and Yu Han raising the level of the women's game along with Chinese Taipei studs like Tsai and of course Mandaue Cebu's Rubilen Amit, who won her second world 10 Ball title last Monday.
Amit was vital in Thursday's final session, coming up with big shots as Asia won three of the last four matches to seal victory.
The event, which was played in front of a packed arena at Newport Mall, illustrated the innate grace and classy nature of Women's Pool. For some reason the ladies game just has an appeal that is lacking with the men. Perhaps it's the dazzling beauty of some of the players. Ouschan has a steely nordic appeal, while Kim carries an air of oriental charm that many men find irresistible.
But the ladies also have a camaraderie that is wholly different from that of the men. They are like one giant sorority. During the qualifiers for the recently concluded Women's 10 Ball World Championship word got around that Indonesian shooter Angeline Ticoalu was celebrating her birthday. The ladies organized a cake for her. The same thing happened in last year's event when Kelly Fisher became a year older during the afterparty. That will not likely ever happen in a men's tournament.
During the Queens Cup there was plenty of laughter, smiles, banter, good-natured trash talk, and lots of hugs before and after the matches. This in spite of the fact that the matches were intensely fought.
The effervescent Villareal, with her trademark tornado finger twirl, interjections of “I love combos” and more, added real color to the proceedings.
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Dragon Promotions understands that stoking rivalries is the way to add interest and color to the game of Pool. England's Matchroom Sport, headed by visionary promoter Barry Hearn, got that long ago, and has two inter-continental team challenges, the Webber Cup for Bowling and the Mosconi Cup for Pool. Both pit teams from the USA against a side from Europe.
Matchroom used to also produce the World 9 Ball Championship, but abandoned it after the 2007 edition because it didn't rate on television as well as they liked. In December they will produce their 20th annual Mosconi Cup, which according to them, rates better in the UK than the World Championship ever did.
Matchroom also produce the World Cup of Pool, which pits nations against each other in Scotch Doubles 9 Ball.
Williams was wise to choose Asia and the West as the teams. A Europe versus America matchup in the Womens game would see the Euros as heavily favored. The current setup is indicative of the growing influence of Asia in the Pool world in general.
There was one more innovation in the Queens Cup that turned out well. 10 Ball using WPA rules is a call-shot game, meaning you call one ball and the intended pocket . That takes away “two-way shots” where you can sink two (or sometimes even three) balls with one shot.
In the Queens Cup players were allowed to call up to three balls in up to three pockets. It may have gotten a bit confusing at times, but the spirit of the rule change was good: to bring back the creativity of 9 ball, which is not a call shot game, so two-ways are allowed.
If I were to make one tweak, I'd make the entire Queens Cup 9 Ball instead of 10 Ball, but make it call-shot, allowing two balls to be called in two pockets. That way there would be less luck, but also less safety and more offense.
But no matter what, it seems the Jbet.com Queens Cup is here to stay. It's an exciting, novel concept that is long overdue in Women's Pool. For sure at least one player wants it to happen again in 2014.
Wrote Allison Fisher on Facebook, “we want a rematch.”
Follow Bob on Twitter @PassionateFanPH.
