By Sean "Il Padrino" Rumbado · Posted 20 Feb 2012 at 20:29 · 236 views · 
Thursday saw the culmination of some great pool being played in the starting rounds of the Giboil Cup & Gibtelecom Plate with the finals, some of the best players in the pool league were set to battle it out, in the Cup final it was the defending League Champions FEC Stars against the runners up Victoria Bar or El Murga Bar as it is popularly known and The Plate had two equally well known teams the Hackney Carriage boys against the Three Owls.
The Cup started off with a surprise when Jonathan Collado lost to Chris Dean (aka Gaucho), putting the Victoria 1-0 in front, then came the young and unwavering Guy Olivero against Adrian Ochello (El P*lla) and with a tight finish Guy made it 1-1, next on table was Justin Collado who met his match and lost to Alfred Ballester 2-1 to Victoria, Ernest Clinton saw off a terrific start from Dennis Lopez (El Flipper) which brought the score to a draw 2-2, then came another great youngster Jeremy Gomez to beat Joesph Lopez (El Trapo) to put the FEC Stars 3-2 ahead for the first time in the match, El Franela (Gareth Lopez) then saw off the experienced Kevin Dalli to bring back to 3-3 and take us into the mid way point in the Cup. On the other table the Plate was going the same way with, Steve Wong beating Sean Balban, Tony Navarro beating Val Jarvis, Neil White beating Adrian Holmes & Anthony Caruana beating Sean Galligan to make the score 3-1 to the Three Owls next on the green baize was Emilio Luise who beat Scott Button bringing it back to 3-2 and finally Ronnie Ignacio (Snr) did his captains duty and made the match 3-3.
After the much needed midway break after such an intense singles performance, it was time to start the doubles, the line up in the Cup was Julian McGrail & Andrew Olivero playing against the son in law / father in law pairing of Ronnie Ignacio (Jnr) & Alan Asquez (aka El Murga) in a surprising twist Ronnie & Alan won to take the Victoria Bar back in front 4-3, next to play was the indomitable force of Jonathan Collado & Kevin Dalli who beat the debutants Derek Asquez & Dennis Lopez (Jnr) to bring it back to 4-4, on the other table in the Plate a similar fate was unfolding with the veteran Billy Lima paired up with Adrian Holmes losing to Steve Wong & Anthony Caruana to take the Three Owls ahead again 4-3, but the lead was short lived when the two Seans (Balban & Galligan) went on to beat the ladies pairing of Val Jarvis & Mia Penfold to make it 4-4, so with the stage set in both finals to make it a nail biting finish the players did not fail to deliver. The Cup kicked off their decider with the pairing of experience Ernest Clinton and the youthful Jeremy Gomez who were facing the veteran Gaucho (Chris Dean) & the young but excellent cueist Gareth Lopez, after excellent safety play from both side and some tremendous potting an unfortunate in off from Gaucho saw Jeremy capitalise on the two shots awarded potted the final black of the Cup making the FEC Stars 5-4 Champions. The Plate was no different and just as exciting Ronnie (Snr) stepped up to the plate with his partner Emilio to play against Neil White & Scott Button there was again a lot of safety and excellent potting from both pairs but eventually a brave shot from Scott Button caused another fatal in off giving the Hackney’s captain Ronnie two shots which he used to the fullest and won the match 5-4 for the Hackney Carriage.
I must make a special mention and thank the referees Harriet Seed & Dave Jarvis who had their work cut out did a tremendous job well done.
GPA Events