Another action-packed day of pool at Robinsons Place, Manila, the 2010 PartyPoker.netWorld Cup of Pool reconvened at midday Wednesday and it was England and France who made their way through to the next round in a couple of low-calibre matches.
 
Daryl Peach looks on as Karl Boyes shoots: The pair defeated Qatar 8-7.

England looked on the brink of defeat as they finally laboured to victory, 8-7 over minnows Qatar. Sporting World Champions, Daryl Peach and Karl Boyes never looked comfortable at any stage as they struggled to settle and find a rhythm.
 

There were plenty of errors throughout and the final rack was anyone’s before a decent shot from Boyes set up the match winning clearance.
"No disrespect to them but that would've been my worst defeat ever,” said Boyes afterwards.
"It looked bad but we still played some good shots. They played well but obviously we did get very lucky. Daryl's not been feeling 100 per cent and when you know your partner is struggling, it puts you under pressure as you have to put everything on a 50 pence piece. But Daryl has made a one in 20 jump shot and I fluked a 9-ball so we were a bit lucky,” he added.
Peach said, "No match is easy and you're playing on TV so there is pressure. People think we should not miss but we aren't machines and everyone has an off day. That was an off day. We got lucky but we're still in it and a lot of the other teams will be peeved that we're still in it."

Then more heartbreak and drama in Manila as Japan eliminated unfancied Slovenia who pushed them all the way, while Poland came from behind to cash in on some errors and book a place in the last 16.
 
For the Maltese pair of Tony Drago and Alex Borg, the match represented their best chance of progressing in the competition following two 7-8 defeats at the hands of the USA in previous years.

“It was a very difficult victory. It was a nervous match because there was something on our minds as we were playing without our own cues which were lost on the plane,” said Babica, post-match. “We borrowed cues from the Russians so it wasn’t easy to play with that on our minds and became hard to concentrate, but we had a bit of luck at the end of the match. We hope we will play our next match with our own cues so we will not be as nervous.”

The first match of the afternoon was an exciting affair as the fancied Japanese duo of Naoyuki Oi and Toru Kuribayashi stole past European qualifiers Slovenia 8-7. Slovenia, represented by Euro Tour veteran Matjaz Erculj and Matej Sulek, fought every step of the way but were defeated in a tense final rack. Kuribayashi, who hit the big time last May when he reached the World Pool Masters final as a qualifier, and the flamboyant Oi have plenty of chemistry but will need to improve if they want to beat Taiwan, their likely opponents in the next round.

DENNIS ORCOLLO and Roberto Gomez then laboured to overcome Croatia in front of another huge crowd at Robinsons Place in Manila. The score was 8-4 but the Croatian pair of Phil Stojanovic and Karlo Dalmatin will rue their missed opportunities as a little bit of inexperience let them down. Orcollo was presented with a superb crystal trophy in the arena in advance of the match in recognition of his superb win at the World Pool Masters in Las Vegas back in May.

The heavyweight Taiwanese pairing of Chang Jung-lin and Ko Pin-yi put in an excellent performance as well to brush aside the challenge of Malaysia and advance to a second round meeting with Japan. Despite their standing as one of pool’s major nations over the previous two decades, Taiwan have never featured in the World Cup of Pool. 2010 though looks a different story with former two-time World Junior Champion Ko teaming up with Chang Jung-lin who has won a slew of major titles in Asia over the past few years.

Malaysia was represented by the perennial Ibrahim Bin Amir and Lee Poh Soon but neither carried sufficient fire power to deal with their opponents. The Taiwanese ran away with it with their opponents winning racks at 2-1 and 6-2.

First Round Results:
Russia 8–4 Canada
Indonesia 8-7 India
China 8–2 Belgium
Italy 8-6 Korea
Germany 8–4 Hong Kong
Philippines A 8-3 Thailand
England 8–7 Qatar
France 8-5 Australia
Japan 8–7 Slovenia
Poland 8-6 Malta
Taiwan 8–2 Malaysia
Philippines B 8-4 Croatia