Carom
PHILADELPHIA - The 40-year-old Pedro Piedrabuena has won the Champion of Champions trophy for the second year on a row. The tournament was played at the Allen Hopkins Super Billiards Expo in Oaks, Philadelphia. Eleven players were invited to the event that was held for the second year. Mercedes Gonzalez, a lady belonging to the competitors, showed his best and is seen as one of the rivals for the top players during the World championship in Tokyo this year.
The participants all met each other in matches to 35 caroms. The winner finished 1.440 average general, Hugo Patino, the number two, 1.417. Miguel Torres was third with 1.275, fourth Sonny Cho with 1.333.
Pedro Piedrabuena, born in Montevideo, living in San Diego, California, won nine of his ten matches. He was only beaten by Miguel Torres with a one carom deficit in 29 innings. Against one of his competitors, Hugo Patino, Piedrabuena made the highest run of sixteen. Still the game ended in a close finish: 35-33. The best match played Piedrabuena against Mercedes Gonzalez in 18 innings.
Hugo Patino and Miguel Torres both lost two matches. Patino against Piedrabuena and Jae Hyung Cho, Torres against Sonny Cho and Patino.
The third day of the tournament was marred by an incident. Tournament Director Charlie Brown awarded Piedrabuena a regulatory victory against Mazin Shooni, who didn't appear in time for the match. The match had to start at 11.00. After fifteen minutes of waiting, Brown declared the match lost for Shooni. The player arrived just a few minutes later in the hall, but wasn't allowed to play anymore.
Shooni couldn't understand the decision at all. ,,The UMB rules are used to let me lose this match, but this is not a UMB tournament.'' He was furious about the way the match was declared lost. ,,The tournament director knew I was on my way. I had called him. He took the decision after he had spoken with Piedrabuena. Such a decision you should take without speaking with my opponent.''
The final ranking of the champions gala, in which Mercedes Gonzalez finished with one victory and 0.707 overall average:
1 Pedro Piedrabuena, 2 Hugo Patino, 3 Miguel Torres, 4 Sonny Cho, 5 Jae Hyung Cho, 6 Mazin Shooni, 7 Michael Kang, 8 Georgio Ashby, 9 Bill Smith, 10 Frank Torres, 11 Mercedes Gonzalez.