More Billiard Drama at World Pool Championship

More Billiard Drama at World Pool ChampionshipControverisal American Earl Strickland again stole the headlines on an action-packed Day Two at the 2006 Philippines World Pool Championships.Strickland, who received a formal verbal winning during his match against Vincent Facquet on Day One, was again in trouble due to his unsportsmanlike behaviour throughout his contest with Chen Ying-chieh.The match ended 8-6 in Strickland's favour but Chen and the Chinese Taipei delegation filed an official complaint against The Pearl, due to his outrageous antics.Discuss the 2006 Philippines World Pool Championship
Strickland threw his cue on to the floor after every time he returned from the table, swore at the crowd and threatened to hit Chen with his cue. The actions from the American led to Chen refusing to shake his hand at the end of the match.The matter was passed over to an official from the World Pool Association, the sport's governing body and they have the power to throw Strickland out of the competition, although a final warning is the most likely outcome.In the action, there have been numerous shocks in the tournament and a number of seeded players could be making an early exit from the event.American Rodney Morris, who is seeded 12th and reached the semi-finals in Kaohsiung in 2006, scraped an 8-7 victory against Chile's Enrique Rojas but now needs to record a huge win against quailifer Lu Hsun-chen to make the last 64.An 8-2 defeat in Morris' opening encounter against Joern Kaplan could still prove to be costly as the number of racks won will be important if players end up on the same amount of points.At least Morris's fate is still in his own hands, but the same cannot be said for 25th seed Alex Lely. The Dutchman suffered an 8-7 defeat against Filipino qualify Israel Rota and has now lost both of his matches.Lely, who has represented Europe in the Mosconi Cup, now must win over Nien Rong-chih and hope Louis Condo wins his third match of the competition and defeats Rota in the other match.Tournament favourite Efren Reyes kept his hopes of making the last 64 alive with a nerve-racking 8-7 victory against Radoslaw Babica of Poland that delighted a large crowd at the Philippine International Convention Center.Reyes would have been facing elimination if he lost and things did not look good for Bata as Babica broke in the final rack with the match at hill-hill. But the Pole made an error and that gave Reyes the chance, which he took, although he still needs to beat Indonesian Roy Apancho.Elsewhere, reigning champion Wu Chia-ching of Chinese Taipei comfortably advanced into the next phase with an 8-4 triumph over Chan Keng-kwang. Wu will be joined in round two by Ralf Souquet and Michael Schmidt (both Germany), Chao Fong-pang (Chinese Taipei), Vilmos Foldes (Hungary), Hsia Hun-kai (Chinese Taipei), Fabio Petroni (Italy) and Charlie Williams (USA).Snooker legend Steve Davis fought back from 6-3 behind to defeat Vietnam's Thanh Nam Nguyen 8-6, Germany's Thomas Engert recorded an emphatic 8-0 success against Philipp Stojanovic but seeded players Nick van den Berg, Jose Parica, Andreas Roschowsky and Kunihiko Takahashi all lost their first matches.

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