World Cup of Pool 2015 Results: Saturday Scores, Updated Schedule and More
Japan and Chinese Taipei cruised to the semi-finals of the 2015 World Cup of Pool during Saturday's afternoon session at York Hall in London, beating Qatar and Austria, respectively, by a wide margin.
Chinese Taipei set the tone with a one-sided 9-5 win over Austria, before Japan blew past Qatar, winning 9-4.
England A and England B then gave the home fans plenty of reasons to celebrate with two one-sided wins during the evening session. Darren Appleton and Karl Boyes were always expected to beat debutants Romania, but Mark Gray and Daryl Peach caused the shock of the round, eliminating Finland to open the door for an all-English final.
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Here's a look at Saturday's results, as well as the upcoming schedule:
| Sept. 26 | Afternoon | Austria 5-9 Chinese Taipei |
| Japan 9-4 Qatar | ||
| Evening | England A 9-3 Romania | |
| Finland 4-9 England B | ||
| Sept. 27 | Afternoon | England A v Chinese Taipei |
| Japan v England B | ||
| Evening | Final |
Recap
Fans came out in force for the evening session, which would see both English teams make a play for the semi-finals. Even BWPPA competitor Matthew Lester decided against watching the rugby and instead turned his attention on York Hall:
Appleton and Boyes had a shaky start to their match against Romania's Babken Melkonyan and Ioan Ladanyi, who have been the revelations of the tournament, but the defending champions turned on the jets at the right time, cruising to a 9-3 win.
Potting has always been the duo's biggest strength and the break looked just fine on Saturday, a good signal heading into the semi-final. No team has ever successfully defended the World Cup, but Appleton and Boyes look like strong candidates to buck that trend.
The former congratulated the Romanian duo on their excellent debut:
But the celebrations at York Hall weren't over yet. Finland entered the quarter-finals as the favourites to win this year's tournament, but Mika Immonen and Petri Makkonen suffered through a dreadful night on Saturday, losing control of the cue ball and all but handing the win to England B.
Gray and Peach did what they had to do, with the former in particular showing his snooker background with a handful of excellent safeties, easily beating Finland 9-4. The English rugby players may have lost to Wales on Saturday, but per Matchroom Sport's Barry Hearn, perhaps the fans were overlooking what happened elsewhere, via the tournament's official Twitter account:
The tournament's format changed from races to seven to races to nine entering the quarter-finals, and expectations were it would favour the bigger nations, who would have to rely less on luck to win their matches. After just two matches, that certainly seems to be the case, with Chinese Taipei and Japan never troubled by Austria and Qatar, respectively.
Ko Pin Yi and Chang Yu Lung of Chinese Taipei were expected to do well in this year's tournament, but their showing against Austria defied belief. Pin Yi in particular showed why he's the current World 9-ball champion, manipulating the cue ball with deadly accuracy throughout their 9-5 win.
Albin Ouschan and Mario He have played some incredible pool this tournament, impressing with a big win over France, but the two struggled to replicate their magic on Saturday, coming up short in just about every facet of the game.
Safety play in particular was sloppy, all but handing Chinese Taipei several racks, and ultimately, the final result was never in doubt.
Things were even worse for the Qatar duo of Waleed Majid and Bashar Hussain, who had to wait eight racks before winning their first. Japan's Naoyuki Oi and Toru Kuribayashi were phenomenal from the break and controlled the table from start to finish, easily winning the second match of the afternoon session.
Japan took a 7-0 lead before allowing Qatar a handful of racks, but the win was never in doubt.
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