MANILA, PHILIPPINES - Gandy Valle and Jay Jay Millares were both good and lucky late Friday as the two billiard warriors claimed the inaugural San Miguel Corporation (SMC) Scotch Doubles 10-ball crown over the pairs of Carlo Biado and Mark Mendoza with a 13-10 victory in the final at Metrowalk, Pasig City.
With Bugsy Promotion ace Valle putting on a superb performance, he and Millares took a commanding lead to claim the P140,000 top prize.
Biado and Mendoza settled for a runner-up finish to bring home P80,000 purse.
"This is a very important tournament and, we are happy and very proud to win the first SMC Scotch Doubles 10-ball," said a delighted Davao City pride Valle, a member of the star-studded Bugsy Promotion who teaming up with Millares, a habitué of the Escoda Billiard Hall in Manila.
"In the beginning of the match there was a lot of pressure on us, but when we went three games ahead it all lifted." added Valle, the 1998 Bangkok Asian Games gold medallist and SMB 9-Ball Tour Singapore leg winner in this three-day event (September 19, 20 and 21) sanctioned by the Billiard and Snooker Congress of the Philippines (BSCP) headed by it's president Ernesto Fajardo.
The pairs of Valle and Millares beat Jech Jech Limen and Roberto Dy with a thrashing 11-1 victory Friday night, to earn their place in the finals.
After the game was tied at 1 all in the 2nd frame, Valle and Millares never looked back after clustering 10 consecutive racks.
In another night cap, Biado and Mendoza scored a come from behind 11-10 win over former Southeast Asian Games medalist Victor Arpilleda and Fidel Punzalan.
The match was tied at 3 all before Arpilleda and Punzalan surged to a 7-4, 9-6 and 10-9 lead going to the final rack.
However, Biado and Mendoza's fighting spirit never gave up and they rallied in the end to take the last two racks for an 11-10 decision and their place in the finals.
Valle and Millare's road to the race-to-11, winner's break semi-finals came from wins over Ricky Zerna and Jun Talosig, 9-6, Ramil Gallego and Julie Falcon Guevarra, 9-4, and 2007 US Bar Table 9-Ball Champion and 8-Ball Champion Warren Kiamco and Rodrigo Geronimo, 9-5, while the tandem of Biado and Mendoza crushed Rene Cruz and Joroan Legaspi, 9-8, Russian Petiza and Conrado Pumikpik, 9-4, and Jomar de Ocampo and Jess Dacoro, 9-4.
Last Wednesday, the teaming up of current WPA 9-Ball Champion and WPA 8-Ball Champion Ronato Alcano and Alex Lumpay, 2007 SMB RP 9-Ball Champion Antonio Gabica and Rogelio Sotero Jr., and Japan 9-Ball Champion Antonio Lining and Art Palma were ousted in the single knock-out format.
On Thursday, 2004 Taiwan World 9-Ball Champion Alex Pagulayan and Jason Aperin and 2007 Oslo, Norway 9-Ball Champion Roberto Gomez and John Rebong followed the early exit of other favored pairs.
