VICTOR CHANDLER WORLD POOL CHAMPIONSHIP

Cardiff International Arena / Day 8 - Saturday July 8th
Quarter Final Results - Comment & Quotes

Earl Strickland (USA) bt Rodolfo Luat (Phi) 11 - 9

After a terrific nip and tuck battle, Earl 'the Pearl' Strickland of Greensboro, North Carolina, advanced to the semi-finals of the Victor Chandler World Pool Championship at the expense of Filipino star Rodolfo Luat.

The score-line of 11 - 9 barely tells the story of a match that swung one way then another. Luck and mistakes played a part but Strickland, who at 11-4 was a pre-match favourite for the tournament, turned on the heat in the final racks and aided by a fortunate 9-ball off the break to go 10 - 8 up, kept his nerve to win.

Luat, the only player left from the very strong 5-man party from the Philippines, started out well going 3 -0 up. Strickland nicked racks back and in the tenth levelled it at 5 - 5. Then Earl went 6 - 5 ahead and never fell behind again.

Strickland, 39, has had a topsy-turvy career including winning $1.000.000 after running 11 consecutive racks ( pool's equivalent of snooker's 147 ) in  1996. He was also banned for a period last year after leaving the arena during a major final and never coming back! However, temperament aside the Pearl is considered by his peers to be one of the all-time greats.

The Pearl has a strange relationship with the crowd here in Cardiff, constantly berating them as the match progresses, waving his cue at anyone he thinks is against him. Still, there are many who believe that this is Strickland's year and he will be facing Ismael Paez of Mexico who will start tomorrow's semi-final match as a big underdog.

Strickland was full of praise for his opponent, who had the hopes of a nation riding on his shoulders: " Make no mistake I had the toughest match of the day. If anyone thinks there was a tougher player out there, they must be crazy!

" Luat is a crafty player and he breaks better than me, but the racking was changed from the earlier matches so the wing ball didn't keep going in like it did for Chao this afternoon. You need different breaks like that. We both made mistakes but he made more than me.

" I can't believe that Paez is still in the Championship. He's a player that makes mistakes too and if he does that against me I just might bury him!"

send by luke.riches