REALM OF MAGIC 9-ball OPEN

PLEASE NOTE DISCIPLINE IS 9-BALL

Due to high demand, We have extended the field to a maximum of 32 players.

The Legend, Efren "Bata" Reyes celebrates his birthday with a bang! On Aug 26-28, all female players are invited to take part in a small open tournament in Efren's hometown of Angeles, Pamapanga.

Open to all Female players only.

Dates:Aug 26-28
Venue: Realm of Magic, Mabalacat, Pampanga

Prizemoney Breakdown
Position              Amount                  Subtotal
Champion           $3,000 x1                 $3,000
Runner-up           $1,500 x1                 $1,500
3rd-4th                $750 x2                    $1,500
5th-8th                $500 x4                     $2,000
9th-16th              $250 x8                     $2,000

Total $10,000

Entry fee $50.

Format:

32 players double elimination until the top 16. (race to 5 racks)
Top 16 will play single knockout (race to 7 racks)
Finals Race to 9 racks

Shuttle will be provided from Crowne Plaza Manila on Aug 25 at 12noon.

Please leave a comment here if interested. Thanks!

Official Hotel: Clarkton Hotel, Angeles, Pampanga.


http://www.clarkton.com/clarkton-hotel-angeles-city-balibago

Please check the room types and email me the room requirements. We will make the booking for you.

ishpuyatsports@yahoo.com

BSCP Elections-THE FACTS

I'd like to shed light on the newspaper releases stating Arturo Ilagan's arguments that the recent BSCP elections were not valid. 

On March 5, 2012, the Board of directors confirmed that Perry Mariano, Jaime Chongco and Christine Caparras are members of the BSCP and were in fact present during the oath-taking in front of POC Chairman Cojuanco.

Further to the confirmation of the three members, nine other members were nominated and accepted by the board based on their qualifications and involvement in the billiard industry. The nominated members are:

1.       Jesse Gonzales Cambosa

2.        Bernardo Pinol Jr.

3.       Francisco Bustamante

4.       Dennis Orcollo

5.       Rubilen Amit

6.       Iris Ranola

7.       Reynaldo Grandea

8.       Francisco dela Cruz

9.       Felimon de Leon.

Each one of the nominated members was notified and among all of them, only Francisco dela Cruz refused his nomination into the BSCP.  This brings the membership of the BSCP to 17.  Including the following:

1.       Aristeo Puyat

2.       Mahar Mangahas

3.       Efren Reyes

4.       Arturo Ilagan

5.       Robert Mananquil

6.       Ruben Roque

A petition was submitted to the Chairman from the general membership to call for a special meeting and hold elections in order to address the many issues currently plaguing the association. The letter was dated June 15, 2012 and was signed by 11 out of 17 members of the association. This is over 1/3 of the membership and based on section 2 of BSCP by-laws, this makes it a valid reason to call for a special meeting and elections.

Section 2: Special meetings- Special meetings of the members shall be called as the need thereof arises, by the Board of Trustees or the President or upon petition of 1/3 of the general membership.

Again, 11/17 members signed the petition which therefore makes the special meeting valid.  

After receiving the petition, all the members of the BSCP were given notices of the time and place of the special meeting more than 15 days prior to the date set. There are acknowledgement receipts from all the members including the LBC receipts for the notices sent to the three members who did not sign the petition namely:

1.       Arturo Ilagan Jr.

2.       Robert Mananquil

3.       Ruben Roque

The POC was also given notice of the said meeting and we hold a receiving copy.

In the special meeting held on July 9, 2012, a majority of the members were present. This makes the meeting valid and all decisions made during the meeting shall be deemed valid and official based on Section 4 of the BSCP by-laws which states that:

Section 4: Quorum- A quorum for any meeting of the members shall consist of a majority of the members and a majority of such quorum may decide any question at the meeting, except those matters where the corporation code requires the affirmative vote of a greater proportion.

In the said meeting, 13 out of 17 members were present making any decision made by a majority of those present during the meeting valid.

During said meeting, the members called for the removal of all officials currently serving and for new elections to take place.

 The following members were elected into the board of directors:

1. Mahar Mangahas
2. Perry Mariano
3. Aristeo Puyat
4. Christine Caparras
5. Jimmy Chongco
6. Bernard Piñol Jr.

The newly elected board members then proceeded to elect a set of officers in order to avoid further delays in dealing with urgent matters. The new set of officers were elected as follows:

Chairman: Bernard Piñol Jr.

President: Aristeo G. Puyat

Treasurer: Mahar MAngahas

Secretary General (National): Perry Mariano

Secretarty General (International):  Christine Caparras

Therefore, all arguments raised by Arturo Ilagan stating that the elections were illegal are false. The elections followed every rule in the BSCP by-laws and are therefore valid. 

Fernando Alonso Extends his Championship Lead

It was once again a fairly exciting weekend of sports action. I started out the week in Hanoi, Vietnam where I went with Django Bustamante and Lee Vann Corteza to compete in the first Hanoi 9-ball Open.

Turns out, the two Filipinos had to meet each other as early as the quarter finals. Django took out Lee Vann and in the semis, unfortunately, Django lost to Stuart Pettman, a snooker player from England. It was, needless to say a terrible finish for our guys. Liu Hai Tao of China eventually took the crown and we flew home in the worst of spirits. Well, we got what we asked for. We said we would be happy with thirst (3st) Tssss... Karma's a bitch  :) That's what we get for making fun of them.

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The saving grace for the night was learning that Fernando Alonso clinched pole position in Germany. The qualifying session got drenched in rain and no one was able to improve on their times after the second session. Fernando managed to get on top but after the past few races, this didn't really mean anything. He has led in a couple of other races in the past only to give up the lead with less than 10 laps to go due to tire wear.

During the race he was unable to pull away and it looked like Vettel would be able to easily catch him and pass him in the DRS zones. However, in a radio conversation with the team, Fernando repeatedly assured everyone that he had things under control and that he was only taking care of the tires. True enough, he kept Vettel and Button a safe second away, just outside the point where they can use the DRS wing to pass him.

Kimi Raikkonen started from 10th and did an early stop. His Lotus seems to really be performing well and he was able to match the pace of the leaders throughout the   race. It was just unfortunate that having started too far back, he got held up quite a lot and by the time he was able to pass a load of cars in front and move up to 4th, the gap to the top 3 guys was already insurmountable.

In the closing stages of the lap, Button's tires started to give out and Vettel was able to catch him. In a rash move with all four wheels on the run off area, Seb passed him from the outside to take second place. Jenson immediately consulted his team to ask if the move was illegal and done off-track. His team agreed and Jenson didn't attempt to regain the spot and just decided to wait for the stewards decision.

Seb was quick to defend himself when Jenson pointed out that he made an illegal pass and the issue was even brought up by Niki Lauda on the podium when he interviewed the winners. In the end, Fernando sat on top with an ever growing lead. Seb got penalized for his illegal pass AND got demoted to fifth. This means.... yes, KIMI got third!!!! He's now just behind Fernando and the two Redbulls in the standings. He could still be the dark horse this year!

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F1 could not have gone any better especially since Lewis didn't get any points this race. Things were starting to look up until Adam Scott went and blew his 4 shot lead at the Open. With only 4 holes to go, it was all laid out in front of him. Tiger Woods was hot on his heels most of the day but fell short and couldn't pull off one of his miraculous last round charges. Scott totally collapsed and rained Bogeys in the end and handed the silver to Ernie Els. Reminds me of how Vijay took it from Sergio some years back. Who says golf isn't exciting?

Roger Federer Wins 7th Wimbledon Title

The order of the universe has been restored. For a moment there, balance has been shattered when Rafael Nadal got eliminated in the second round. In the end, everything just fell into place for Roger Federer who now reclaims the world number 1 spot from Novak Djokovic.

British fans were sorely disappointed however. Their best bet to win the tournament, Andy Murray probably could not get closer than this and he might not get another chance. He was lucky that the brick wall called Nadal was broken down early and Djokovic was on the other side of the draw.

He only had Federer left to make it to his first Wimbledon title. Federer had not been in his best form in years, relinquishing the number one spot first to Nadal and then to Djokovic. This might truly have been Murray's best chance.

He took the first set after Federer was unable to convert a series of breakpoints. It looked like he was set to topple the FedEx tower until the game dragged on and on due to extended rallies and successive deuces when both players refused to relent a single point.

Roger eventually took the second set after a long struggle which left Murray positively winded. The third seemed a lot easier to win for Roger that the previous one with Murray practically running and tumbling all over the court.

By the time the fourth set came around, the determination in Roger's face was flaming hot while Murray looked like he was in panic mode.

Several celebrities were in attendance to watch the match and even the Duchess of Cambridge, Kate Middleton was present, no doubt hoping to be one of the first to congratulate the long-awaited British Wimbledon winner. It turns out, they would have to wait a tad bit longer as Roger ran over Murray in the end.

Roger admits in his post-match interview that the birth of his twins in 209 reduced his playing time and affected his game. He says he is now playing  more again and the results were obvious. He is now 30 years old but we can expect a few more Grand Slam titles from the man who is already a legend. 

Don Allado's Expensive Tweets: PBA Games are Fixed

While some celebrities like Kim Kardashian and Mo Twister get paid to tweet about various mundane things like new products, restaurants and services, Don Allado, a veteran PBA player, paid a huge sum of money because of his tweets.
He was asked to pay a P500,000 fine for his tweets which were deemed detrimental to the sport. He was also given a one conference ban.

He was frustrated after coming off a loss in a game where he thinks bad calls made by the referees caused his team the game.

Here are the tweets concerned:

"I can accept losing to teams. But I can't accept losing bcoz of referees"

"I'm the guy that says what others can't. #PBA games are fixed. They control who is in & who is out. It's a disgrace to be in this league."

"I am bitter about losing. Not to Powerade, but to #PBA . In my opinion, this league has little credibility left"

"Very disappointed in the PBA. You didn't have to suspend the refs. They did what u told them to,"

After he tweeted, a large number of people actually responded and lauded him for his courage. Now, the question is, how true were his statements?

Game fixing has been hovering around sports for a very long time. Who could forget Michael Jordan and his alleged Mafia problems which supposedly caused the death of his father.

Andres Escobar, the captain of the Colombian National team in the 90's was gunned down after a match where his own goal caused their team to lose an important World Cup match.

More recently and closer to home, the appearance of an otherwise unknown pool player in the finals of a big international tournament has caused tongues to wag after he supposedly downed much more accomplished opponents in dubious fashion.

The PBA and even the UAAP have always had these speculations surrounding the games. Did Allado speak the truth or as he just being a bitter loser?

The fact of the matter is, he has retracted his statements and he has apologized to the PBA. However, he has opened a can of worms. The spotlight is on the PBA but not for the right reasons.will the bad publicity bury the league even deeper into the ground? We all know that the PBA has been suffering a steadily decreasing fanbase over the years. will this finally kill them off? On the other hand, will this ignite the fire and make more people interested?

I do not doubt that game fixing exists. There is too much money thrown around in sports betting. I'm not saying this is true in particular for the PBA. Maybe they are doing it, maybe not. The fact is, the problem exists. Not just here but worldwide. The Italian League had a large controversy some years back when some of the top flight teams were found guilty of game fixing. It happens perhaps more rampantly than most of us realize.

As an avid sports fan, this is very disappointing almost nearly as bad as finding out that the WWF (now WWE) is scripted, or that Santa Claus is not real.

What will the PBA do about it? sure they have punished the player, the little guy who spoke out. But how much will they really do towards finding out the truth behind the allegations?

Spain Defends Euro Title, Italy Completely Crushed

Spain 4-0 Italy

Italian Confidence

Coming into the finals, the Italians were on a high. They defeated Germany, a team much fancied to take the title, in convincing fashion in the semis. 

In their opening match of the European Championships, the two finalists faced each other in a match that ended in a draw. The Azzurri had high hopes for themselves and the Spanish team knew that they were in for a fight.

Spanish Setbacks

Before the event started, the Spaniards were dealt blow after blow. It became known that David Villa and Carles Puyol, two of the stars who helped them win their World Cup title, will be unable to play due to injuries. The draw in their opening fixture must not have helped their morale either.

Nearly a month later, these two teams found themselves facing each other in Kiev. While there is no real hostility that can be felt in this clash, the atmosphere was overwhelmingly electric.

Boring Football?

The Spanish team have had a reputation for playing boring football, passing and passing back and forth until they eventually make an attempt or lose the ball. Oftentimes, this has translated into moments of brilliance as evidenced by their numerous titles. However, many fans complain that this is boring football. I say, if it works, then it must be brilliant football. 

The Azzurri meanwhile have a reputation for playing defensive football. The Italian league is a place where defenders are more frequently hailed men of the match as opposed to the strikers. Games often end in goal-less draws or 1-0 scorelines. Looking at it this way, it might seem that we will be in for a boring match.

Early Goal

This was most definitely not the case. The Azzurri have evolved over the years and have left their passive nature on the bench. The aggression in their game was unmatched even by Germany who have a very aggressive style. The Spanish team upped the ante as well. While still making their impeccable passes all over the pitch, the tempo was much faster. They also knew that they needed to score and score fast. It would be a disaster to let it come to penalties. A game this important must be won through brilliant  goals not by lucky penalties.

Silva opens up the scoring

To score goals was the objective and the Spanish did just that. They opened up the scoring in the 14th minute with a perfectly placed cross by Cesc Fabregas straight into David Silva's head and right into the back of the net. It showed just how well these players know each other and how they are able to play as one big breathing monster.

Despondent Italian

Injury trouble

Chellini goes out

Italy was soon plagued by an injury and Chellini had to be taken out before the end of the first half. Later in the game, Italy would make their other two substitutions in an effort to catch up. Unfortunately, within 3 mins of coming in, Thiago Motta was sidelined by a hamstring injury. Italy are reduced to ten men for the remainder of the game and this happened still with 30 mins left in regulation time. The Italians needed a miracle especially since Jordi ALba buried them deeper before the half to make it 2-0.

Thiago Motta leaves Italy with 10 men

Spanish Parade

After Thiago went off, it was the Spanish Parade. Italy could hardly touch the ball. Cesc Fabregas went off and Fernando Torres came in. Torres is the man who scored the winning goal in their last European Chmpionship but has since been plagued by controversy due to his move to Chelsea and his alleged inability to score as much as he was worth. However, this was going to be a tournament of redemption for the Spanish. It started with Sergio Ramos' beautiful penalty in the semis to bury the nightmare of the UCL semi-final against Bayern Munich. 

Torres Scores

Torres also went off to seek his redemption and he did just that by scoring in the 84th minute to drive the nail deep in the Italians' hearts.

Devastated Balotellli

The Azzurri were just waiting out the suffering but Spain would not let up. They took another goal in the 88th minute courtesy of Juan Mata to complete the Italian thrashing. Spain is the first team to successfully defend their European Championship title. They are also the current holders of the World Cup. No doubt they are looking at defending that title in Brazil by 2014.