Afternoon all, Reggie here. Two Filipino world champions were one loss from going home in Ho Chi Minh City this morning, and both are now through to the last 64. Carlo Biado and James Aranas were close to flawless on the one-loss side. Also in this one: three Japanese players and two Brits make the cut in Vietnam, the IPA Grand Final festival starts on the Isle of Man, a 20-year-old charity tournament in Connecticut beats its target, and there's a Maltese whitewash.
HO CHI MINH CITY — BIADO AND ARANAS SURVIVE
Biado didn't hang around after his 9–6 loss to home player Trinh Van Binh on Thursday. In the final one-loss round at the Universal Open he beat Vietnam's Tong Ba Minh 9–3 to book a place in the last 64, per the DigitalPool bracket. Tong Ba Minh had won 8–5 against Artem Loboda earlier in the day.
Aranas had the tougher route. He had to win twice on Friday. He beat Thailand's Amarit Theprattanawichai 8–1 on the streamed table first thing, then lost only one rack in a 9–1 win over Pham Phuong Nam. That's 17 racks to 2 across the day for the man knocked down by Nguyen Manh Duc in round one.
Through to the last 64 this session (per the bracket)
- Carlo Biado 9–3 Tong Ba Minh
- James Aranas 9–1 Pham Phuong Nam
- Julian Serradilla 9–1 Nguyen Anh Tuan Minh
- Kouki Sugiyama 9–8 Nguyen Viet Tam, hill-hill
- Kenichi Uchigaki 9–8 Luong Chi Dung, hill-hill
- Fraser Patrick 9–5 Christopher Alexander, an all-British tie
- Marcel Price 9–2 Nguyen Hoang Minh Tai
- Michael Feliciano 9–6 Wan Kwok Ho
- Jefrey Roda 9–8 Harry Vergara, an all-Filipino decider that sends Vergara home
- Alexis Ferrer 9–4 Chiang Po Hsun
- Aivhan Maluto 9–5 Ponco Klinton Manurung
That means all three Japan-based players are through, as the Japanese site On the Hill noted this morning. Bernie Regalario and Tristan Deocareza are out without playing a rack today. The bracket shows both of their one-loss ties as forfeits.
Dennis Orcollo is still going. He beat Do Thanh My 8–2 this morning and was 4–1 up on Chinese Taipei's Nien Rong Chih (race to 9) when we went to press. Also still on the table: Oliver Szolnoki was 3–1 down to Liu Chien Hung, Britain's James Oyangoren was 5–0 down to Mickey Krause, and Le Van Quyen and Nicholas Tan were hill-hill at 8–8. Those rack scores are live bracket scores and could change by the time you read this.
From the last 64 it's straight knockout, races to 10, and the final is on Sunday. Day four starts in the early hours of Saturday UK time, live on WNT TV.
ISLE OF MAN — IPA GRAND FINALS UNDER WAY
The IPA's end-of-season festival has started at the Comis Hotel in Santon. Manx Radio says there are six championship events this weekend: the Open, Ladies Open, Professional, Elite Ladies, Amateur and Amateur Ladies, with £55,950 in combined prize money. The 161-player Open broke off this morning. The Ladies Open is due to start at noon and the Professional at 2pm UK time, per CueScore.
Home interest centres on David Addinall, the island's only professional pool player. Entry for spectators is free all weekend, per Manx Radio. The CueScore brackets had no completed scores yet when this post was written.
CONNECTICUT — TOYS FOR TYKES BEATS ITS TARGET
This is a good story about grassroots pool. The 20th annual Toys for Tykes tournament at Buckland Billiards in Vernon, CT drew 96 players last Sunday. It raised $12,180 for the Vernon Volunteer Fire Department, plus a fire truck loaded with toys, according to AzBilliards. Last year it raised $7,400, and organiser Sharon Roldan had set $10,000 as the target for the 20th edition.
Roldan received help from the fire department's toy scheme in 2002 while she was recovering from back surgery, and she has run the tournament ever since. Daryl Turbacuski went unbeaten to take the title and $340. Brian Benson was runner-up and Amber Raymond third. Half of the entry fees and every penny from the raffle went to the charity.
MALTA — CINI WHITEWASHES CALLEJA
In Maltese domestic snooker, Brian Cini beat Matthew Calleja 4–0 in the CE Installations Premier League with breaks of 55 and 54, per Malta Sport. The Open Ranking No. 2 last 32 is under way too:
- Philip Ciantar 4–1 Joseph Cassar
- John Farrugia 4–2 Stephen Mangion
- Max Mangion 4–3 Ian Camilleri
- Frans Mintoff 4–1 Clayton Goodrum
INDORE — QUALIFYING IN THE SMASH HALL
Men's Stage 1 qualifying at the IBSF World Snooker Championships started today in the Smash Hall at the Yeshwant Club, with four sessions on the first day, per Dainik Bhaskar. The paper says 32 countries are represented and that Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Mohan Yadav will formally open the championships on Monday 16 November. Matches are best of seven. Each of the two qualifying events finishes at the last eight and sends eight players into the 48-man main draw, which starts on Tuesday. No confirmed results had been published by midday UK time.
LEICESTER — WAKELIN v ROBERTSON TONIGHT
The first Champion of Champions semi-final is tonight at 7pm: Chris Wakelin v Neil Robertson, best of 11. Kyren Wilson is waiting on Saturday against Shaun Murphy. WST points out that if Wilson wins the title, he'll be the first player to win three tournaments in a row since Judd Trump in 2023.
AND FINALLY…
The Daily Mail has picked up a viral clip from a tournament in Bangkok. It shows a seven-year-old, reportedly China's Wu Yiren, wearing foam-platform shoes about eight inches high that his family made so he can reach a full-size snooker table. We haven't verified the boy's identity independently.
Where to watch / follow
- Universal Open Ho Chi Minh: live on WNT TV, with brackets and scores on DigitalPool
- IPA Grand Finals, Isle of Man: draws and scores on CueScore
- Champion of Champions: ITV and ITVX in the UK, 7pm tonight and Saturday
- IBSF World Snooker Championships, Indore: results via the IBSF
- APA U.S. Amateur Championship, Las Vegas: under way at the Westgate through Sunday, with updates from the APA
Coming up: the Bar Billiards World Championship pairs open in Jersey tonight, the last 64 starts in Ho Chi Minh City overnight, and the Universal Bangkok Open runs 17–21 November.
Back this evening. Reggie.
Sources: DigitalPool, On the Hill, WNT TV, Manx Radio, CueScore, AzBilliards, Malta Sport, Dainik Bhaskar, IBSF, WST, Daily Mail.
Feature image: “Dennis Orcollo 2012” by Doha Stadium Plus Qatar (picture by Vinod Divakaran), via Wikimedia Commons, licensed CC BY 2.0.