Woe to the Magician's
pool rivals in Vietnam
By Roy Luarca
Inquirer News Service

PITY his opponents in the coming Southeast Asian Games (SEA) -- they're going to bear the brunt of Efren "Bata" Reyes' wrath. Reyes suffered a frustrating 12-13 defeat to fellow former world champion Mika Immonen in their Café Puro 1st Philippine Open title Saturday night, leaving the Filipino idol known as "The Magician" hurting inside and aching for vengeance.

It was rare for the 49-year-old Reyes to be beaten when he was ahead (10-6) and even rarer when he's playing in front of his countrymen.

Fact is, Efren's son, 20-year-old Frennie, could not recall an incident when his father led only to lose in 9-ball.

The defeat also took some glitter out of the Hall of Fame award conferred on the elder Reyes by the Billiards Congress of America before the finals of the 64,000-dollar (about 3.6 million pesos) event.

That Reyes, the 1999 World Pool titlist, came home 10,000 dollars (about 557,000 pesos) richer for his runner-up effort was hardly any consolation.

Frennie knows that his father would not exchange the money for the joy he would have brought to his multitude of fans.

"I hope my father can fight back in the SEA Games and bring the gold medal for the country," said Frennie, a third year Computer Science student of Holy Angel University in Angeles City.

Frennie, who bowed out in the elimination round of the RP Open, said his father is optimistic that they (billiards and snooker players) would be able to contribute substantially to the Philippine medal coffers in Vietnam.

The Nationals will be flying to Ho Chi Minh City Monday night for the pool competition slated December 5-11.

Completing the team chosen by the Billiards and Snooker Congress of the Philippines are world-renowned Francisco "Django" Bustamante, two-time SEAG (Brunei and Kuala Lumpur) gold medalist Lee Vann Corteza, Reynaldo Grandea, KL 15-ball gold medalist Warren Kiamco, KL 9-ball gold medalist Antonio Lining, Asian snooker champion Marlon Manalo, KL snooker gold medalist James Ortega, Felipe Tauro Jr. and Emilio Villariza.

Bustamante and Lining also accounted for the 9-ball doubles gold in the Busan Asian Games.

They will be accompanied by Ricardo Ancaja and Alexander Tantoco.

Aristeo "Putch" Puyat, president of Puyat Sports and acknowledged as billiards godfather, will also be planing in later to join the team.

Puyat wants to see how Reyes and Bustamante would redeem themselves and again bring glory to the country.