Villar Cup’s Bacolod City leg kicks off Thursday

BACOLOD CITY, Nov. 12 (PNA) -- Thirty-two players, led by the who’s who of Philippine billiards – and perhaps the world, mix it up for the prestigious title and the US$ 15,000 top purse as the First Senate President Manny Villar Cup cues off with its Bacolod leg on Thursday at the Garden Royal Function Hall of Goldenfields Commercial Complex here.

With three former world champions, a former and current world no.1, a horde of multi-titled veterans and rising stars, and a pack of topnotch foreign talents, this fifth leg of the much-anticipated island-hopping series presented by Villards: Tulong sa Pagsulong ng Philippine sport promises to live up to its label – world-class.

No less than pool icon Efren “Bata” Reyes banners the field in this tournament also dubbed as “the Bacolod International VILLARDS Festival”, organized by the Billiards Managers and Players Association of the Philippines in cooperation with the city government of Bacolod led by Mayor Evelio Leonardia and the Negros Billiards Stable (NBS) of businessman Jonathan Sy, and sponsored by Camella Communities.

But it will be Roberto Gomez in the hot seat as the rest of the participants will be out to prevent him from becoming the first back-to-back winner of this event, also supported by Puyat Sports and Bugsy Promotions, and sanctioned by the Games and Amusements Board.

“I hope I could defend the Villar Cup, which is now one of the most prestigious billiards tournaments. And I’ll do my best to achieve that goal,” said Gomez, who defeated Bugsy stablemate Gandy Valle in the finals of the Davao leg last August.

Besides Reyes and Gomez, the other leading contenders to the coveted Villar Cup are former world champions Alex Pagulayan and Ronnie Alcano, former world no.1 Francisco “Django” Bustamante, reigning world no.1 Dennis Orcollo, former national champion Lee Van Corteza, and previous leg winners Valle (Cebu), Warren Kiamco (Alabang) and Ramil Gallego (Bulacan).

Then theirs is also the group of young Turks led by Carlo Biado, Ricky Zerna, Mike Takayama, Russian Petiza and Michael Feliciano.

This leg was also made a lot tougher with the participation of eight foreign players led by former World Cup of Pool titlist Fu Jianbo of China and former Asian Games gold medalist Satoshi Kawabata.

Senate President Manny Villar will on hand to do the ceremonial break and declare the competition open.

Besides the international invitational division, there will also be the Executive Class and Amateur divisions for both men and women, where almost half-a-million pesos cash prize is at stake.