Peach: Anything less than the trophy is a failure
DARYL Peach and Mark Gray moved England into the 2008 PartyPoker.net World Cup of Pool semi-finals and then insisted: 'Only a tournament win is good enough'.
England had never had a team advance past the last 16 phase in the prestigious team competition, which features 32 sides from 31 nations from around the world.
But that record has changed this year as Peach and Gray continued a fine week at the Outland nightclub in Rotterdam, Holland.
Wins over Malta and Canada moved them into the quarter-finals before they secured a 9-7 victory against the fourth seeds Germany, a side consisting of pool superstars Ralf Souquet and Thomas Engert.
England will now face the 2007 World Cup winners China and their side of Li He-wen and Fu Jian-bo.
Peach, the reigning World 9-Ball Champion, insisted England could win the event and that anything less would be a bad result.
"We came here with no other intentions but to win it and nothing has changed," said Peach. "But, at the same time, it's one match at a time and we will be determined, positive and looking to win our next match.
"The Chinese are both individually good players and had some good results worldwide. They also play well as a team and seem to understand each other well - a bit like ourselves.
"Against Germany it was a match with few errors from both sides but from our point of view I was a bit disappointed in how we broke. We didn't have much success so we're going to try and rectify that."
Gray, the current European number one, was expected a tough encounter when they play China in the semi-finals on Sunday afternoon.
"They are the defending champions and the form team over the last two years as they won five matches last year and three this year," said Gray.
"They're very good potters but I would say we've got a bit more knowledge if the game gets drawn out and that should favour us. It will come down to the break again and we need to improve and stop missing the silly balls."
"This was a good victory for us and it had been the first time England had even got to the quarter-final," said Gray.
"To beat a pair like Ralf Souquet and Thomas Engert is a great result. We said before that if we could beat Germany then we would fancy our chances of going all the way and nothing has changed.
"For me it would be the first world title and a great thing to have on the CV, while Daryl is the current 9-ball World Champion and it would be a great achivement for him. It would also put him in pole position to get in this year's Mosconi Cup.
"We've proved that we're the best combination and hopefully it will be a combination that takes us to the title and works for years to come."
Date posted: October 11, 2008
