Peach and Gray inflict first defeat on Chinese duo
ENGLAND, who had never advanced past the last 16 in previous World Cup of Pool competitions, are now in 2008 final.
They produced a near faultless performance in a 9-5 victory over Chinese duo of Li He-wen and Fu Jian-bo, who lifted the trophy in 2007.
Reigning World 9-Ball Champion Peach said: "When we first came here we said that no matter what happened, if we missed silly balls, won or lost, then we won as a team and lost as team.
"No one would get blamed and it has worked for us – it was a little motto I learnt from the Mosconi Cup.
"China have already proved themselves by going eight matches without losing and they work well together as me and Mark do.
"It's a good achievement to win but I would be lying if I said we didn’t expect to win."
Former snooker professional Gray has been playing pool for four years and now faces the biggest match of his career against either USA or Philippines in the final.
"That was by far our best performance in the tournament and probably the best performance from anyone as no one missed a ball," said Gray. "We both set high standards as Daryl is the World Champion and I’m number one in Europe.
"We had watched a bit of China and they are very attacking players and go for their shots but had not been under any pressure. We knew if we put them under pressure we would win.
"Winning the competition would mean the world to me. I’m in my first world final and I’ve come from a snooker background where I had limited success.
"I’ve always been financed by my parents so I dedicate this to my mum and dad, Vicky and Tony."
England won the lag but an illegal break gave China back the table. England got the better of a safety exchange and then ran out the rack from the 2-ball for an early lead.
That soon doubled as a good break from Mark Gray proved the catalyst for a run out and England had made the perfect start.
But Daryl Peach scratched in the third rack and China, with ball-in-hand, did the rest to get their first rack on the board. It became level soon after as Peach overhit an attempted safety shot and left the 1-ball on and every mistake was being punished in a high-class opening.
That continued in the next two racks as all errors were seeing that side spend some time in their chairs. Gray overcooked a safety and China made it 3-2 but a Chinese mistake in the sixth led to England making it 3-3.
England restored their two rack advantage by claiming the next two for 3-5. Fu was unsuccessful with a jump shot on the 1-ball in the seventh before Fu failed to escape from a tight snooker laid by Gray in the eighth.
The match was swinging from one side to the other and China then claimed the next two for 5-5.
England seemed to have a game plan by putting pressure on to the Chinese by deliberately leaving a series of long but difficult puts on. The strategy was working as both Chinese players were then missing the pots with England now sitting in a good position.
The Europeans made it 6-5 before they out-fought the Chinese in the 12th. A deliberate foul from Gray was immediately followed by a careless mistake from Fu as no ball hit the rail as Fu seemed to crack under the pressure.
In fact, both Chinese players were now struggling and a routine pot on the 1-ball in the next from Li went wrong and China sat down for the rest of the rack as England moved to the hill at 8-5. A 9-4 combination from Peach sealed the victory.
