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 FROM 1999-2003 the World Pool Championships found a home at Cardiff International Arena in the Welsh capital.
The first world champion to be crowned in Cardiff was Efren Reyes. A living legend in the Philippines - where he is one of their highest-profile sportsmen - his 17-8 victory over Taiwan's Chang Hao-ping live on TV elevated pool into the major league in the Philippines and saw him become a national celebrity, starring in TV adverts for San Miguel Beer and McDonalds.
Known as "The Magician" for having made some of the most spectacular shots seen in tournament play, Reyes has won many of the most prestigious nine-ball tournaments but only one world championship.
The following year Chao Fong-pang of Taiwan beat 50-year-old Mexican Ismael Paez 17-6 in the final. It was Chao's second world title following his 1993 success at Konigswinter, Germany.
Chao, who lost one match (7-3 to Canadian Alex Pagulayan in the group stage) in the entire event, pounced on numerous Paez mistakes to roll to a 12-0 lead before edging the remaining racks 7-6 to scoop the title.
"I could see very early that Paez was not playing his best game," said Chao. "I concentrated very hard to keep focused. I was happy, because I struggled in the semi-final match. I couldn't relax. In the final, I was very confident."
Finland's Mika Immonen beat Ralf Souquet of Germany 17–10 to take the title in 2001 and
bring it back to Europe for the first time since Souquet's triumph in Borlange, Sweden, in 1996.
Souquet was one of only four players who made the round-robin cut with a perfect 7-0 record. On the other hand, Immonen had squeaked into the last 64 with a 4-3 record in round-robin play. But when the two players met in the final Immonen had all the answers.
"I felt sick when I went up to 15, then 16," said Immonen. "I just can't believe it. This will pick up the interest in pool a lot in Finland and I'm proud of that. I'll go to sleep smiling."
In 2002 Earl "The Pearl" Strickland, the 41 year-old from North Carolina, won the championship beating Francisco Bustamante of the Philippines in the final 17-15.
The match was a real thriller with neither player being more than three racks ahead at any time but it was The Pearl, who came on strong in the home stretch to take the title for the third time.
The CIA was packed to the rafters for the eagerly anticipated clash between the tournament's two in-form cueman but instead of an explosive match-up, it turned out to be a cagey tactical battle.
Bustamante - who had suffered severe personal tragedy earlier in the week, when he learned of the death of his baby daughter - led for most of the match but Strickland gamely stuck with him.
"Throughout the match my safety game was ideal though, very good," said Strickland. "I thought I kicked very well too. I was a little fortunate at times but you've got to know when to kick hard and when to kick easy.
"I didn't watch when Bustamante was at the table, I just covered my eyes and tried to stay composed. When I was watching I was trying to wish him to make a mistake but when you watch it never works.
"But every time I got back to the table for a shot I got out, but I really believe that the key to victory was that he didn't hit me with something large."
The final winner of the championship in Cardiff was Thorsten Hohmann who beat Canadian Pagulayan 17–10.
Hohmann, a relatively unknown 24-year-old from Fulda, Germany, held the lead virtually from the start at the packed CIA. After taking the first two games in impressive fashion, he played a poor safety shot in the third rack to allow Pagulayan to get on the board. Pagulayan then tied the match at 2-2, but Hohmann hit back in the following rack and never relinquished the lead after that despite Pagulayan's charges, including a three-rack run from 6-2 down and another three-rack streak that pulled him to within two games at 12-10.
"The money is very nice," said the overwhelmed Hohman, who’d honed his pool skills in the previous five years in the German Army, where enlistees who specialise in a certain sport are sponsored by the army to improve their games. "But the title is what you dream about, not the money."
Hohmann added, "I’m sure winning the world title will change my life. I don’t know how, but it will change. Now, I can continue to play pool. Before this tournament, I resigned from the army and I wasn’t sure what I would do. I didn’t have much money saved, so I didn’t know if I could make pool my job. I’ve applied to go to school for sales in business. I’ll still do that, but at least now I know I can play in all the big pool events and try to improve my game even more."
This year's world championship will be played in Manila from 4-12 November with Wu Chia-ching of Taiwan hoping to become the first player to defend the title since Strickland captured the first two world crowns in 1990 and 1991. But Chia will face stiff competition from 2004 winner Pagulayan, born in the Philippines but raised in Canada, who is sure to enjoy the home support.
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