EFREN “Bata” Reyes and his bosom buddy Francisco “Django” Bustamante beat former World Pool champions Mika Immonen and Thorsten Hohmann in a special challenge match between the Philippines and Europe, hosted by Hard Times Billiards in Bellflower, California.

Some 200 diehard fans waited for as long as two hours to get their seats for the classic showdown, featuring four of the biggest names in pool.

The challenge began with Reyes, the 1999 World Pool champion and winner of a marathon, three-day Race to 120 against Earl Strickland in Hong Kong for a winner-take-all prize of $100,000 some years ago, facing Hohmann in a straight pool match Race to 100 in what Inside Pool described as “a very tight and triple shimmed table.”

In an exciting, neck-to-neck battle, the young German prevailed, 100-92.

But Bustamante, playing what was categorized as ferocious pool, won in a bank pool Race to 3 by a 3-1 score to even the count and set up a Race to 7 Scotch doubles match.

Immonen and Hohmann, combining well, raced to a 6-3 lead and all seemed lost for the Filipinos, before Immonen missed an almost straight shot to pocket the 9-ball and clinch the challenge match, enabling Reyes and Bustamante to claw back and tie the match at 6-6.

Inside Pool said Hohmann made two great kick-shots to outmaneuver Reyes and Bustamante, who had previously played some wily safeties.

Then, disaster struck the Europeans.

Hohmann had a difficult long shot on the 2-ball with the cue ball frozen to the rail but even though he hit the shot with near-perfect speed and accuracy, somehow, the 2-ball failed to drop and hung on the lip of the pocket.

Reyes and Bustamante cleaned up the table in alternate fashion to win the match amid the thunderous cheers of the Filipino fans. Ronnie Nathanielsz