AT JUST about 10:30 p.m. this past Friday, Johan Ruijsink, the Dutch national pool coach and coach of the European Mosconi Cup team was walking up and down the concourse of the Araneta Coliseum looking for Roberto Gomez. It was about an hour before the start of Gomez’ round of 16 match against Ruijsink’s player Niels Feijen, which was to take place on the main TV table.

Why, you may ask, would the coach of Feijen want to speak with Gomez? Well, Ruijsinnk had a plan. He was sick of the soft break, which everyone, especially Gomez, was using with major success on table one. He felt it was making the game way too predictable, repetitive and terminally boring.

“This kind of pool is no good,” Ruijsink said. “It’s not good for the game. If this was the way the game was played when I first discovered pool, I would have never taken up the sport. I would have played chess instead. It’s boring.”

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