Gossip
Red faced Storm in sunbathing misery…
Spare a thought for Swedish veteran Tom Storm, who turned up for his first round match partnering Marcus Chamat looking distinctly red-faced. Sunbathing by his hotel pool a couple of days ago, the jet-lagged Storm had the misfortune of falling asleep and copping a severely burnt face. It took him two days to recover from his painful ordeal but a salutary lesson was learnt.

Live to the nation and beyond….
Host broadcaster Solar Sport are doing a stellar job bring the entire PartyCasino.net World Cup of Pool live to the Philippine nation via their two channels, Solar and CS9. Utilising an eight camera set-up as well around 50 people, the production is outstanding and goes out live every day on the free-to-air channel CS9 from midday to 3.00pm and then on the premium Solar Sports from 3.00pm until play concludes at 9.00pm.
In addition, Matchroom Sport will produce 31 x 1 hour highlight shows for syndication around the world.

Malta Still Waiting….
Maltese duo Tony Drago and Alex Borg were left to rue a missed opportunity as they reflected on their narrow defeat to defending champions USA in a real humdinger of a match.
Having clawed their way back from 7-4 down to reach the hill, nothing went down on the break to leave their opponents a tough out for the win, which they completed.
That was the Maltesers' fourth consecutive first round exit following a 9-0 drubbing by eventual winners Reyes and Bustamante in '06, a hill-hill heartbreaker against the Americans the following year and an 8-4 defeat to runner-up England in 2008.
'One day we'll get an easier draw in the first round,' said Drago. 'But we'll keep trying until we eventually win one!'