THE RILEY UK CHAMPIONSHIP

Hospitality Inn, Harrogate (23rd-26th November 1998)

The Players and Seedings

Australia
Robby Foldvari (5)
England
David Causier (6)
Roxton Chapman (4)
Bob Close (9)
Norman Dagley
Brian Dix
Peter Gilchrist (3)
Mike Russell (2)
Andrew Sage
Peter Sheehan
Chris Shutt (15)
Mark Wildman (16)
Rex Williams
Ian Williamson (10)
Steve Crosland (Am)
Mark Hirst (Am)
Eire
Eugene Hughes
India
Arun Agrawal
Subhash Agrawal (11)
Michael Ferreira (13)
Adiyta Goenka
Devendra Joshi (7)
Manoj Kothari
Alok Kumar (14)
Nalin Patel (12)
Mukesh Rehani
Geet Sethi (1)
Ashok Shandilya (8)
Russia
Ashok Potikyan

Mike Russell takes the UK Professional Championship, defeating Geet Sethi in the final and making a World Record break of 957.

The professional circuit, complete with their two Riley match-tables, moved down the road from Middlesbrough to Harrogate, for the United Kingdom Championships. The early rounds were again 2 hours duration, with the quarters and semi´s increased to 3 hours, and 4 hours being allocated to the final.

Geet Sethi took over as No.1 seed, being the defending champion. The only other changes from the Teesside event being the introduction of two new amateur players in Steve Crosland and Mark Hirst (Bradford).

Steve Crosland became the first of the amateurs to make progress in the professional series, (and assure himself of a cheque for £300) by defeating Brian Dix. Steve took an early lead and was never threatened by Dix who could manage a top break of only 21 in the two hours play. Mark Hirst found a tougher opponent in Arun Agrawal. Breaks of 64, 78 and 88 put the Indian into a lead of 250 points which he maintained to the finish. Hirst however, had the consolation of setting another "first" for the amateurs when he recorded a century break—his effort of 114 including the added difficulty of a baulk-line crossing.

With Rehani continuing his absence due to injury, Peter Sheehan was awarded a walk-over. Goenka and Kothari also progressing without undue drama from the first round matches.

Fresh from his fine performance at Middlesbrough, Chris Shutt entered the fray against Eugene Hughes, setting the pattern of the match with a break of 189 at his third visit. The Irishman never recovered from this, and with additional breaks of 50, 69, 87, 84, and 98, Shutt completed a comfortable victory.

Steve Crosland was given a much stiffer task in his second round match when he was paired against No.11 seed Subash Agrawal. Although few would have given him a chance against such a highly ranked professional, this news had obviously not filtered down to Steve, who started with breaks of 96 and 56 to build a lead of 240. Breaks of 77 and 89 by Agrawal—countered by a 58 from Crosland—brought the scores back to within 40 points. From this point, some tenacious play from Crosland was almost enough to see him home, but a 95 break from Agrawal right at the end, proved enough to secure victory by 73 points.

Leeds professional Ian Williamson inflicted a heavy defeat on ex- champion Rex Williams who only managed to get into double-figures on three occasions during the two hour match. Breaks of 169 and 107 by Williamson where the highlights of an otherwise pedestrian encounter.

Manoj Kothari was in command for most of his game against fellow- countryman Alok Kumar. A break of 132 by Kumar late in the proceedings took him into an 11 point lead, but any thoughts of building upon this were crushed by an immediate reply of 148 from Kothari— establishing an advantage he would hold until the end.

Mark Wildman made a top break of 189 in his match against Arun Agrawal, equalling the best of the second round. Further runs of 91 and 86 by Wildman and 92 by Agrawal, were the only other highlights, a break of 55 at the bell still leaving Agrawal 91 points in arrears.

The third round saw the entry of the top seeds, and Bob Close must have feared the worse when World Champion Geet Sethi opened his account with a break of 183. Although Sethi did not improve upon this during the match, regular contributions around the century mark were sufficient to book his place in the quarter-finals.

The match between Robby Foldvari and Chris Shutt looked as though it might go the same way as their semi-final encounter in Middlesbrough, as Chris compiled a break of 164 at his second visit to the table. However, the Australian champion gave few chances thereafter, and with two breaks of 102, and another of 76, brought the scores level with minutes remaining. In a tense tactical exchange, Foldvari edged ahead to win by just 14 points at the final bell.

Nalin Patel secured a good victory over No.7 seed Devendra Joshi, who failed to produce any significant form. His best break of 110 was made late in the match with the result already beyond his reach. After a disappointing performance at Middlesbrough, No.4 seed Roxton Chapman, also departed the Harrogate tournament at the first hurdle— this time at the hands of Subash Agrawal. After a long period of inactivity, during which time Agrawal had established a lead of 250 points, Chapman showed that he really could play the game by producing breaks of 123 and 80 in quick succession. However, from this point his form once more deteriorated as his final nine visits produced just 72 points, giving Agrawal victory by a 47 point margin.

The match between Gilchrist and Sheehan was very much one of "two halves". When Gilchrist opened a lead of 285 with breaks of 90 and 198 the result appeared to be a formality, but Sheehan came back with contributions of 98, 111 and 112 to give him an advantage of 24 points. In an exciting finish, Gilchrist had the better of the concluding tactical exchanges to win by just 18 points.

For much of his match against David Causier, Ian Williamson appeared to have found the formula for success, as the Middlesbrough player could seemingly do nothing against the sustained safety tactics of his opponent. A early break of 181 by Williamson established a lead of 240 points, building slowly upon this, so that even a break of 102 by Causier could only reduced the deficit to 200. Then, from nowhere, Causier completely turned the match around with a personal record break of 367. With safety play continuing to dominate, he added another unfinished contribution of 119 to win by 255 points.

Manoj Kothari, from his first two visits which produced breaks of 79 and 73, was always in control in his match against Ashok Shandilya. A break of 104 from Shandilya was immediately countered by one of 88 from the unseeded Kothari, and from this point he was never again threatened, a late contribution of 98 by the No.8 seed coming too late to affect the result.

Mike Russell´s first match of the tournament would not have inspired anyone to predict the performances he would produce in later games. Wildman´s first scoring visit resulted in a break of 92 which was also his best of the match. Russell equalled this at his next turn at the table, and then proceeded in first gear to do just as much as was required to ensure victory, a late break of 103 being his only century. Mike later observed that the table was “too fast to play billiards on” and requested the organisers to slow it down “somehow”.

Moving into the three-hour matches, Geet Sethi made his first opportunity count as he put together a break of 181 in his game against IBSF Champion Robby Foldvari. He followed this with consecutive runs of 96, 81, 64, 47 and 100 to establish a healthy lead of 360 points at the interval. The second session started in much the same way, with Sethi putting together consecutive breaks of 102, 152 and 84 to leave Foldvari 630 points in arrears and in an impossible position. To his credit, the Australian then put together a fine break of 237, but this did little more than make the score somewhat more respectable as Sethi cruised to a comfortable win.

Both Nalin Patel and Subhash Agrawal struggled to find their best form, with the highest break of 102 coming from Patel in establishing an advantage of 330 points at the half-way point. Both players picked up after the interval, with Patel again having the better of the exchanges, highlighted by breaks of 123 and 131. He was never seriously threatened by Agrawal and duly completed a 536 point victory.

David Causier seems to be getting into the habit of defeating No.4 seed Peter Gilchrist, and from his first visit when he accrued 136 points, he never looked like losing this latest encounter. Additional breaks of 153 and 187 gave him a lead of almost 400 points at the interval and his victory was sealed with a magnificent break of 437 shortly after the restart. This extended Causier´s personal record for a tournament break, confirming his impressive form in all of the professional events held so far this season. An additional break of 155 helped him to a comprehensive winning margin of 945 points.

Mike Russell obviously found the speed of the table more to his liking, when he opened his match with Kothari by making consecutive breaks of 195 and 186. Kothari was hardly given chance to warm up before Russell knocked in another of 308 and ran to the interval with 167 unfinished. Taking this to 296, his next chance yielded 230 by which time the score stood at 1,323 - 183 in his favour. After a short period of inactivity, during which time Kothari increased his aggregate to 297, Russell completed proceedings with consecutive breaks of 227, 291 and 286. He finished with a match average of 98.5 and when complemented on his form in this match, replied prophetically, "I´m playing all right, but I feel that there is a big one in there somewhere".

Patel could hardly have made a worse start to his semi-final match against the World Champion, scoring just seven points in his first ten visits. By the time he made his first notable contribution—a break of 108—Sethi was already 350 points in front and in full flow. Hardly breaking his stride, Sethi added runs of 166, 107 and 110 to leave Patel facing a deficit of 570 points at the start of the second session. Further breaks of 89, 164, 120 and 87 where sufficient to see Sethi through to the final, although with the game beyond him, Patel at last started to show his true form, producing a series of useful contributions including his best of 126.

David Causier, perhaps encouraged by his performance against the No.1 seed at their previous meeting in Middlesbrough, confidently moved into an early lead. Russell´s first sizeable addition to the score was a break of 223 which came from his opponent´s safety stroke. Causier´s response was immediate, as he put together 311 before losing the white and again playing for safety. Another break of 119 took him to a lead of over 300 points before Russell played out time to the interval with 199 unfinished. On the resumption, Russell took this to 208 before unexpectedly failing at a pot red in the centre from hand. Causier responded with 99 which ended unluckily with one of many bad "kicks" which were apparent throughout the match. This was to prove to be his last chance as Russell seized the initiative with consecutive breaks of 395 and 313 to take him to a 480 point lead. Russell, visibly tiring after this effort then took every opportunity to play for safety, but still had sufficient reserves of concentration to make another break of 291 just before the end. Russell scored 1,078 points in the second 1½ hour session for an average of 141.8 His match average was 75.7

Russell started the final cautiously against his greatest rival, but quickly established a dominant position with a break of 328. Following this with breaks of 386, 101 and 116 against a best of 101 by Sethi, the match was beginning to look a formality as Russell took a lead of 736 at the end of the afternoon session.

At the behest of the players, the evening session was brought forward to 6pm from its advertised start of 8pm and anyone following the original programme would have arrived just too late to witness a moment of history.

Resuming on 12 unfinished, Sethi took this to 103 and adding consecutive breaks of 187 and 224, looked to be making a fight of it. At this point Russell went to the table—and stayed there—as he provided the "big one" he had threatened all week in amassing a top- of-the-table masterpiece of 957. This was not only Russell´s highest tournament break, but also a record under modern baulk-line rules. It earned him £600 for the highest break which went with his winner´s cheque for £7,800. His full match average was 95.8, with his second session working out at 148.0 per visit. Sethi also had an excellent average of 59.4 for this period, and he collected £4,800 as runner-up.