Annette Moeahu from Hawkes Bay beat Sharon Wilkie 115-91 to win what is believed to be the first Women's Billiards tournament held in New Zealand. The tournament, held at the Hamilton Cosmopolitan Club, 130 kilometres south of Auckland, on 13th February, attracted a small field of four players. All players were initially involved in a round-robin of 45 minute matches. The winner and runner-up of this went forward to the one-hour final and the remaining two played-off for third place. Overall, the tournament was seen as a successful first attempt, and partly as a result of this, the New Zealand Women's BSA will hold the first ever New Zealand Women's Billiards Championship in conjunction with the Snooker Championships later this year.
Wayne Carey, number one on the New Zealand Billiards ranking list, beat Derek Gibb, the current New Zealand Billiards champion, to win the North Harbour Open Billiards, held at Snooker World, Auckland, in March. This was the first ranking tournament of the 1999 New Zealand Billiards season. Carey was more consistent throughout the two-hour final, making breaks of 60, 59 and 60, and winning 489-309. In the semi-finals, Carey had a comfortable win over Ray Habgood (treasurer of the NZBSA), as did Gibb over Ron Milicich (president of the Auckland BSA). Gibb made the highest break of the tournament with 116 unfinished in an earlier round.
[The ABP acknowledge the following sources of information : Philip Sharp´s ‘Electronic Newsletter´; Ray Habgood´s ‘Billiards Letter´; ‘The Hindu´ newspaper]