WORKING MENS CLUB & INSTITUTE UNION

National Individual Billiards Championship

Tony James, who had sprung a surprise by defeating the current CIU Champion, Tony Mackinder, in the previous round, was himself defeated in the quarter-finals by Teesside player Geoff Charville. James was struggling to find his touch throughout the match and Charville kept up the pressure with regular contributions in the 40's and 50's eventually completing an impressive win by 254 points. James was the only "home" player to lose, although Maurice Chapman had a close call, just edging out G. Lee by 22 points.

Maurice Chapman pictured in 1965 when, as part of the Tyseley WMC team, he was winner of the CIU National Team Snooker Championship. Maurice had also been part of the team when they were losing finalists in 1962 and 1963.

Both semi-finals were again held at the Batley Carr WMC, the first involving Darren Kell and Peter Shelley taking place on 4th March. Neither player was on particularly good form in the three-hour match, with many early chances being lost, mainly due to faulty positional play. However, this ensured a close contest, with little separating the players during the first session. This situation changed shortly after the start of the second session when Peter Shelley opened up a gap of 130 points with consecutive breaks of 94 and 44. However, he failed to capitalise on this advantage as Kell brought himself back on terms with breaks of 51 and 78. This latter contribution started with a fluke, and ironically ended unluckily when a bad "kick" caused him to miss a simple centre-pocket in-off when still in excellent position. Going into the last 10 minutes, Kell had established an advantage of 61 points, but Shelley looked set to overhaul him when his break of 43 ended unexpectedly at what appeared to be a simple cross-loser. From this point both players had chances to put the game beyond doubt, but Kell just managed to hold on to his advantage and go through to his third CIU Individual Final.

The following Saturday was the turn of Birmingham's Maurice Chapman and Geoff Charville from Middlesbrough. Charville had the distinct advantage in terms of support, having brought a bus full of members from the Acklam Club, which more than filled all the available seating. Both players were making their first appearance in the semi- final stages, although the sprightly Chapman, who belied his 64 years, had won the CIU Team Snooker Championship some 35 years previously! In a rather nervous opening session most of the chances seemed to fall to Chapman, but he was unable to capitalise on his frequent openings. His best effort during this period being a break of 50 which started with a fluked pot red, and rather typified the run during the first half. Under these circumstances, an advantage of 51 points to Chapman at the interval should really have been much greater.

Geoff Charville (left) and Maurice Chapman with referee Jim Callaghan at their CIU Billiards semi-final.

A score at this stage of 284-233 with respective averages of 6.8 and 5.5 is an indication of the slow nature of the play. Perhaps it was something in the Batley pork pies - served as an interval refreshment - or perhaps it was Charville's decision to substitute his first-half orange juice with a pint of lager, but whatever the reason, he looked a different player as he started the second session. His first visit produced a break of 68, putting him into the lead, and he followed this with additional runs of 67 and 64. Chapman, to his credit, also raised his game, replying to Charville's efforts with contributions of 52 and 71. The latter was the highest of the match and it brought Chapman back to within 50 points of his opponent. But with time running out, Charville, who had never been shy to employ safety tactics, now carefully defended his lead and made sure Chapman received no more chances. A second session average of 16.5 by Charville showed that despite his lack of experience at this level, he is capable of taking the CIU title if he can play to this standard consistently. It was regrettable that the match finished on a rather sour note when, towards the end, Chapman stopped mid-break to ask one of the Teesside supporters to refrain from making comments while he was playing - something which he later stated had been happening throughout the match.

The result ensures an all-Teesside final for the second year in a row. This will take place at the Acklam Garden City Club on Saturday 29th April. Full coverage will appear in our next issue.