OVERSEAS NEWS
New Zealand
World Billiard Classic
Originally selected as hosts for the IBSF World Open Billiards Championship in 2001, New Zealand have refused to embrace the 50- up format which the IBSF are currently insisting will be applied to all future competitions carrying this title.
As a compromise, it has been agreed that New Zealand will host a parallel event, with IBSF backing, which will be run along the traditional format of timed matches.
This will be called the World Billiard Classic and it will be staged in Christchurch, Canterbury, New Zealand, with the Canterbury Billiards and Snooker Association (CBSA) as the local hosts. A date of late September, early October 2001 is currently being considered. The format will be that previously used in World Amateur Championships. There will be round-robin section play followed by a knockout stage for the last 16 players. The matches will generally be 4 hours, with the later stages extended to 6 hours and 8 hours. The intention is to give each competitor as much playing time as possible, with the organisers avoiding small qualifying groups, and the staging of a "Plate" event is also being considered.
The CBSA and the New Zealand Billiards and Snooker Association (NZBSA) plan to have a suitable trophy for the tournament. One possibility receiving attention is purchasing something similar to the Arthur Walker trophy (the one used for the World Amateur Championships).
The City of Christchurch is fully behind the tournament. The Mayor will hold a civic reception for the players, and the tourism board plans to contact competitors individually. It is anticipated that there will be plenty of opportunity for some local sightseeing in New Zealand. The tournament has also been promised plenty of publicity from the local newspapers.
As part of its efforts to make the event a success, the CBSA and NZBSA will place special emphasis on attracting as many of the leading Amateur players as possible. This could include sending information to individual players as well as national associations, allowing plenty of time for the planning of travel arrangements.
We will continue to provide news of this event as it is received—Ed.
New Zealand Billiards Championships
As part of the Millennium year for Gisborne, the 2000 New Zealand Billiards Championship was held at the Gisborne Cosmopolitan Club 4th-8th July. The tables were in excellent condition, having been recovered several weeks before the tournament, allowing some time for them to be "played in" by local players.
Unlike the English Amateur Billiards Championships with its qualifying rounds spread over a number of weekends, the New Zealand Championships are just one week and are open to any registered New Zealand player. This year there were twenty entrants, which was on a par with previous years. These were divided into four sections who played round robin matches of two hours each. The top two from each section qualified for the knock-out stages which were seeded according to their performance in the group stages
.Wayne Carey won all of his four matches in Section 1, scoring a 120 break against Joe Ifa, who with three wins was runner-up. In Section 2, Merv Stewart was a clear winner with four wins. Ray Habgood lost to Rob Elvin by just one point which meant Habgood, Elvin and Bryan Nelson each finished joint-second with two wins each. Points differential was used to determine that Habgood qualified for post-section play. Darcy Boyce played well in his first three matches of Section 3, twice scoring over 700 in two hours and making breaks of 105 and 105 unfinished against Byron Brook. However, in the match to decide section winner, Boyce struggled against Gary Oliver and was beaten 600-280, leaving Boyce the runner-up. Section 4 was the toughest section with 1996 New Zealand Champion Paul Stocker and previous runner-ups Peter de Groot and Tony Stephens all capable of taking the top spot. There was some high scoring with de Groot making 824 in one match and Stocker 881 in another. Ultimately, it was Peter de Groot who prevailed, beating Stocker 481-406 and Stephens 603-325, with Stocker qualifying as runner-up.
The quarter-final match between top qualifier Peter de Groot and bottom seeded player Ray Habgood proved to be a lot closer than might have been expected. Although de Groot led by 172 at the interval, much of this lead was accounted for by a break of 137, the tournament's highest. Early in the second session, the end piece from the butt of de Groot's cue fell off. Habgood, aided by two 50 breaks, closed the gap, but de Groot responded with an 87 to put the match beyond doubt, eventually winning 962-692.
In a one-sided encounter, Gary Oliver led 529-248 at the interval of his match against Malcolm Cooke and went on to record a comfortable victory by 455 points. Oliver had sustained a cracked rib prior to the start of the tournament, but did not appear to be unduly handicapped by this injury, even though he was obviously in some discomfort. Although there was only one 50 break, the match between Merv Stewart and Darcy Boyce provided the highest aggregate total of the quarter- finals. Boyce led 477-415 at the interval, but in the second session Stewart scored 505 points to Boyce's 339 and won by 104.
The last of the quarter-finals saw defending champion Wayne Carey matched against the 1996 champion Paul Stocker. Stocker had beaten Carey over two hours several times this year, and although troubled by a sore tendon had played well during section play. However, in a low scoring match, Carey came out on top 766-723.
The first semi-final saw Peter de Groot make a slow start, enabling Wayne Carey to build a reasonable lead, the opening session ending with de Groot trailing 372-302. Carey came out for the second session in top gear, scoring 466 points in last two hours, and was the only player to top 400 in any session of the semi-finals. This was sufficient to create a winning margin to 205 points.
In contrast, the Oliver vs. Stewart semi-final was always a close match. Oliver, aided by breaks of 71 and 65, led 390-354 at the interval, with Stewart on 31 unfinished. Stewart continued by taking this break to 90, giving him a lead of 23. Half-way through the second session Oliver was leading again (591-559) and in the next 15 minutes extended this to a lead of 100. A fighting come-back by Stewart managed to reduce this to 12 points, and with 15 minutes to go Oliver's advantage was down to just 4. Then, with 5 minutes remaining, Oliver looked as though he would settle the match, but a run of 36 finished when he missed a cannon while still in reasonable position at the top-of-the-table. Stewart raced to take advantage of his unexpected chance, but missed the opportunity and Oliver won 744-708.
The final was a low scoring, match similar to the two previous finals in 1998 and 1999. Carey made the better start, producing a break of 55 in the first 15 minutes, but Oliver countered with a run of 51 and after 30 minutes was just one point behind at 97-96. After an hour Carey was still one point ahead at 170-169, but shortly after this Oliver made a 91, the biggest break of the match. The advantage was partly undone when Carey followed with a 41 on the next visit, nevertheless Oliver still held the lead after 90 minutes, the score being 269-253. Just before the end of the first session, Oliver was distracted by a photographer when playing a stroke. He missed the intended shot but made a fluke and took the break to 46 before missing a top pocket cross-loser. This gave Oliver a 370-332 lead at the interval with Carey on 17 unfinished. Carey took this break to 47 on resumption and had edged in front 409- 387 after 15 minutes of the second session and after one hour he had extended this lead to 42. Oliver, however, went past Carey to make the score 588-570 with 30 minutes to go. At this stage, Carey made what was probably the most important break of the match, a 61, and with 15 minutes remaining he led 644-595. Oliver could make little impression after this and came to the table for his final visit trailing 668-624. He ran out of time after scoring 28 unfinished giving Wayne Carey this second consecutive New Zealand title, the final score being 670-652. Oliver was disappointed to miss out on the title, but for someone playing all week with a rib injury, he had done remarkably well.
Hawkes Bay Open
Paul Stocker (Hawkes Bay) won the 2000 Hawkes Bay Open Billiards, beating another local Tony Stephens, 513-454 in the two-hour final. Stocker also had the highest break of the tournament—a 116. The tournament, held June 17 at the Napier Cosmopolitan Club and June 18 and the Heretaunga Club, Hastings, attracted 14 players who were seeded into two sections of five and one section of four. Matches in these groups were 90 minutes, those in the later stages, two hours. Merv Stewart (Auckland) won section 1 but had to work hard against Joe Ifa (Waikato), coming from behind with a 43 unfinished to win by 15 points. Stocker easily won section 2, scoring a 116 and six breaks over 50. Stephens won section 3 and Gerry Wake (Bay of Plenty) was, much to his delight, section runner-up. In the quarter-finals, Ray Habgood who had qualified as one of the two best third placed players from the groups, caused an upset by beating Stewart. Stocker scored a 103 in his match against Wake, this break accounting for much of the difference in the final scores. Stocker and Stephens then won their semi-final matches comfortably.
Stocker made a good start to the final, making a break of 79 early on and leading 224 - 93 after 30 minutes. He extended this lead slightly in the next 30 minutes. Stephens came back to trail 353 - 420 after 1½ hours, but this was to no avail and Stocker won 513 - 454.
New Zealand Results
New Zealand National Championship (all matches 4 hrs.)
Hawkes Bay Open (all matches 2 hrs.)
New Zealand Women´s Championship
