New Zealand No.1 Wayne Carey from Auckland, made it three from three so far for the 2001 season when he won the Capital City Open held on 21st and 22nd April at the Hutt Club, Lower Hutt. There were 8 entries, and the field was divided into two sections.
Section 1 had four top players vying for the two qualifying positions, including former New Zealand champion Derek Gibb making a welcome return to the New Zealand Billiards circuit after an extended period overseas. Wayne Carey won all three of his matches to win the section, with the others taking one game each. Malcolm Cooke captured the second qualifying spot with a superior points differential, but it was very tight.
Paul Stocker won section 2, and was flowing very nicely, scoring 704 points against Peter Stephens, and 802 points (including the event high break of 117) against Ray Habgood who also qualified as runner-up. In the semi-finals, Stocker was surprisingly unable to reproduce his earlier form from section play, Cooke emerging the victor after a steady display, and Carey was untroubled in beating Habgood.
Cooke made a slightly better start in the final, and held the lead for the first 30 minutes. In the following 15 minutes Carey scored breaks of 47 and 77 to take a 101 point lead, and was never headed after that, although Cooke did reduce the deficit to 29 points after 1¼ hours.
Paul Stocker from Napier was in brilliant form throughout the 2001 North Island Championship, and won his 7th title in very convincing fashion indeed. Stocker is now just one win away from the remarkable record of 8 titles won by Thorney Huston between 1977 and 1984. Thorney continues his great interest in billiards, and was a very enthusiastic spectator at this year's event, held at the new Snooker World, Auckland from 13th to 16th May. A sad note with this year's championship was the death of Jim Sutich, from Dargaville, who passed away a few days before the event. There were 20 entries this year. Stocker, who played well throughout the section matches, continued his good form with a 109 break the quarter-finals, the next best break in this round being 78 by Malcolm Cooke. Current New Zealand Champion Wayne Carey was off form, and would have been disappointed with his showing as he lost to Derek Gibb. Stocker was slowed down somewhat by Gibb in the semi-finals, but he still finished 179 points ahead. Malcolm Cooke, who is looking very consistent this year, beat Boyce by 180 points to reach the final.
Within the first 20 minutes of the final, Stocker had stamped his authority on the match with breaks of 121, 61 and 40. Trailing 590-191 after 1½ hours Cooke was really up against it, but even so sportingly called out to Stocker to stop him playing the wrong ball on one occasion, a generous action that earned him a round of applause from the spectators, and a pleasant thank-you from Stocker who then went on to make a 63 break. His relentless scoring continued throughout the match as he added further breaks of 81 and 72, finishing a clear winner by 673 points.
The IBSF have announced that in the absence of any agreement with the WBA on the joint promotion of billiards, they have sanctioned the International tournament already arranged by the New Zealand Association as the official "IBSF World Billiards Championship" for 2001. The event to be staged in Auckland this September will not however be played under the controversial 50-up format. It is understood that this is entirely due to the resistance of the organising Association to entertain a departure from the traditional time-limit format for Championship billiards.
The 50-up game was a popular pastime in England over a hundred years ago, but died out due to lack of interest. The IBSF apparently still support the idea of resurrecting this format from the grave, as IBSF President Anthony Hull confirmed recently: "Many believe that 50- up will take the game of billiards forward because it makes it more exciting but we have decided to play the World Championship under time frame conditions for now."
As to their lack of success in persuading the professional players to finance the New Zealand tournament, Mr. Hull said "The IBSF had hoped to hold a joint event with the World Billiards Association but they have not come back to us so we're going it alone".
The IBSF have stipulated that the event must be fully open to all Billiards players "for reasons associated with promoting the inclusion of Billiard sports in future Olympic and Commonwealth games". However, without money from the professional association it seems unlikely that any of the top players will travel from England for the chance of a £1,000 first prize (NZ$3,000).
The field will be limited to 48, with the top 16 qualifying for the knock- out stages. All entrants must be nominated, in ranking order, by their respective country, with in the case of England will be EASB, and all matches will be 4 hours, except for the final which will be 6 hours. The WPBSA published rules of billiards will be applied (i.e. no compulsory baulk line crossing, or restrictions on the “coup”).