IBSF WORLD OPEN BILLIARDS CHAMPIONSHIP

11th-23rd September 2001 - Hornby WMC, Christchurch, New Zealand

The Players

Australia
Matthew Bolton
Neil Croft
Frank Humphreys
John McKay
Joe Millen
Joe Minici
Brian Moulday
Keith Taylor
Tim Walters
Rex Swain
Eric Worsley
England
John Hartley
India
Arun Agrawal*
Balachandra Bhaskar*
Devendra Joshi*
Manoj Kothari*
Alok Kumar*
Vishal Madan
Geet Sethi*
Ashok Shandilya*
Dhruv Sitwala*
Malta
Paul Mifsud
New Zealand
Wayne Carey
Malcolm Cooke
Derek Gibb
Peter de Groot
Ray Habgood
Joe Ifa
Peri Lilli
Ron Millicich
Gary Oliver
Merv Stewart
Paul Stocker
Gus Templeton
Tony Stephens
WPBSA
Nalin Patel*
* Denotes professional

For two weeks in September, New Zealand became the focal point of World Billiards when they staged the IBSF Open Championship at the Hornby WMC in Auckland. As could be expected from the location, the field was comprised largely of entries from the host country and nearby Australia. Notable absentees from the latter country were top professional Robby Foldvari and the National Champion David Collins. Unfortunately the dates for this event clashed with the South East Asia Games in Malaysia which meant that neither Thailand nor Malaysia were able to send representatives.

John Hartley was the only player to be entered from England.

Without any financial assistance from their Associations it was not anticipated that any players would travel from England, either Amateur or professional. In fact, England managed one entry with John Hartley who under his own initiative arranged sufficient private sponsorship to finance his first overseas trip. English Champion, Lee Lagan, had also hoped to make the journey, but at the last minute had to withdraw because of work commitments. Both players were nominated by the IBSF affiliated body in England, the WPBSA subsidiary, EASB. However, Hartley was not entirely without English companions, with New Zealand entries Derek Gibb (Northumberland), Malcolm Cooke (Surrey) and Paul Stocker (Worcester), all exiles from these shores. Sri-Lanka, who had nominated two unnamed representatives, decided at the last minute not to send anyone, so their places where rapidly filled by reserves Rex Swain (Australia) and Gus Templeton (New Zealand). Rex Swain, who is President of the Australian Billiards & Snooker Council and Chairman of the IBSF Billiards Committee, had no competitive billiards experience prior to this event, although he claimed a highest practice break of 82. He dismissed the EABA call for the IBSF to run a World Amateur Championship by saying "The IBSF have to provide a World competition for elite players, not 2nd or 3rd rate players".

India ensured that some top class billiards would be seen when they sent a strong squad which included all their best professional players. Nalin Patel, who is not recognised by the Indian Association as he holds a British passport, still managed to make the trip as an entry from the WPBSA.

In contrast to the 50-up games last year, the Championship was conducted under the more traditional time-limit format with the opening games played over four hours and the final extended to six hours. A late suggestion by the IBSF representative that the opening group matches should be reduced to two-hours because longer matches were "boring", was rejected. The field of 36 players was divided into six groups with the first and second places progressing to the knock-out stages by right. They would be supplemented by the best four third-placed players.

The tables were installed by a local supplier using Strachan professional 30oz match-cloth and pocket templates supplied by the IBSF. These are understood to be the same used on the WPBSA professional snooker circuit. It may be remembered that the Professional Billiard players had a set of templates specially made for their matches a couple of years ago, as it was felt that the standard WPBSA templates were "too easy".

The rules of billiards revised and published in September 1995 were applied throughout the competition, in preference to the "professional rules" which require a baulk-line crossing at each 100 points of a break, and which ban the "coup". Strangely, this latter rule, which only really becomes significant in the time-limit format where it is perceived as a time-wasting tactic, had been adopted by the IBSF for the 50-up championship last year, but was now dropped. It is regrettable that billiards seems to be subjected to such a deliberate variety of conditions and rules which makes the comparison of performances very difficult.

With a first prize of NZ$3,000 (£1,000) being barely sufficient to cover travelling expenses for entries outside the host country. This at least ensured that those who did turn up, regardless of their status, followed at least one tenant of the amateur ideal, which was to compete for the love of billiards rather than personal profit.

Eric Worsley displayed his expertise with nursery cannons.

Geet Sethi was outstanding throughout his group matches, winning all his games. Unhindered by the requirement for a baulk-line crossing (which is also used by the Indian Association for their championships) he displayed a standard of billiards not seen for many years under the Amateur rules. His group statistics after 20 hours play, speak for themselves. They read "points for: 13,224; points against: 2,349" Sethi finished off his series of matches with the highest break of the group stages when he put together a run of 495 against Rex Swain. Two triple centuries and three doubles helped him to a four hour aggregate of 3,135 and a match average of 74.6 Runner-up in the group was Joe Millen with four wins but just one century (115).

Eric Worsley who is a nursery cannon expert, managed three wins to finish the group in third place, giving spectators some relief from the more usual methods of break building by demonstrating his skills in this department. In his match against Merv Stewart, he nursed the balls along the length of the top cushion, rapidly advancing his score from 16 to 76 in a break of 80.

Results

Nalin Patel by-passed his National Association and was entered directly by the WPBSA.

Nalin Patel headed Section 2 with a consistent display which saw him score winning totals of between 1,507 and 1,785 in all his five matches. His best break was 350 made against the 24 year-old Australian Tim Walters. Big breaks were the order of the day in a high class match between Nalin Patel and Neil Croft. In the first session Patel made consecutive runs of 242, 126, 104 and 192 to take the initiative, but Croft responded in the second session by opening his account with a break of 319. However, Patel would not be denied victory, finishing off with three single centuries and a fine break of 206 to win 1578-856. His match average was an impressive 52.6.

Balachandra Bhaskar had dropped out of the professional circuit last year and was therefore short of recent match-play experience. He did little to further his chances by arriving from India on the opening day when the long journey and jet lag were bound to further affect his game. Nevertheless, he managed to produce a personal best break of 346 (20 minutes) in his second match, with the unfortunate Tim Walters again the player on the receiving end. Losing only against Patel, Bhaskar´s four wins were sufficient to see him through to the next stage as runner- up in the group.

With the remainder of the group finishing with two wins apiece, Neil Croft's superior points differential gave him third place. Despite his nine centuries and average of 17.1 overall, this still did not qualify amongst the four best third places which would make up the last sixteen. Nevertheless, he could be well satisfied with his performance with his break of 319 against Patel being his first triple century in competition.

Results

Ashok Shandilya had been suffering from a severe cold at the start of the tournament, but this didn't prevent him from producing a fine break of 464 on the second day of competition as he powered through his match against Malcolm Cooke, winning 2295-585. Shandilya exceeded 2,200 points in three of his five games and his 464 was a personal record. Shandilya's previous highest break in competition being 450. With all results going as predicted by the seeding, Shandilya and Alok Kumar filled to top two places with Frank Humphreys' three wins also seeing him through. Kumar's best break was 309 while Humphreys managed three centuries with a best of 162.

Results

The form of Dhruv Sitwala was the surprise of the Championship.

Dhruv Sitwala was the surprise package of the championship, as he rose to the occasion with some great play to go through the group undefeated. He made four double- centuries with a best of 295 (made against Ray Habgood) falling tantalisingly short of his first triple- century. Having a previous top break of 236 in competition, this represented a personal best performance.

Top seed, Devendra Joshi, had started the tournament well, putting together breaks of 330 and 234 on the opening day in his 2030-577 win over Joe Ifa. He improved on this the following day when he knocked in a run of 456 at his second visit against Ray Habgood. He won this match 2454-701, but left complaining that this efforts had given him an aching back! From this point, his fortunes took a turn for the worse. In his key match against Sitwala he started well enough, making back-to-back contributions of 236 and 204 to establish an advantage of almost two hundred points at the interval. Not deterred, Sitwala fought back strongly in the last two hours to edge an excellent victory by 68 points. The following day, Joshi again suffered a shock defeat against Joe Minici. This time Joshi was 262 points in front at the interval, but breaks of 285 and 243 by Minici gave him the lead, and he clung on to win by 101 points. Both players averaged over thirty for the match, and although Joshi was relegated to third place in the group behind Sitwala and Minici, he still qualified for the knock-out stages as one of the best third placed players.

Joe Minici had cut things fine when he turned up one minute before the scheduled start of his match against Ray Habgood, the pair having to string after the other tables had commenced play. Thereafter, however, Minici had things all his own way and untroubled by his last minute rush to the venue, finished a 1155-644 winner.

John Hartley finished his involvement in the competition on a high note, with victories over Ray Habgood and Joe Ifa securing fourth place in the group. Against Ifa he advanced his personal best match break by three points with a run of 109. Not content with merely watching the closing stages, and with typical enterprise, he managed to secure a position with Ace Video Service as a commentator alongside Michael Ferreira, who was attending the championship as manager of the Indian squad. The video company had been engaged by the local Canterbury B&S Association to record not only the final stages, but also produce 30 minute recordings of each player during the group stages, with the tapes being presented to them as a souvenir.

Results

Matthew Bolton: in dispute with the Australian officials.

As expected, Matthew Bolton finished undefeated in Section 5 his closest match being against the 19 year-old Indian, Vishal Madan. Although he won this 1448-713, late breaks of 310 and 204 made the winning margin more impressive that it might otherwise have been. Bolton also made a triple century (304) against Manoj Kothari and four more double centuries in his group matches. Kothari, losing only to Bolton, was runner-up and Madan also went into the draw for the last sixteen with his three wins having secured one of the best third places.

At 19 years old Vishal Madan was the youngest competitor.

In between their respective group matches, there was a heated encounter between the two Australian representatives, Matthew Bolton and Rex Swain. Bolton was unhappy that he had still not been reimbursed his winnings from last year's IBSF Championship, blaming this on Swain in his capacity of Australian B&SC President. By way of response, Swain challenged the entry of Bolton to the current Championship, his Western Australian Association apparently being in default of their annual subscription to the National Council. The row was eventually ended by Tournament Director Alan Parris, who threatened to disqualify both players.

Results

Paul Mifsud was not quite the oldest competitor, that distinction going to Merv Stewart who was 73. Nevertheless the 55 year-old Maltese was certainly the most experienced having made his first International appearance in the 1969 World Amateur Championship, subsequently winning the event in 1979.

Demonstrating that he is still capable of producing plenty of good billiards, Mifsud carried all before him in this group, winning all five of his matches with ease. His performance was highlighted by a fine break of 358 against John McKay and he also knocked in four more double centuries in his other matches.

Wayne Carey, consistently the most successful New Zealand player in recent years produced the closest finish in any of the group matches when he edged out Arun Agarwal by a mere six points. Carey, aided by a break of 104, led 469-419 at the interval and the match remained close throughout. In an exciting finish, Carey held on to win 882-876. Carey's victory meant that he finished in a tie for the minor placings with Agarwal and Paul Stocker. However, Agarwal's superior points difference gave him the runner-up spot, with Stocker edging out Carey for third. His results also being sufficient to take him though to the closing stages.

Results

The draw for the last 16 was reseeded, the positions being determined by the number of matches won, and where these were level, the points differential. The IBSF regulation requiring that the winner and runner- up in a group be in the opposite half of the draw was then applied, so that the performance of the players did not entirely decide their seeding. Geet Sethi, after his fine performances in the group stages, struggled to reproduce this form against Paul Stocker. However, Stocker was unable to capitalise on Sethi's many unforced errors allowing the Indian to cruise into the quarter-finals.

Alok Kumar couldn't have started his match against Joe Minici any better, a break of 318 being his first scoring visit. Ending the first session with a contribution of 273 he was over 500 ahead at the interval and could afford to ease back a little in the second half of the match. Minici matched the scoring of Kumar in this period, but could make no overall impression on this deficit.

Arun Agarwal’s return to International competition was ended by Matthew Bolton.

Matthew Bolton and Arun Agarwal started their match with a protracted spell of tactical play, which apart from isolated breaks of 176 and 113 from Bolton, barely saw a contribution in double figures from either player. Towards the end of the first session, Bolton again capitalised on an opening to add 329 which put him firmly in control. Playing more productively in the second session, the Australian No.1 added a break of 230 and three more centuries to win by almost a thousand points.

Nalin Patel would have liked nothing better than to defeat the current Indian National Champion, Devendra Joshi, his current dispute with the Indian Association debarring him from entering that particular competition. However, it was Joshi who started the better, a break of 171 coming at his second visit. Adding a contribution of 233 and concluding the first session with runs of 70, 118 and 165, he was almost 700 points in front after two hours. Patel, who had not recorded a century in this period, hit back with a massive break of 401 shortly after the resumption to put him back in the match. But his hopes where then quenched as Joshi settled the match with breaks of 116 and a terrific 540.

Dhruv Sitwala has been playing billiards for only eight years, but his performances in this Championship had the Indian newspapers taking of him as a successor to all-time greats produced by that country, Wilson Jones, Michael Ferreira and Geet Sethi. In his match against Joe Millen, he again extended his personal best match break to 463, totally overwhelming his Australian opponent.

Vishal Madan managed to hold onto Paul Mifsud during their early exchanges, but a break of 184 from the Maltese Champion opened a gap that would never be closed. The final session of their match saw Mifsud open up and fluently produce six centuries to complete a comfortable win.

Bhaskar and Ashok Shandilya made up the quarter-final draw, Shandilya in particular looking impressive as he made three double-centuries against Frank Humphreys.

Geet Sethi struggled to find his touch over the first session of the match but Alok Kumar was unable to capitalise on his openings, appearing to be very nervous, and Sethi finished the session ahead 711-342. Shortly after the start of the second period, Sethi produced a massive break of 515 which ended the match as a serious contest. With Kumar becoming clearly disheartened, a further run of 248 by Sethi was of academic interest.

Devendra Joshi made his intentions known at an early stage of his match against Matthew Bolton, when at his second visit to the table, he put together a break of 505. Showing incredible resolve, Bolton replied immediately with 271 and when Joshi missed the next shot to give the Australian another good opening, he fired in 252. An 88 by Joshi was cancelled by 145 from Bolton and suddenly, after seven visits and only a few minutes left in the session, Joshi was facing a 50 point deficit. Both players averaged over 80 for this session, and it would require a long search or the record books to find the last time a player had made a 500+ break and found himself trailing after two hours. But perhaps this effort had taken something out of Bolton as he was unable to respond in the second half of the match as Joshi put together runs of 296, 229, and 282 to lead 1557- 906. Although Bolton subsequently made some inroads with useful contributions in his final visits, he never looked like catching the Indian Champion, finishing 357 points adrift. Almost twice the age of his 28 year- old opponent from Mumbai, Paul Mifsud applied his greater experience to draw steadily ahead of Dhruv Sitwala. Mifsud established a lead of 268 at the end of the first session, with three centuries, and with a repeat performance after the interval, eventually ended the hopes of India's newest prospect by a margin 492 points.

Bhaskar started his match against Shandilya by racing into the lead with a break of 140, but this proved to be the high point of his challenge as Shandilya struck back with breaks of 159, 154, 216 and 133 to lead 785-338 after two hours. Thereafter, the match became something of a procession, Shandilya winning easily 1887-791.

Indian Champion Devendra Joshi brought out the best in Geet Sethi during their semi-final clash.

Paul Mifsud has been a World Championship player since 1969.

The clash between Geet Sethi and Devendra Joshi proved to be a memorable encounter. First session breaks of 57,146, 300 and 104 from Sethi were countered by runs of 55, 278 and 226 unfinished from Joshi. He carried this break on to 444, giving him the advantage 847- 655. Sethi re-took the lead with a 97 and a 171, but Joshi showed no signs of pressure, and a break of 168 put him 105 ahead with 50 minutes remaining. It was then that the four times World Professional Champion moved into a different gear, and for the next 37 minutes he held to table to make the highest break of the competition so far, with a magnificent effort of 551. The break featured a series of superb recovery shots just after Sethi had passed the second century, which brought gasps of appreciation from the audience. When he eventually missed a fine cannon Joshi was left with no hope of recovery. Respective match averages of 80.5 and 55.9 reflect the high standard of play in this match.

Ashok Shandilya had a relatively easy passage against Paul Mifsud, who struggled throughout the game to find the form he displayed in earlier matches. Shandilya made three centuries in the first session to lead 880-328, while Mifsud could only contribute runs of 52 and 98. In the second session, Mifsud picked up his game to produce a fine break of 213, but Shandilya immediately replied with a 254 and from this point Mifsud was never in contention again. He added breaks of 72 and 60, but could not keep up with Shandilya who knocked in another century and five more 50+ breaks to give him a comfortable 1797-873 win.

Ashok Shandilya made a personal record break of 464 on his way to the final.

Sethi rounded off the championship with a performance worthy of the occasion. Opening with breaks of 61, 121, 349 and 144, another run of 236 unfinished established a lead of 700 points at the first interval. He took his unfinished break to a massive 856 on the resumption, and then sealed the match with another great run of 636, an almost incidental 78 and an unfinished contribution of 150. His second session average of 248.3 was a record under the rules used on this occasion, and a magnificent performance under any circumstances.

Shandilya also contributed to this session with a fine break of 333 which helped him to an average of 69.3 for the session. Not surprisingly, Sethi admitted to feeling "drained" as he returned for the last 2-hours of the match, but he still managed to carry his unfinished break to 301, and following this almost immediately with a 133 took his lead to over 2,000 points. Both players finished the match in style, Sethi with runs of 185, 205 and 127, to which Shandilya replied with 136, 128 and 82. Sethi completed a conclusive victory by 2,195 points although Shandilya with a match average of 29.3 was far from disgraced against a resurgent Sethi whose performance was the best he has produced for several years.

Geet Sethi added the IBSF “Open” to his collection of World titles.

Sethi had collected the Arthur Walker Trophy on two previous occasions, 1985 and 1987, when this trophy had been allocated to the World Amateur Championship. He would also have collected it for the first time as a professional had the IBSF managed to arrange the shipment to New Zealand in time. As it was, he had to be content with a trophy generously purchased for the occasion by the New Zealand Association, while the symbol of the IBSF Billiards Championship sat in the Christchurch Customs Offices.

Having failed the one task entrusted to them, it is fortunate that the remainder of the arrangements were in the capable hands of the New Zealand B&S Association. Their organisation throughout the event received universal praise from all involved and the standard of play bears testament to the excellent playing conditions provided. Crowds in excess of 200 people were in attendance during the final stages and additional seating had to be installed to accommodate them. Exposure was given on local television, and in general, the contrast to the shambles of the previous championship in Middlesbrough could hardly have been greater.

The Arthur Walker trophy was eventually released from Customs three days after the competition finished and Tournament Director Alan Parris managed to make a belated presentation to the Champion at Christchurch Airport just before Sethi boarded his flight back to India.