WORLD MATCHPLAY CHAMPIONSHIP

The Centurion Hotel, Midsomer Norton, Radstock

26th February - 2nd March 2002

Roxton Chapman 
Mike Russell	
Peter Gilchrist	
Paul Bennett	
Mark Hirst  
Peter Sheehan
David Causier
Clive Everton
Gary Rogers
Chris Shutt
Ian Williamson
Brian Dix  

Devendra Joshi
Geet Sethi
Manoj Kothari
Dhruv Sitwala
Alok Kumar
Nalin Patel

Chris Shutt won his first professional ranking tournament when he defeated Roxton Chapman to take the World Matchplay Championship at Midsomer Norton on Friday 2nd March. Shutt, who was last year's runner-up in this tournament, also made the highest break with 526.

The £25,000 event attracted 18 WBA members, twelve from England and the remainder travelling from India. With just one tournament to justify the long journey, there were a number of significant absentees from the overseas contingent. These included the newly crowned Indian Champion Ashok Shandilya (see report page 15), and Australian professional champion, Robby Foldvari. It was the first time that Foldvari had missed a professional billiards tournament since he was elected to membership of the WPBSA in 1984. Recently married and having taken a new position as Head of Business Studies at a College in Melbourne, he now finds himself with new commitments. He said, "It is a long way to come for one tournament, it's not the same adventure as it used to be".

Preliminary Round (2 hrs)

The Russian based Armenian, Ashot Potikyan, had intended to make a return to the professional circuit, but was regrettably stricken with bronchitis and detained in a Moscow hospital, giving a bye to Mark Hirst in the preliminary round. In the matches which were played, Gary Rogers recorded his first win on the professional circuit when he defeated Clive Everton in a low scoring match, and Dhruv Sitwala had no problems in progressing at the expense of Brian Dix.

First Round (2 hrs)

Mike Russell soon showed his superiority against Paul Bennett as he made two double centuries and two single century breaks, scoring 849 during a 6 visit period. Russell's 299 was floating-white perfection, on reaching top-of-the-table his opponent's white moved no more than a foot in the entire break! However, Russell once more displayed his distrust of the referee's measuring gauge to determine whether the red would go on it's spot. During one of his breaks, referee Bob Sconce felt it necessary to use this implement, but Russell asked him to use the red instead. The referee refused and having determined to red would not spot, placed it on the pyramid spot, much to the displeasure of the World No.1, who did little to conceal his feelings on the matter.

Although Chris Shutt had disposed of Mark Hirst without any apparent effort, he revealed in a post-match drink with his opponent that he felt he had been under-performing for the last three years and was thinking of going back to using his old cue. Mark, feeling a little dejected by this analysis of their match, forecast that not only would Chris go on to win the event, but he could also see him making a 500 break. A prediction which, as it transpired, was fulfilled in all respects.

After a slow opening, Roxton Chapman came through easily enough against the Indian Snooker Champion, Alok Kumar. Chapman was trailing for the early part of the game, but took control when consecutive contributions of 58, 44 and 51 put him just over a hundred points in front. From there, his progress was unchallenged, adding 135 and a late 197 to complete a 425 point victory.

Young Indian prospect, Dhruv Sitwala, put up a real fight against World No.10 Peter Sheehan. Well in contention for over half the match, it was only when Sheehan pulled away with late breaks of 64 and 103 that Sitwala began to fade, leaving Sheehan to cruise to what was ultimately an easy victory.

The other first-round matches also went to form as the seeded players all progressed to the quarter-finals. David Causier was particularly impressive as he notched up some 700 points in the second hour of his match against Gary Rogers.

Quarter-finals (2½ hrs)

In recent years, the aura of invincibility which has set Geet Sethi above his fellow-countrymen has slowly begun to erode. Several players now have the confidence that they can defeat one of India's greatest exponents of the game. Devendra Joshi is certainly one of those players. He gradually outscored Sethi over the course of this match and with the minutes ticking away had established a lead of 165 points. Sethi then seemed set for one of his trade-mark come-backs as he came close to levelling the scores with a break of 160. However, with 10 minutes remaining and under great pressure, Joshi held his nerve, using up precious minutes in compiling a break of 38, allowing him to hold on for a 42 point victory.

David Causier was soon into his stride with an early break of 135 and thereafter Peter Sheehan was a virtual spectator as the Teesside star entertained the knowledgeable local crowd as only he is able. Five centuries and numerous lesser breaks flowed from his cue as he ran up an aggregate total of 1446 in this two-and-a-half hour match.

Chris Shutt had a convincing victory over current World Champion, Peter Gilchrist. Starting with a 40 break at his first visit, he then put together a run of 231 to establish a commanding lead. Although Gilchrist struck back with breaks of 75 and 104 to reduce the deficit to eighty points, he was never closer, as Shutt added three more centuries to win by a 443 point margin.

It was left to Roxton Chapman in the last of the quarter-finals to provide the biggest upset, as he put out defending champion, Mike Russell. Although Chapman's 113 was the only century of the match, he scored more consistently than Russell, who could not reproduce the high scoring of his previous round. Even so, he was in with every chance until a late break of 98 by Chapman gave him an advantage of 138 with just six minutes remaining. This proved too much for the World No.1 who made little inroads into this deficit before time ran out.

Semi-finals (4 hrs)

Roxton Chapman staked his claim to the £500 high-beak prize when he put together 367 in the first session of his semi-final against Devendra Joshi. Following this almost immediately with another run of 275 he went into the interval leading 834-287 having averaged 83.4 for the first two hours. Joshi's position could have been worse had he not finished the session with late contributions of 98 and 77, but when Chapman returned to add 139 with his first visit of the second period, there seemed no way back for the last Indian representative. A spell of safety allowed Joshi to add his only century of the match, but thereafter he could barely manage a contribution into double-figures as Chapman cruised to an easy victory.

In the battle of the great Teesside rivals, it was Chris Shutt who struck first, consecutive contributions of 75 and 77 taking him clear of David Causier. A few visits later he added 282 and 96 to extend his lead to almost 500 points. Causier replied with breaks of his own amounting to 88, 290 and 57, but at the interval he was still trailing 827-609. With tactical play prominent in the second session, Causier struggle to get any closer than this, and with time running out it was Shutt who completed the match is style, breaks of 54, 251, 137 and 67 coming from his last six visits.

Final (5 hrs)

The final, extended to five hours, was played out to a full house at the Centurion Hotel, and it was a stage where Chris Shutt took the starring role. He dominated from the start, consecutive breaks of 76, 59, 167 and 111 taking him to a 422-149 advantage after just six visits. There was nothing that Chapman could do to stop this heavy scoring and after 2½ hrs the session bell saw him in a perilous position, trailing 983- 531. Any thoughts of a come-back must have been dashed when Shutt took his unfinished break of 129 to 176, and followed this almost immediately with another of 200. With the match beyond Chapman's reach, Shutt then deprived his opponent of the high-break prize by passing Chapman's semi-final 367, and securing the £500 reward for himself with a massive run of 526. Additional breaks of 145, 87 and 182 followed in quick succession to add to Chapman's misery, but he did at last restore some pride as he played out time with 203 unfinished. Shutt scored 1,448 points in the second session for an average of 96.5 producing a fitting finale to the championship.

Shutt's reward for his brilliant performances totalled £7,500 and he will no doubt be reconsidering whether he should revert to using his old cue. Chapman collected £4,500 as runner-up.