Mike Russell achieved his ambition of making a public thousand break while playing in an exhibition game on Wednesday 26th March at the West Belfast Social Club. Russell had taken a two-night exhibition tour of Belfast at short notice, immediately in advance of his departure to Malta for the World Championship.
The achievement was made on the second night of his visit in a game against Sammy Currie. Russell having broken off, made scoring visits of 2 and 105 before embarking on the marathon break which lasted just over an hour. Losing position at 960, he managed to regain control but was compelled to complete the thousand by potting his opponent's white and then a pot red. He discontinued the break as soon as the milestone had been reached, the score standing at Russell 1,107, Currie 7. "We were all rooting for him to get there" said Currie "It was a mixture of terrific relief and tremendous excitement when he reached the incredible milestone".
This is the first thousand break to be seen in public since September 1992 when Geet Sethi made 1,276 in the World Professional Championship which was held in Bombay. This, like Russell's break, was also made under the current "two-pot" rule. That effort had the reward of seeing the "baulk-line crossing" re-introduced for professional matches which has made sure that the feat has not been repeated in tournament play. During his exhibition, Russell did not apply this restriction and so the rules in force were directly comparable to those when Sethi made his break.
Other players to have made a thousand break in a witnessed match in modern times are Leslie Driffield who achieved the feat on three occasions 1,011 (3rd January 1967), 1,014 (10th May 1966) and 1,013 (January 1965). All of these breaks were made at Smith & Nelson's Rooms in Leeds where he practised regularly, but it should be remembered that 15-pots were allowable from the spot at that time.
Jack Karnehm also claimed a 1,128 on 6th March 1968, again under the 15-pot rule, although this was in a practice game on the table at his home, so cannot be ranked with the others. When the rules were changed to allow only 5-pots from the spot, Michael Ferreira created a record by making 1,149 in the 1979 Indian Amateur Billiards Championship.
Apart from these achievements we must go back to pre-war times to find anything comparable, and it would seem certain to be the highest break seen in Northern Ireland since Walter Lindrum set the province's record with 1,531 made in Belfast on 29th March 1930!
Based on this performance, Russell has done no damage to his earning capacity on the exhibition circuit and should be certain of many more bookings once the news becomes more widely known. At a time when returns from the professional tour are looking decidedly bleak, that could be a blessing indeed.
The same day that Russell collected the World Championship trophy he also received a letter from the WPBSA (perhaps aptly dated 1st April—All-Fools Day) informing him that professional billiards would receive no more funding from them next season. This being the time that annual £100 subscriptions were to be collected, forms for remittance of these were also enclosed, together with a resignation form in case he would prefer this option. The same letter was sent to all billiards members of the Association.
Unfortunately this was not an April Fool joke, and although hardly unexpected, there was naturally some bitterness from the players that the WPBSA should have terminated their stewardship of the game so abruptly, giving little chance for the professionals to continue under their own steam. Mike Russell was particularly outspoken at what he considered was "mismanagement" by the Governing Body which prevented the players from establishing a source of external funding three years ago. In a letter to The Amateur Billiard Player, he said, "We were offered a 3 year contract with the Indian television company Zee TV. They sent over a draft contract to WPBSA (Bristol) offering to sponsor the World Billiards Championship at £50,000 per year. This was a very good offer and it would also have been an excellent opportunity for us to reach a huge audience on the Indian sub-continent, with a premier television channel, watched by millions. The reason this never happened was that WPBSA ignored the contract proposal. The contract actually lay on the desk in Bristol for 3 months unanswered, by which time Zee TV became disillusioned and withdrew their offer.
That offer would have given billiards a lifeline, and the chance to become self-sufficient, instead of which we are now in this complete debacle."
Although the WPBSA letter stated that "negotiations are currently taking place concerning the future of professional billiards for 2003/4 and beyond" it seems clear that without external sponsors, a worldwide professional circuit has no prospects of being revived in the foreseeable future. One thing is certain, if Mike Russell and other top players do take the option to resign then a WPBSA "World Championship" will have little credibility for any potential sponsor.
Immediately after his victory in Malta, Mike Russell left for Saudi Arabia to take up a three month appointment as coach for the Billiards & Snooker Committee, helping their national squad as well as some of the better players in the country. "There is some real talent here" said Russell shortly after his arrival "At the moment I am just concentrating on trying to improve their techniques and their general attitude towards the game." The next objective will be to achieve some success in the Gulf tournament in which the Saudi team are likely to find themselves in competition with players from Qatar, who are coached by Peter Gilchrist! Could the Arabian Gulf become the new "Teesside" of World billiards?