World Open Billiards

Billiard Player (No 6) last reported that the EABA were not prepared to fund the entry and expenses of our English Amateur Champion Paul Bennett to the World Open event in Malta because of the involvement of professionals in what was formally known as the World Amateur Championship.

This decision was consistent of the EABA ruling a year earlier relating to Chris Shutt. As was then the EASB, to whom we are affiliated, determined that the English Amateur Champion should represent England and the entry should be submitted and the costs be deducted from the EABA budget allocation.

Before the EASB determination, Paul and the Teesside public were made aware of the EABA decision and there was strong reaction to it.

The clubs that Paul represents in local leagues considered that Paul should be allowed to compete in Malta and vowed to fund the trip.

Some 20+ years ago clubs in the area rallied to send Bob Close to New Zealand and more recently Mike Russell's trip to India to compete in World events when no funding was available to them, indeed Hemlington Social Club were prepared to fund the whole anticipated cost of £650 if required.

Support from the Cowpen Social Club and Acklam Garden City meant that Hemlington didn't have to bear the brunt of the cost but they did provide the bulk of the required funding.

The Hemlington 'A' and 'B' games league teams played against each other on a home and away basis with blind cards, raffles, etc; providing incomes.

The clubs ladies darts section provided further impetus to funds by organising a 12 hour dart marathon on Paul's behalf.

With funding assured from local sources Paul's entry to the World Open was submitted without recourse to the EABA funds.

Meanwhile a 2nd place was allocated to an English player providing that costs were met by the player. Fellow Teessider Darren Kell, the national CIU Champion, was invited to fill the slot and the Teesside fund raising machine swung back into action.

The CIU recreation Committee granted their champion the sum of £200 and the Cleveland branch of the CIU chipped in with a further £50, Nottingham's Tom Terry, the former editor of the BQR, became aware of events and made a personal contribution to funds.

The Beechwood and Easterside Club along with the Ironopolis Club, for whom Darren competes, provided sufficient support to ensure that Darren would join Paul on the flight to Malta.

Look out World, the Teesside boys are on their way!

THE TOURNAMENT

Organised by the Maltese Billiards and Snooker Association between 25th September and 5th October the event attracted 28 entries of whom 3 have professional status.

The Maltese openly stated that there would be no prize money on offer to dissuade the professional involvement in the tournament which they hoped would accentuate the Amateur status of the event. Billiards pro's Ashok Shandilya (No 9) and Bhaskar (No.25) of India chose to enter as did snooker pro Joe Grech (No.l55) of Malta.

What surprised me was that the Maltese restricted pro billiards entry to those outside the top 8 when my understanding of IBSF rulings states that "open" means pro's regardless of rankings are entitled to enter IBSF events.

The 28 players were split and seeded into groups, where possible, countrymen would not be expected to compete against each other in the round robin groupings.

There were 9 different countries represented with home country Malta providing 5 entrants, India 4, Australia 4, New Zealand 4, Eire 3, Northern Ireland 2, Sri Lanka 3, South Africa 1 and England 2.

Play was to be held in the Maltese Association Snooker Centre in Rabat with accommodation in the Kennedy Nova Hotel in Sliema some 25 minutes drive away.

Qualifying Competition

25th-30th September 1997

Group "A" Table

The Maltese snooker pro came through round robin group 'A' unbeaten and was joined by Northern Ireland bookmaker David Elliot whose only defeat was by Grech.

Match Details

Group "B" Table

Paul Bennett having seen the grouping wanted to meet Indian pro Bhaskar first "to get it out of the way". The 21 year old English Champion got his wish and was heartened by a 627 - 309 first session and ran out an easy winner 1,335 - 674. A 1,669 - 618 victory over Eire's Philip Martin followed.

A problem arose at the mid-point of his match against Australian Neil Croft when Paul was decidedly unwell with a stomach illness.

A retirement was contemplated but with an extensive gap between sessions Paul thanks to acceptable medication managed to recover sufficiently to win 1,049 - 791.

New Zealander David Meredith went down 1,279 - 770 and Alfred Micallef of Malta followed 1,594 - 913. Paul rounded off his group with a 1,631 - 759 victory over Northern Ireland's John McIntyre to go through to the quarter finals unbeaten.

Bhaskar recovered sufficiently from his opening defeat to win all other games to qualify in 2nd place.

Match Details

Group "C" Table

Malta's Paul Mifsud won group 'C' by being unbeaten and was joined by Indian Prem Pradesh Sivalingaiah who lost only to Mifsud.

Match Details

Group "D" Table

Tournament favourite Ashok Shandilya was Darren Kell's first opponent. The Indian was untroubled and went on to win 1,389 - 696, He next won 1,395 - 932 before hitting some fine form with victories of 2,333-553,2,012-863,1,968-780 and 1,925-967.

Darren qualified by winning his other group games, Malta's Alfred Borg went down 1,327 - 924 then Darren beat Australia's George Ganim 972 - 850 then New Zealander Derek Gibb 943 - 695, he was much more comfortable when beating Frans Mintoff of Malta 1,536 - 687 then Sri Lankan K.H. Sirisoma 1,083 - 932.

Match Details

2nd October 1997

The quarter finals pitched Darren against Grech and 3 centuries put Joe in an unstoppable interval lead at 730 - 428 which was taken to an overall 1,405 - 937 result to end Darren's continuing involvement.

Paul Mifsud held a slender 593 - 557 lead at the interval and ran out comfortable winner over Bhaskar 1,374 - 988.

Paul Bennett trailed Prem Pradesh Sivalingaiah 688 - 564 at the interval but came through 1,282 - 1,171 to move into the semi-final.

David Elliot was still in touch with Shandilya at the interval when trailing 636 - 517 and ran the Indian Pro all the way to the bell before losing 1,159 - 1,070.

3rd October 1997

The semi-finals put the Maltese pair of Grech and Mifsud together. Grech appeared to have things his way as he held a 400 + lead at the interval 1285 - 830. Breaks of 272, 211 and four centuries took Grech to a 2,160 total while Mifsud had five centuries and made a creditable response to total 1,987.

Ashok Shandilya gave Paul Bennett little opportunity to win and by the interval led 1,365 - 615. Ashok accumulated 2,641 points with runs of 212, 202 and 4 other centuries. Paul made 4 century breaks to score 1,757 in response.

4th-5th October 1997

The final brought the snooker pro Joe Grech against top ranked billiards pro Ashok Shandilya, Grech had been a world billiards finalist in 1987 when losing to Geet Sethi.

Joe's competence was never questioned in the 3 ball game as his major breaks in the tournament had proved. Played over 4 sessions the final saw Shandilya leading early in the first stint but as the bell sounded Grech was in play with a 223 unfinished break.

The run ended shortly after at 238 but further breaks of 242 and 126 took him to a mid-point 1,466 points. Shandilya made breaks of 192 and 310 to have 1,350 on the board and be 54 unfinished at the bell.

The 3rd session was all Indian as Grech scored only 369 points while Shandilya piled on 989 points thanks to breaks of 184,218 and 210. Many would have thought that the end of the struggle but Grech returned to the arena with revived determination.

The crowd had diminished as Grech had wilted but news quickly spread of a revival and supporters appeared to come out of the woodwork to spur on the home based player.

Grech made runs of 101, 226, 109, 140, 161 and 128 to total 2,895 to overtake Shandilya's 2,836 total by 59 points. There is already the prospect of Grech and Sivalingaiah joining the billiard pro ranks.

In Conclusion

Statistically there were 136 century breaks in the tournament, 11 double centuries a 300+ and tournament best of 412 made by Joe Grech.

Both Darren and Paul relished the experience of the tournament and acted as marvellous ambassadors for their country with their exemplary conduct and manner throughout their stay.

They both expressed their thanks to their sponsors who provided the funds for their stay and to the EASB for providing the opportunity to compete.

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