1991 World Professional Billiards Championship

Preliminary rounds of the Professional Championship were played in Sheffield from the 9th to the 11th of April. Five players were exempted from qualifying. These were, M. Russell, P. Gilchrist, I. Williamson, R. Close, and N. Dagley. It is not entirely clear why five were exempted as opposed to six, seven, or any other number. It seems that it had something to do with the number of entries. The absurd happened (see B.Q.R. Feb. P.25) in that Geet Sethi and Manoj Kothari travelled from India to play a four hour match to decide who should play in a Championship to be held in India. The highlights of these prelims were a break of 605 by Sethi and a break of 513 by John Murphy. This latter break was very remarkable in that Murphy's previous record was in the 200s, To go from a top of less than 300 to one of over 500 is astonishing. All players know that personal records usually increase by quite small percentages. A player will often make a lot of 80s and 90s before topping the century and may then take years to reach 150 - if ever. Well done John,

The Tournament was to have been played in New Delhi, 12th - 18th May, but has been postponed as it coincided with the Indian Elections, It will be played later in the year probably from July 25th - 29th. The draw is:-Russell v Edwards. Everton v Charlton. Ferreira v Nimmo. Murphy v Gilchrist. Williamson v Wildman. Foldvari v Edmonds. Close v Sethi. Heald v Dagley.

Form points to a Russell - Sethi final. But Dagley is experienced in playing in India and cannot be discounted. Michael Ferreira is anxious to do well and is certainly good enough to take the title again. Gilchrist was runner-up last time but is becoming increasingly involved with snooker. Foldvari has the game as has Williamson. B.Q.R. goes for a Russell - Sethi final with Mike just favourite provided he suffers no bad after effects from the operation on his nose, but he will find Sethi a hard one to beat on his home territory. Ferreira and Williamson to be losing semi-finalists.

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