Editorial
Herbert Beetham
The death of this great amateur billiards player has been extensively covered in the billiards press. The BQR tribute was effectively in the last issue. In some way the death of any player (or anyone else for that matter) affects us all.
Predictions
The new Amateur Billiards Champion is David Causier of Middlesbrough. In the January Issue the prediction was made that come 1993 Martin Goodwill would still be amateur champion and Mike Russell professional champion. Well, I've got the first one wrong! What are the odds on the second one? A good job I'm not a betting man though I have been known to make highest breaks bets with Foldvari, bets which were heavily in my favour, and I recall very nearly losing those as the Australian piled up the points. I had better stop making predictions of any kind.
Professional Billiards and India
It was at the Kenilworth British Open prelims that Geet Sethi remarked that he thought the future of the professional game lay largely in India. Events seem to be proving him right. The professional game must go, of course, where the money is, though this means that British enthusiasts will be unable to see the final stages of some tournaments most notably the World Championship. I wonder what would happen if the Indian promoters decided to increase the prize money by staging the preliminary matches in India!
Midlands Championship
The Midlands Championship was won by Peter Shelley of Stoke who beat Ken Shirley of Walsall at the Cubbington Club. We hope to publish more details of this championship in the next issue.
Robert Marshall
That great billiards enthusiast Arthur White of Leeds recently went to Australia to visit his son Steve. Steve White is a journalist with "The West Australian." Arthur and Steve went together to visit the great Australian billiard player Bob Marshall. They spent some time with Marshall who talked about his career in billiards. Steve White made notes and afterwards wrote the story. It is a fascinating account of Marshall's life and times and the first part will appear in the next issue of this magazine. Marshall is recovering from a heart by-pass operation and was planning to return to the game within a week or two of Mr. White's visit.
Results
There are rather more results than usual in this issue - it is that time of year. I have tried to keep a balance between result reporting am articles. One result not published is that of the British Under 18 championship won by Lee Lagan against Daniel Zagaroli. This was a very interesting game and a full report will appear in the next issue.
A happy Summer to everybody and a successful one to those billiard players who have to start the slog through the professional snooker qualifying rounds.