24 players took part in this championship which had been held over from earlier in the year. It was played to the double elimination format in four groups, each group containing one seeded player. The seeds were Andrew MacPherson (The holder,) Todd Hayward, Joe Minici, and Joe Millen, and all came through though Millen had a tough match with Vic Mifsud winning by only 72.
These four were joined by the runners-up from each group to make up the eight quarter finalists. The surprise match of the quarters was that in which Bruce Ashby beat the No.3 seed Joe Minici.
| P. Tarrant
117, 116, 104, 84, 77, 66, 66 | 1,380 | A. MacPherson
95, 83, 62, 67, 51 | 1,042 | ||
| J. Millen
77, 65, 55, 51 | 949 | B. Ashby
| 756 |
The final was played over 3x2 hour sessions. It was an exciting and entertaining game with a close finish, Tarrant winning by 141 with final scores of 1474 -1333. Millen seems not to have been at his best as his top break was only 87. Tarrant had top breaks of 146 and 121. The 146 was the highest break of the tournament. Tarrant had four other centuries. There were no other centuries which is surprising considering the quality of the field. Congratulations to Phil Tarrant.
This Championship was held in Bangalore and was won by the 20-year-old Rupesh Shah from Gujurat who beat Sonic Multani (Supersonic) 1467 -1188 and became the youngest ever Indian Champion. The previous youngest was Geet Sethi who won the title when aged 21. Shah's highest break in the tournament was 268 and he made many other centuries.
Looks like yet another Indian billiards star has, if not quite arrived, very much on his way.
Fourteen of the world's best cuemen met in Delhi to dispute this championship which consisted of snooker, billiards, American pool (14 - 1) and freestyle carom.
There were two groups from which Geet Sethi, Eddie Charlton, Steve Davis, and Mike Russell battled through to the Semis where Russell beat Sethi, and Davis beat Charlton. The Final was to be 200 up in each game.
| Billiards: Davis 200 - Russell 79 |
| American Pool: Davis 200 - Russell 58 |
| Carom: Davis 193 - Russell 200 |
| Snooker: Davis 200 -152. |
The highest breaks of the tournament were 95 at billiards by Davis, 103 at snooker by Russell, 74 cannons at carom by Martin Spoormans. In a group round Russell beat Davis at snooker, whilst Davis beat Russell at billiards in the final - a surprising reversal of what might have been expected though both of these players are very good at the others speciality. The final placings of group 'B' showed Karen Corr ahead of Michael Ferreira - one of the all-time greats. Well done Karen. It seems to have been an interesting and successful tournament and one which might arouse some interest in England if a sponsor could be found and if there could be T.V. coverage. Billiards enthusiasts just wish there could be more of the, "real thing."