George Ganim junior regained the Australian Amateur Title by beating David Collins in a six-hour final held at the Hornsby Ex-Servicemen's Club, Sydney. Ganim previously held the title from 1976 - 1981. The final stages were marred by the walk-out of the defending champion Phil Tarrant. The walk-out happened after Tarrant had been refused practice time on the match table in the hour preceding his semi-final match with Ganim. There were two practice tables available which had been used by the other semi-finalists. Tarrant left the club thus conceding 100 points by not being present at the starting time, and was disqualified from the competition when he was still not present 15 minutes after the start time. Tarrant must have had a good chance of taking the title for the seventh time; he had had a double century in the quarters and appeared on good form. The New South Wales champion almost certainly came to regret his rather impetuous action as he attempted to make his apologies the following day. It is not yet known whether or not the Australian B&SC will take any action. There were 32 entries playing in 8 groups to a Round-Robin with the top two in each group to qualify for the K.O. stage. This stage was seeded. Phil Tarrant was No.l, with David Collins 2, Joe Millen 3, and George Ganim 4. The 17-year-old Rhys Cochrane was seeded No.5.
| J. Millen
65, 81, 61 | 792 | (13.2) | L. Higgins
61 | 669 | (11.0) |
| G. Ganim
81, 89, 96, 85, 169, 59, 64 | 1,144 | (27.2) | R. Cochrane
82, 95, 54, 68 | 691 | (16.4) |
| P. Tarrant
54, 110, 204 | 1,022 | (12.3) | A. McPherson
99 | 613 | (7.4) |
| D. Collins
84, 76, 51, 60, 77, 87, 80 | 1,055 | (15.0) | J. Minici
80, 54 | 694 | (9.9) |
| D. Collins
83, 71, 58, 69, 126, 66, 70, 63, 118, 57, 58, 100 | 1,429 | (19.8) | J. Millen
53, 58, 81, 88, 88, 82 | 1,018 | (14.1) |
| G. Ganim
| w/o | P. Tarrant
| Disqualified |
| G. Ganim
114, 70, 51, 123, 138, 115, 84, 77 | 1,783 | (20.0) | D. Collins
107, 143, 72, 130, 61, 103, 57, 61, 59, 60, 127 | 1,644 | (18.5) |
This event was made possible by George Gray's son Eric of Townsville who allowed the Victorian Association to name the event in memory of his father, and who donated a perpetual trophy. The event was played at the Beswick Snooker Centre on the old Alcock tables from Lindrum's Billiards Parlour. The event was given impetus by the recent piece on George Gray published in the Billiards Quarterly Review;
| A. Hicks
| 393 | A. Williams
| 307 | ||
| L. Mitchell
| 560 | C. Ridder
| 160 | ||
| R. Norman
| 484 | R. Ball
| 194 | ||
| R. Beswick
| 434 | F. Parsons
| 240 |
| A. Hicks
60, 57, 79 | 683 | R. Beswick
60 | 495 | ||
| R. Norman
86, 100 | 581 | L. Mitchell
| 344 |
| A. Hicks
86, 50, 100 | 808 | R. Norman
| 503 |
| R. Norman
| 594 | F. Parsons
| 347 | ||
| L. Mitchell
| 470 | G. Spiteri
| 369 |
| R. Norman
65, 53 | 598 | L. Mitchell
62 | 370 |
| A. Mahoney
67 | 548 | J. Main
| 205 | ||
| Partridge
| 281 | S. Grundy
| 260 |
| A. Mahoney
| 571 | S. Partridge
| 441 |
| B. Smith
| 383 | B. Cowley
| 298 | ||
| B. Hallam
| 333 | R. Budd
| 312 |
| B. Smith
| 487 | B. Hallam
| 276 |
It is reported from Australia that whilst entries for tournaments are still rather low, the standard of play is showing a decided improvement. Comparison of the statistics with those of a year ago certainly support this.BQR thanks Ray Balderston of, "Small Chalk," and Mr Graeme Walters of Sydney for the above reports.
I would like to say thank you for the Review because this is the only source of billiards information which I can find and which I use to repeat reading and sharing with my friends and players in our Billiards circle.
There is, unfortunately, too little billiards activity in Singapore. The control body, Singapore Billiards and Snooker Council only holds an open championship annually. However, the Council is very supportive by sending our top players to participate in every World Amateur Championship.
In Singapore, one can only find billiards being played in private clubs, which normally provide attendants or markers whilst playing. These clubs, about 40 of them, are affiliated to the SBSC. In recent years, local tournaments have been based on the 150 up format. The same format is also applied to the South Eastern Asian Games, which has included Billiards and Snooker as participating events, With my best regards.
Sonic Multani (Supersonic) won both the Madras billiards and snooker titles. In the billiards he defeated Mukesh Rehani 1298 - 382. It is reported that Mulani is considering playing billiards professionally. He is a very good player and would lend yet more weight to the Indian challenge for supremacy in the game.