The EABA English Championship 1993/94

Regional Results

Yorkshire and North-West

Group 1

Group 2

Group 3

Eastern Counties

Western Counties

Southern Region

Group l

Group 2

Preliminary Round

Teesside and the North East

Group l

Group 2

Group 3

Group 4

Midland Counties

Group l

Group 2

Group 3

---

Intermediate Stage

Darley Dale Institute

Tom McFarlane had done well to reach the last 16 in only his second championship and after only two years of serious billiards. He could hardly have had a tougher match and was well beaten. Goodwill showed some fine form making five centuries and a ninety.

Roy Bacon did not show his form of the preliminaries but nevertheless was in the lead to the interval. Crosland settled the matter with a fine break of 183.

The Parkside Club, Middlesbrough

Defending champion David Causier was clearly in excellent form to have beaten such a good player as Tony Mackinder by almost a thousand. This is tantamount to conceding one's opponent, in a four hour match, over 200 points an hour.

Tony Keeling is a fairly recent convert to billiards and did very well indeed to get past Lee Cuthbert who can claim the pedigree of the Teesside Boys League.

Dudley Snooker Centre

Bern had done very well to get to this stage but found Peter Shelley too experienced and a little too good.

Neil Rewhorn joins the long list of those players who have found Alf Nolan a difficult player to contend with, and not simply because the Newcastle ex-champion is still a good player, and a very wily tactician. One of Nolan's most disconcerting habits is that of leaning over the table, and commenting on either his own or his opponent's play -and whilst in the middle of a break! He is also prone to give the spectators little lectures about how he has played this - or that - shot, whilst his opponent is supposed to sit waiting patiently for his turn. Nolan is what is generally known as a, "Character," Many and many an opponent has found this particular character not at all to his liking.

Huntingdon 147 Snooker Club

Peter Sheehan, a semi-finalist last year, took an early lead which he held until almost the interval. Burgess struck with 205 and 141 in consecutive visits and averaged over 30 in the second session swamping his young opponent.

Steven Whiteley had excelled himself to reach this stage but found the dashing Bill more than a handful.

Quarter-Finals

Martin Goodwill took an early lead and, after an excellent break of 318, settled into a consistent lead of about 300 eventually winning the match by 273 points. Steve Crosland needed a couple of good centuries to have a realistic chance but could not get them. The Yorkshire champion was very consistent around the 25 - 30 mark and though playing a well-controlled all-round and red-ball game could not match Goodwill's fluency at the spot end. Crosland will need to, "Go to the top," if he is to make a real challenge for the title. Some slight adjustments to stance and cueing would, I think, help to improve his potting, and there should be no reason why a player of his determination should not add a spot-end dimension to his game and thus become a heavier scorer. Goodwill expressed some dissatisfaction with his form at this stage but it would need only a slight improvement to take his average into championship winning figures.

Middlesbrough

Tony Keeling was quite outclassed but should feel well-satisfied with his effort this year. It is far from easy to reach the quarter-finals of the championship. Causier would seem to be on pretty good form and it would no great surprise if he made it a hat-trick of titles this year.

Dudley

An extraordinarily dour struggle in which no quarter was asked or given resulted in a tie at 766 all. This result could well be unique in the 106 year history of the championship. Vastly experienced though Peter Shelley is he almost succumbed to Nolan's particular brand of match play. And the Newcastle veteran could well have won. It seems that when eight behind and just seconds to play, Nolan scored eight -which tied the scores - and then went to check the clock! If he had stayed at the table and played on, the balls were in good position, then he would have won. There was an extra half-hour during which time Shelley scored 125 to Nolan's 71.

Huntingdon

An interesting game between two players who are both rapid scorers and like to get on with the game. Dave Burgess did not quite reproduce the form he had shown against Sheehan and Bill Andress pressed him all the way.

Semi-Finals

The B.C.I. Snooker Centre. Bulwell. Nottingham, 26th and 27th March

The BCI Centre offers a fine match arena and a first class standard table. The table had been re-covered with a cloth kindly donated by Strachan, Ltd, and fitted by the local firm of Elston and Hopkins. It had been specified that the cloth should be a billiards cloth as opposed to one specially prepared for snooker. All the players were able to practice on the match table on the Friday evening before semi-final day, and all expressed their satisfaction with the conditions.

Disappointing Games

Considered as matches, the semi-finals were very disappointing though both Goodwill and Causier provided some entertaining billiards, Causier in particular delighted the spectators with some spectacular pots and deep screw strokes.

Their semi-final opponents must have been very disappointed with their showing, their match averages of 8.1 and 10.4 were poor for billiards at this level. David Burgess must have been especially disappointed with his match as his form in previous rounds had been such as to suggest that he was in with an outside chance of causing an upset. It was never on from the first ten minutes. The Portsmouth man simply could not get going, the balls did not run particularly kindly at times, but he had plenty of chances to shine, and for such a good player to make only one break over 50 in a four hour match is hard to explain. Shelley, too, never looked like making a serious challenge though he did manage a century break in the second session. Both Burgess and Shelley are highly experienced players and it is hard to imagine that the occasion was too much for them. It seemed rather that neither of them expected to win and played accordingly.

D. Causier v D. Burgess

David Causier, with only minimal interruption from his opponent, scored freely in the first session. It was perhaps a little too easy for the defending champion and it would have been better for him had the opposition been a little sterner.

There was not a spectator who did not want to see David Burgess do well in the second session but, though scoring better, he could manage only one break over 50. Causier continued on his merry way but seemed rather careless in his approach - something he would not be able to afford against Goodwill.

M. Goodwill v P. Shelley

Martin Goodwill had been able to take a week off from his flying duties and had had some practice with Peter Gilchrist. It showed.

Peter Shelley is a fine cueman and a fine player and, though he had the worst of the running, it is something of a mystery as to why he seemed quite unable to score with his usual fluency in the first session.

Though Shelley's was a lost cause there was some pride to be salvaged and the Stoke man had at least the satisfaction of a century breakin the second session. Goodwill had four centuries and a 99 and his ability to take the balls to the top and keep them there must have provided David Causier with more than a little food for thought.

Goodwill Regains the Title Exciting Finish

Martin Goodwill v David Causier

There had been little doubt that these two players, the best two amateurs in the country, would once again meet in the final of the championship. Goodwill was champion in '90 and '91, Causier in '92 and '93. One of them was going to make it for the third time. There are other amateurs who play the game to a high standard, but there seems to be no-one on the immediate horizon who could claim to have a realistic chance of toppling either Goodwill or Causier from the top of the amateur ladder. This seems even more-so after the dismal showing of the beaten semi-finalists. Semi-final form was of little guide to the likely progress of the final but Goodwill had seemed the steadier of the two. Causier was rather erratic at times, and though his recovery strokes were as brilliant as ever, he had been unable to retain position at the top-of-the-table.

David Causier got away to a flying start, and with Goodwill failing at a couple of easy openings, the defending champion rapidly built up a lead of over 200. The turning point of the session came when Causier played a bad safety-shot leaving both balls in play, and from which Goodwill scored 91. The RAF man then made a break of 128 which put him in the lead, and he followed this with the game's highest, a fine effort of 226 which put him well in front. This break had a curious sequel. Goodwill broke down at a stun pot from the spot which left his cue-ball and the red just inches apart and near the side cushion.

Causier's ball lay some three feet away thus leaving a very simple can non. It was essential, from Causier's point of view, that he make an immediate reply to Goodwill's break, but, astonishingly, he shot in- between the balls missing them altogether. It was not clear quite what he was trying to do - apart from scoring the cannon. Goodwill scored a few more from the resulting set-up and finished the session with a lead of 248. The most apt comment came from World No.4 Peter Gilchrist who remarked that Causier, "Was not making life easy for himself."

David Causier needed an early century or two to get himself back into contention, but it was Goodwill who made the early running.

After an hour-and-a-quarter the lead was 420. It was at this point that Causier made a great effort; for once managing to retain position at the top he knocked up a rapid 184, followed this with an 81, which, together with some smaller items, left him a mere 80 behind with a little less than half-an-hour to play. When the Teessider got a very useful fluke at 31 it looked as if the tide might be flowing in his favour, but once again he lost position at the top breaking down at 52. It was his last real chance. Goodwill compiled a painstaking all-round break of 83 to restore his lead to 170 with ten minutes to play. A couple of hundred points in ten minutes is by no means beyond David Causier, and though he had one or two half-chances, Goodwill kept control, won the safety exchanges, and played out time with 34 unfinished to win by 122. What had at one stage looked like being a run-away victory for the challenger, turned into a very exciting and tense game of billiards. Goodwill played excellently throughout and was a deserving winner. Causier was not quite at his best and at times seemed rather careless in his positional play.

---