The Gold Flake World Professional Billiards Championship 1994

Final Stages The Leela Kempinski Hotel, Bombay. 27th September - 2nd October

Peter Gilchrist becomes World Champion

"A Plague on both your Houses They have made worms' meal of me"

Comfortable for the Champion

As is traditional, the defending champion played the first match. Patel found Sethi in irresistible form. Breaks of 326, 165, and 292 took the World No.l. to an interval lead of 726. Patel took an unfinished 55 to 98 and later scored a century. Three further centuries from the champion saw him to a win by nearly a thousand points. Patel could count himself a little unfortunate. He played well enough to have beaten some of the other players.

Ferreira's poor form

I had fielded out for Michael Ferreira the evening before this match, he had seemed to be in excellent form. His opponent had spent the evening in bed stricken with a particularly virulent attack of the, "Bombay belly," and attended by two doctors. It was very much in doubt as to whether or not Everton would be able to play. But he did play - a first session in which his top break was 57 and his average just over 10. And yet this was enough to give him an interval lead of 161. Ferreira was but a shadow of the player who was twice World Amateur champion and once World Open champion, indeed, a mere shadow of the player he had seemed only the previous evening. The second session was no better. The Indian player was never in front throughout the game but with half-an-hour to play made a 95 and narrowed the gap. With some ten minutes left Ferreira, "got into the same street," but Everton hung on to win by 81 points. Considering his physical condition, the Snooker Scene Editor had performed creditably, but there seemed no explanation for Ferreira's dreadful performance.

Great Effort by Kothari

The match started slowly, after an hour Kothari led 291 - 273. Then there was a spurt. The Indian made a 149. This nudged the veteran Earl Shilton player into action with consecutive breaks of 140 and 100. A further break of 88 gave Dagley an interval lead of 165.

Played slowed down again in the second session but it was the Englishman who made the better progress and at the three hour mark had a lead of nearly 500. Again the game came to life. Kothari made a 128 and followed with a 137. Dagley again rose to the challenge and scored a fine 180 in a little under 14 minutes to lead by 327 with some 19 minutes left. The Indian then gathered the balls at the spot end and played out time with a great unfinished 291. It was a wonderful effort but he was still 38 points adrift at the bell.

Gilchrist just scrapes through

Roxton Chapman, having made his first thousand break just a few days before leaving for India, could be forgiven for feeling confident. It was perhaps this very knowledge that he had an outside chance, even of taking the title itself, that caused him to be over-anxious and was maybe his undoing. His best effort was a mere 87. Gilchrist, who had prepared for the championship on the golf course, was thus spared having to sit out a big break, and given the opportunity to play himself into some kind of form. It did not take long for the Middlesbrough man to start cueing in his usual stylish easy manner and a couple of centuries gave him a small interval lead.

With everything to play for both players seemed tense and unwilling to take any risks. Chapman made his only century - 116, whilst Gilchrist's best of the session was just 81. It was touch and go to the very end and Gilchrist was a little fortunate to scrape through by just 32,. Although the Middlesbrough man was cueing well there was no real sign of the superlative form that he was to show throughout the rest of the tournament.

The Fatal Kick

Foldvari's first scoring visit was a break of 50. He followed with a 79 and with smaller efforts took a lead of 190 - 47. Rex Williams had scored 47 after four visits and then went to the table seven times without scoring. The Australian had a 78 to go two-hundred in front before Williams found his touch with a 134. The session ended with Foldvari holding a lead of 118 with Williams in play.

Williams took his break to 42 at which point he had a very bad kick on an easy spot-end cannon. It made it look as if he had taken the object ball on the wrong side altogether. It could have been quite decisive. From the resulting leave the Australian made a 117 and gradually pulled away for a relatively comfortable win.

That such a player as Williams, holder of the World Championship for 14 years should score only 533 points in four hours is quite remarkable. He admitted to a mistake in not getting a little practice on the match table; however, he is not the first, and he will not be the last, to find Foldvari a very difficult opponent.

A Billiards Tragedy

John Murphy once made a break of over five-hundred in a world championship match. He once reached the final of the UK and gave Mike Russell a pretty good run for his money. I have played John Murphy more than once and can testify to his ability. On this occasion it is reported that he had been at the venue for two days before he even knew where the table was! Neither was he up against one of the very top players - with respect to Ian Williamson. After four hours John finished with a total of 265, a top break of 34, and a match average of 6.0. It gives me no pleasure to report these facts.

Fine win for Joshi

Devendra Joshi must have known that it was never going to be easy against the Hartlepool veteran, and he must have been greatly encouraged by the fact that Bob Close had scored only 200 or so points after an hour, whilst he himself had scored nearly 400 with breaks of 142 and 177. Close simply could not get his game together in the first session and finished over 400 in arrears.

Bob Close is renowned as a fighter and remarked during the interval that all was not yet lost. And so it proved. He added 366 in his first eight visits of the second session to reduce the gap to a manageable couple of hundred.

Unfortunately for him, Joshi came again with a fine double century, and though Close had two centuries, it was the Indian who was in front at the bell for the best win of his professional career.

Russell at his Best

Mike Russell was at his very best in the first session. Subhash Agrawal is a very good player, admired by none other than the great Bob Marshall, but he never had a look in. The Mighty Mike started like a house on fire, it seemed not to matter where the balls lay, within two or three strokes Russell had them at the spot end. Towards the end of the session the Englishman began to feel unwell, otherwise he might have scored even more. One Indian spectator (who was present at every session of the championship) commented, "That was awesome." Play had to be halted three times during the second session whilst Russell coped with an attack of the, "Belly." It did not stop him from adding three further centuries. Subhash regained some self-respect with a very good century and a session average of over 17.

A Game of Two Halves

As the football commentators are fond of saying. The BQR Editor made a small bet with the (now) world champion, that Sethi would be a thousand in front by the interval. The bet was paid with a half-hour of the first session still to play! The Indian made the highest of the tournament to that point - 507, and immediately followed with 133 to attain a session average of 58.5. Everton was an interested onlooker.

The second session was a quite different bowl of curry- The Snooker Scene Editor, with nothing to lose, went for his shots, made three excellent century breaks and. despite two big centuries from the Indian, actually out-pointed his illustrious opponent. As Everton remarked, if he hadn't been a thousand behind at the interval he would have won!

Gilchrist starts to Flow

Both players were understandably cautious in the early stages. Gilchrist was the first to make some headway and with breaks of 52 and 85 led by 145 after 10 visits. Dagley came into the game with a typically smooth 166, but Gilchrist replied immediately with a double century. He followed with another good hundred, and played to the interval with 178 unfinished to lead by nearly 400. The Middlesbrough man was now playing excellent billiards in his most stylish manner.

Gilchrist took his unfinished break to 296 and followed with a couple of half-centuries. But Dagley was not finished; he scored a century and with about an hour to go was some 500 points in arrears. The task was not beyond him. Gilchrist, despite his lead, was looking just a little anxious, but at this point played one of the best shots of the tournament - a non-too-easy pot combined with a cannon, which enabled him to leave a very good double baulk. The resulting fifty break eased matters. Another double baulk gave him the opening to make a beautiful 298 and the match was over. Norman Dagley is still a great player and a favourite with the Indian spectators, but (as many older, players -at a much lower level of course - know only too well) it is difficult indeed to overcome the young lions.

A War of Attrition

It has to be reported that this was the only match which did not attract at least a couple of dozen spectators. Most sessions were played to full, or nearly full houses. One Indian gentleman, a Mr Sameer Kohli (Sam), was present and in the same seat at every session. He reeled into the bar after half-an-hour or so of this match, face contorted in agony, to report that the players were scoring at the rate of two points per minute - between them! During the week before the championship, Foldvari practised for three days at my club in Nottingham against myself and two other similarly useful amateurs. He made break after break in a relaxed and fluent style; not exceptionally fast but neither particularly slow. It is hard to convince oneself that it is the same player when the Australian is in a match.

Williamson is another notoriously slow player but. as he gained in confidence, and as it became apparent that Foldvari was simply not going to do very much, then the Yorkshireman played rather more fluently than usual and made an attractive enough century in the second session. The Australian, one of the most technically near-perfect players in the world, could manage no more than three fifty breaks and a 78 unfinished at his very last visit. The scoring rate ran at an average of just under 5 points per minute.

1075 in three visits

Devendra Joshi is a very good player, a potential top-eight man. This match underlined the vast difference in quality between those who aspire to be in the top eight, and those who are already in the top three or four. Russell broke off and scored 169 at his very next visit, this break taking 2 seconds short of 15 minutes - perhaps a little slow by the Mighty Mike's standards. His next visit produced 86. he followed with a string of smaller items before making another century shortly before the interval.

Joshi did not make a century but scored fairly consistently for a session average of nearly 25 - which would not be displeasing to most players. Russell started the second session quietly enough with just a century and an 80 odd. It was at his eighth visit that the fireworks started. A break of 240 was followed by the tournament highest of 555. followed by a 280. to score 1075 points in just three visits to the table. The object white throughout hardly moved more than an inch or two from the spot with Russell taking two pots to every cannon putting the red down with every variety of screw, side, or stun, to give a display which can only be described as sensational. These visits kept him at the table little more than an hour and his session average was 114.75. Joshi, in the face of this onslaught, stuck to his task whenever he was able to get to the table and recorded a second creditable average. With Sethi, though playing well enough, seeming not quite at his very best, it was beginning to look as if Russell was clear favourite to regain the title.

The Champion beaten

His win over Norman Dagley had clearly given Peter Gilchrist a great deal of confidence. In conversation the evening before his semi-final, the Middlesbrough professional, whilst acknowledging the size of his task, reckoned that he was in with more than just a chance. He also reckoned that he was in with more than just a chance of taking the title itself. Considering the ability of the players who were in his way this really was confidence. Gilchrist is no fool and had to be taken seriously.

Me did not get off to a very good start. Sethi broke off and at his second visit to the table made a break of 113. But the Indian player seemed unable to capitalise on this excellent start as he scored only 4 more points in his next nine visits. Gilchrist, meanwhile, had scored a mere 19. It was on the half-hour mark that things started to happen. Gilchrist scored 119 to get on level terms only to then sit out a great break of 332 from Sethi. The Englishman followed this with a century, a 67, and a 91 and so was still less than one hundred behind. A protracted bout of safety play followed. In his last twelve visits before the interval Sethi scored only 93 points which included a break of 73: he was faced with five consecutive double baulks and gave five safety misses. But this play was far from dull, both players were tense and determined to give nothing away. Gilchrist's safety tactics eventually paid off; from the last of his pot-whites he gained an opening from which he scored 126. left nothing, and went to the interval on 10 unfinished and with a lead of just 8 points. Gilchrist got the perfect start to the second session by taking his unfinished 10 to 263. This was a fine break, a little slower than is usual with this player, a little shaky round the 200 mark, but a wonderful effort. Sethi had no intention of giving up his title without a struggle. Gilchrist had left little on but the Indian scored a great kiss cannon to gain possession of the table and, after a safety shot or two, got in with a 127 - breaking down at a long jenny - to be less than 200 behind. Both players were showing signs of strain. Gilchrist, has at times and in such situations, thrown all caution to the winds and gone out for shots in a death or glory manner; not this time, the Englishman held both his nerve and his concentration to produce breaks of 109 and 172, the latter break taking him nearly seventeen minutes, almost twice as long as normal. Thus with a half-hour to go the Champion found himself 400 behind. The moment of truth had arrived, if ever he needed a big break now was the time. Gilchrist was starting to break down when in position, the Indian had his chances but could manage no more than a 59. The tall Teessider played out time with a few small efforts for a wonderful and emotional victory. The Champion was beaten. Whilst feeling delighted for Peter Gilchrist, there is always a slight feeling of sadness when a champion falls. Geet Sethi accepted defeat with great sportsmanship, good manners, and good grace, congratulating his opponent and making no excuses. Gilchrist could, understandably, scarcely conceal his delight. There was one very interested and thoughtful-looking spectator sitting beside me on the back row of the press seats - Mike Russell - who must have been thinking that with Sethi out of the way it could well be once again his year for the title.

Russell reaches fifth consecutive Final

Pre-match conversations had revealed Russell confident enough, though a careful listener might just have detected some slight indications of the, "Hiding to nothing," syndrome. With Sethi gone, the Mighty Mike was clearly thinking of taking his third world title, but he first had to get past Williamson. Nobody was putting any money on him not beating the Leeds professional, but it's a funny game and with the pressure on? It turned out to be - as everyone, after the event of course, had known all along - a comfortable win for the Teessider. Russell deserved more credit for this win than he actually received. Williamson, for his part, was realistic enough. He knew it was all India to a Barnsley chop that he was likely be slaughtered. He merely remarked that he would try to relax and try to do his best. This he did and played his part in a very entertaining game of billiards.

Williamson played a good opening shot but Russell, as he so often does, scored a great cannon and made 126. He added breaks of 155 and 173 and scored a session average of nearly 50. Williamson made a century in, for him, the rapid time of a quarter-of-an-hour or so, and also had runs of 92 and 74. There was some 300 in it at the interval - not a lot at this level.

Russell started the second session clearly intent on putting the issue beyond any doubt. He took 9 points unfinished to 174; he followed with 2, 25, 271, and 346, to lead by nearly nine-hundred. The Leeds man made a very good 187 at a reasonable speed but could not make another big break; neither could his opponent, and the match fizzled out with Russell a comfortable winner.

The Gold Flake World Professional Championship Final

Gilchrist takes the Title

It's a far cry from the Teesside Boys Billiards League to a World Professional Championship Final in Bombay. Who would have thought a dozen years ago, that these two lifelong friends and rivals would be battling for the championship half-way round the world - and for the second time, the first being in Australia five years ago when Russell became the youngest ever holder of the championship.

The evening before the final saw Gilchrist at his cheerful self, a bottle or two of beer and off to bed. Russell seem uncharacteristically tense. He had earlier in the week found it difficult to sleep, and the eve of the final found him under great pressure. He wanted the title so badly it almost hurt, he has mostly beaten Gilchrist in important matches the most recent being the Strachan UK final in which he had overwhelmed his opponent. He knew he could win, and confessed that he, "Had," to win. In the event this tremendous desire was perhaps his undoing. He had played superb billiards throughout the week and maybe, "peaked" a little early. Gilchrist, on the other hand, had started rather shakily, but in the semi-final was approaching his best and cueing like an angel. The Indian enthusiasts were naturally disappointed that Sethi would not be there, but many of them remarked how much they were looking forward to a great final, the regulars were very knowledgeable and considered that this would be by no means a one-sided match. They were wrong, it turned out to be very one-sided, but not in the way that might have been imagined.

First Session

Mike Russell broke and Peter Gilchrist scored a break of 167 at his second visit; he scored a 194 at his fourth. These breaks were made at a slightly slower pace than is usual with the Middlesbrough man, but his play was very accurate. He was right into the floating white displaying great delicacy of touch and, although he broken down at 194 with a missed pot from the spot, there was an envious authority about his positional potting. Russell had scored a mere 82 points after one hour and had twice played very poor positional strokes when well placed at the spot end. He then made a century, and later a double century, both breaks ending on quite easy shots; he seemed very unsure in his approach. Gilchrist played out time with 64 to lead by 216.

Second Session

I exchanged a word with Gilchrist before the match was resumed. I congratulated him on his play and remarked, "He'll come back at you, you know." "Oh, I know that," he replied, "We'll see how it goes."

We did indeed see. Gilchrist took his break to 129, followed with 124, and a few visits later added a great 242. These efforts put him 644 in front with one hour to play. This was a task which was by no means beyond Russell but he seemed unable to raise his game as he has so often done in the past. I have never ever seen him play with so little confidence. His best break of the session was 38 and his average 8.4. For anyone who has ever seen Russell play these figures are almost beyond belief. Something, somewhere, somehow, had gone. Peter Gilchrist in the meantime treated the crowd to an exhibition of billiards at its most attractive, scoring fluently and freely, adding another century and half a dozen smaller breaks which included some delightful close play. With the issue beyond doubt, both players entertained the spectators with a display of their cue power indulging themselves in some remarkable flights of fancy. Russell played a couple of quite extraordinary screw strokes, whilst Gilchrist made some pots that would have brought the house down at The Crucible. It was impossible not to feel for Russell, he had wanted it so badly, and had somehow not been able to perform when it mattered so much. I was reminded of the words of Steve Davis who once said, "You have to be able to play as if it means nothing when, in fact, it means everything." It was Peter Gilchrist who was able to do that. After struggling against Roxton Chapman, he had very convincing wins over Norman Dagley, Geet Sethi, and finally Mike Russell. In modern billiards it is simply impossible to do any better. His victory might be a watershed in the modern game. It had seemed that only Russell or Sethi could take the championship. We know now that there are others who can win.

How quickly - or how slowly - did they score?

Against Patel, Sethi made a break of 326 in 20 minutes, 25 seconds. This works out at a little over 6 minutes per 100. His 292 in 16 minutes, 40 seconds, against the same player works out at a little over 5 minutes per hundred. A break of 119 took 5 minutes and 15 seconds. Patel made one century in the match, mainly by all-round play, and this occupied him 8 minutes and 30 seconds, a reasonable time for all-round play. Sethi's 507 v Clive Everton took 27 minutes and 5 seconds. This is a little over 5 minutes per 100. In this break Sethi went from 200 to 300 in 4 minutes, 40 seconds, and from 300 to 400 in 4 minutes, 58 seconds including thinking time. By contrast, Everton's breaks in the second session v Sethi brought him 406 points and took a total time of 57 minutes, 3 seconds. This is about 14 minutes per hundred, not too bad considering Everton's difficulties in making a stance, and is in fact faster than some of the other players. Other figures confirm that Sethi's average time for a century is about 5 minutes, 10 seconds though, when in full flow, he can go from one century to the next in considerably less than that.

The highest break of the tournament, 555 by Mike Russell against Devendra Joshi, took 33 minutes. This is exactly 6 minutes per 100. Whilst scoring consecutive breaks of 240, 555, and 280, a total of 1075, Russell occupied the table for 1 hour and 4 minutes. This again works out at almost precisely 6 minutes per 100. He would therefore seem to score fractionally slower than Sethi, though it should be borne in mind that Russell also, when in full flow, can go from one century to the next in seconds less than 5 minutes. Williamson's break of 187 against Russell took him 21 and a half minutes. This works out at 11 minutes and a half per hundred, this is faster than Williamson's usual rate. Peter Gilchrist is regarded as a very fast scorer, and so he is when in full flight. He speeded up as the week went on. In his first match (v Chapman) Gilchrist scored two century breaks, 112 and 111, which occupied him 23 minutes, just over ten minutes per hundred. By the time he reached the second session of the final he was knocking in his centuries at about 6 minutes per hundred.

Norman Dagley seems to score at the same leisurely rate as he has done for many years, somewhere between 9 and 10 minutes per hundred. Bob Close scores at about the same rate though he is another one who can speed it up when necessary. It was against Dagley that Manoj Kothari made a wonderful effort. 327 behind with 18 minutes and 29 seconds to play, he produced a magnificent 291 unfinished. That is as near as makes no matter to 6 minutes per hundred from start to finish and included several shots with the long rest and a run of losing hazards.

The best aggregate score came in the Russell - Agrawal encounter. This was 2946, the players scoring at the rate of 12.3 points per minute between them. The lowest aggregate was in the Foldvari - Williamson match. A total of 1186 represents scoring at the rate of 5 points per minute. Against Rex Williams, Robby Foldvari took nearly a quarter-of-an-hour to make a break of 117, whilst against Foldvari, Ian Williamson took 19 minutes to make a break of 134. It is a fact of billiards life that some players are faster than others. Most players get on with the game at their natural rhythm wasting as little time as possible. Some players are, I feel, slower than they need be, and this is not good for the image of the game. At the recent WPBSA Billiard Players Section AGM, it was announced that referees are to be instructed to be more stringent in their application of the relevant ruler-Rules Section 4. The Players. 1. Time Wasting.

"If the referee considers that a player is taking an abnormal amount of time over a stroke, he should be warned that he is liable to be disqualified." We shall see.

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