The Strachan Festival was held in February in Wigan The Bellingham Hotel was an excellent venue. The WPBSA Billiards Committee obtained a very good deal on rooms and catering. The hotel staff were friendly and could not have been more helpful. The bar and restaurant was first class. Two tables were installed in a nicely carpeted function room with plenty of seating. Though Wigan may be a little off the beaten track as regards billiards, it is easily found by going straight up the M6 to Exit 25; and the hotel is located by simply driving up the road past the Wigan Rugby Football Stadium - and there can hardly be anyone for miles around who can't tell you how to find the home of the Wigan RUFC. The billiards week was very successful and it could be that the professional game has found a permanent home for the Strachan tournaments. Not the least satisfactory aspect is that, at last, the Indian players are receiving something like the kind of accommodation and facilities that are available for our professionals when they play in India.
Sponsorship There were three tournaments. The Strachan Alternate Shots Doubles; The Strachan UK; The Strachan British Open.
Strachan sponsored these events to the sum of £37,000.
Camden Honda of Wigan donated a Honda Civic motor car to be awarded to the highest break over 750. Players found the tables rather difficult and this, combined with the 100 points baulkline rule, put such a break out of the question. But the car is still available and a more realistic target will be set for the next professional events.
Strachan Alternative Shot Doubles Championship Ian Williamson and Manoj Kothari win Inaugural Championship There were 30 players entered which meant there would be fifteen pairs. The players were drawn up according to the rankings and a player in the top fifteen was paired with a player in the bottom fifteen by a random draw. Newcomer Brian Dix was paired with Mike Russell, perhaps not quite such a good draw for him as might seem at first sight. A slightly more gentle baptism into the professional game would have been better for Dix than having the responsibility of partnering one of the very top players. There were some very strong pairings. Gilchrist/Everton, Joshi/Shandilya, Williamson/Kothari, looked to be amongst the strongest combinations. All matches were the best of 5 x 150 Round.1.
There were no great surprises. Patel and Hughes were too good for Sethi and Cavney. Gilchrist and Everton combined well in a good win over Joshi and Shandilya though two of the games could have gone either way. Dagley/Caven went through against Russell/Dix in a match where the top break was a mere 63 and, the whole affair representing a real baptism of fire for Dix.
| M. Ferreira & M. G. Jayaram | bye |
| |||
| N. Dagley & J. Caven | 3 | M. Russell & B. Dix | 1 |
| Agarwal & J. Bodle | 3 | M. Wildman & A. Potikyan |
| R. Chapman & H. Griffiths | 3 | J. Murphy & S. Hardcastle | 0 |
| R. Williams & B. Bhaskar | 3 | R. Foldvari & A. Savur | 1 |
| P. Gilchrist & C. Everton | 3 | D. Joshi & A. Shandilya | 1 |
| I. Williamson & M. Kothari | 3 | R. Close & D. Heald | 1 |
| N. Patel & E. Hughes | 3 | G. Sethi & P. Cavney | 0 |
Three of the pairs had comfortable wins. Newcomer Jamie Bodle gave good support to Subhash Agrawal. Bodle is a young snooker player from Scarborough who has been practising with Peter Gilchrist - it showed. Patel/Hughes put up a great fight against Williamson/Kothari losing in the decider to an 84 unfinished.
| Dagley/Caven
| 3 | Ferreira/Jayaram
| 0 |
| Agrawal/Bodle
| 3 | Chapman/Griffiths
| 0 |
| Gilchrist/Everton
| 3 | Williams/Bhaskar
| 0 |
| Williamson/Kothari
| 3 | Patel/Hughes
| 2 |
Both matches were of the dour variety. Only one game lasted less than half-an-hour and that by only one minute. The semi involving Williamson/Kothari lasted three hours and three minutes; the other semi was over in just 9 minutes under three hours.
| Agrawal/Bodle
| 3 | Dagley/Caven
| 1 |
| Williamson/Kothari
| 3 | Gilchrist/Everton
| 1 |
It took just under two hours for Ian Williamson and Manoj Kothari to become the first Billiards Doubles Champions. It was a match that went badly for the Agarwal/Bodle team and only one of the games was close.
| Williamson/Kothari
| 3 | Agrawal/Bodle
| 0 |
The matches tended to be very slow. The longest game lasted 68 minutes and the shortest 18 minutes. The average time per game worked out at 41 minutes. There were surprisingly few breaks. The highest was the tournament's only century - exactly 100 from Rex Williams and B. Bhaskar. The was a total of only 28 breaks over 50 from 55 games.
Players tended to move away from where they might have anticipated to have played the next stroke. This was sometimes done so as not to be in partner's line of sight, but there was also the factor that old habits die hard. When another player is at the table there is an almost instinctive tendency to return to the player's chair even, when as in this case, the non-striker knew he would be playing another stroke in a matter of seconds. All players, after a losing hazard, tended to move towards baulk almost as if they expected to play the next stroke themselves. Quite often, an in-off would leave a drop-cannon, and so the non-striker could reasonably have stayed at the head of the table ready to play from the position resulting from his partner's shot. Thus seconds were wasted on almost every alternation. This is quite understandable, pairs is a new venture and even the best of the players seemed to have not worked out any kind of tactics or that would have got the games moving more quickly.
The format seemed to cause thinking difficulties in some players - players who would not have hesitated at certain positions for even a second had they been playing in the normal manner. For instance; one player showed some annoyance with his partner at missing a pot from the spot with an easy cannon available - missing the point that his partner was thinking in terms of making a baulk line crossing. Several times, after their opponents had made a break, players had to pause and consult whose shot it was - the competition was. "Alternate shots," and not playing in an order as in snooker doubles. Almost all the players said that they had enjoyed this competition, but it has to be said that it did not make for very interesting viewing. Even the quickest of the players seemed to slow down in their anxiety not to make a mess of things for their partner. It has been suggested that next year, the competition might possibly be made Pro-Am, professionals playing with an amateur of their choosing. That would surely be more interesting, and lead to an increase in spectators.