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2012 - Billiards World Championships

Postby Monique

PRESS RELEASE
WORLD BILLIARDS CHAMPIONSHIP, LEEDS, ENGLAND (17th – 28th OCTOBER 2012)

Record number of players head for Leeds for first ever unified World Billiards Championship

65 players from 15 countries descend on the Northern Snooker Centre in Leeds next week for the first ever unified World Billiards Championship. This is the 6th time the club has hosted the World Championship, but the first time it has been jointly organised by two world governing bodies and the first to attract this level of entries.

The newly formed World Billiards Ltd has brought together the International Billiards & Snooker Federation (IBSF) and World Professional Billiards & Snooker Association (WPBSA) events for a unified World Championship. The result has been a record number of entrants who will battle it out over 12 days and 2 different formats for the title of 2012 World Champion.

For the first time this year both lady and junior players will be competing alongside the men. Amongst lady entries from Australia, England and India is current Ladies World Champion Revanna Umadevi from India. Junior champions from England, India and Ireland will also be pitting their skills against the best in the world. Countries sending players for the first time include Guernsey and Canada.

Favourite for the title is current World Champion and undisputed king of billiards Mike Russell. Originally from England but now based in Qatar, Mike is making the annual trip to defend the title he has made his own, having won a total of 16 world championships since his first in 1989 at the age of 20.

Spearheading a strong Indian contingent is Pankaj Advani, who at only 27 is himself a multiple world champion. Pankaj is currently embroiled in some controversy after qualifying for the final stages of a professional snooker event due to start in China whilst the World Billiards Championship is still taking place. Advani has taken the decision to withdraw from the event in China to concentrate on billiards, something which has delighted the billiards fraternity, but somewhat angered the snooker one.

Heading up the English challenge is two time runner-up David Causier. Causier won every event he entered last season on the World Billiards tour and will be hoping to add the World Championship to his growing list of titles.

Other contenders for the title include former champions Peter Gilchrist (Singapore) and Geet Sethi (India) who alongside Mike Russell are the only players to have made a competitive 1000 break in the modern game. Also expected to mount a strong challenge this year is 10 time Australian champion Matthew Bolton who last year recorded a break of 831 on his way to the final of the timed event.

The World Championship was brought to Leeds in 2007 by Northern Snooker Centre owner Jim Williamson at a time when the tournament was on its knees with only 16 entries. Following his passing in 2009 Jim’s son Chris inaugurated the Jim Williamson Memorial tournament which also runs alongside the World Championship and keeps alive the name of the man who kept the billiards world championship going during some of its most difficult times. Chris Williamson said ‘we are delighted to welcome so many players from so many countries to the Northern Snooker Centre for this festival of billiards. I would like to take this opportunity to wish everyone a great tournament.’

Local interest comes from Chris’s brother Ian who is a former UK professional champion, and Jonathan Bagley, the current English Masters snooker champion. Both will be hoping to put in strong performances to keep the flag flying for Leeds.

Play starts on Wednesday 17th October when a qualifying competition will determine who will fill the last 4 remaining places in the championship proper. The main tournaments will then run every day starting at 10am through until Sunday 28th when the final of the timed event will take place. Entry to spectators is free of charge.

World Billiards is indebted to Chris Williamson and the Northern Snooker Centre for their help and generous sponsorship of this event.



Further info;
www.world-billiards.com
Draw (Timed event) - http://www.world-billiards.com/wp-conte ... d-Draw.pdf
Draw (Up event) - http://www.world-billiards.com/wp-conte ... p-Draw.pdf

Contacts;
Alan Chamberlain – alan.chamberlain@world-billiards.com / +44 (0)7863 334854 (World Billiards Chairman)
Phil Mumford – phil.mumford@world-billiards.com / +44 (0)7976 666147 (World Billiards Secretary)
Jason Ferguson – jason@fergusonenterprises.co.uk / +44 (0)7786 631920 (WPBSA Chairman)
Jim Leacy – jim.leacy@world-billiards.com / +353 (86) 2587546 (IBSF & World Billiards)
Chris Williamson - northernsnooker@btconnect.com / +44 (0)7595 222657 (Northern Snooker Centre)



ENTRY LIST
Main Competition
Australia Matthew Bolton (Oceania Champion / 10 times Australian champion)
Australia Neil Bolton
Australia Anna Lynch
Australia Grant Meadley
Australia Michael Pearson
Austria Christian Pleschko
Austria Martin Schmidt
Canada Rick Kendall
Canada Alan Senkiw
England Jonathan Bagley (English Masters Snooker champion)
England Steve Brookshaw
England Jonny Evans (Junior entry)
England Peter Johnson
England Ryan Mears
England Phil Mumford (English champion / former European champion)
England Eva Palmius (Ladies World Championship runner-up)
England Simon Snee
England Robin Wilson
England Jamie Barker
England David Causier (World Billiards no1 ranked player)
England Phil Davis
England Bem French
England Robert Hall (English Amateur Champion)
England John Hartley (European champion 2010)
England Nalin Patel
England Graham Pettitt
England Matthew Sutton (4 x English Amateur champion)
England Christopher Taylor
England Arthur Winn
France Akhilesh Mohan
Guernsey Martin Budge
India Pankaj Advani (Asian champion / 6 times World Champion)
India Arun Agrawal
India Balachandra Bhaskar
India Dhvaj Haria (Junior entry)
India Devendra Joshi (Former Asian champion)
India Sourav Kothari
India Alok Kumar (Former Asian champion)
India Siddharth Parikh
India Arantxa Sanchis (Indian ladies champion)
India Geet Sethi (8 x world champion)
India Rupesh Shah (Former world champion)
India Ashok Shandilya (Former world champion & Asian Games gold medallist)
India Dhruv Sitwala
India Revanna Umadevi (Ladies world champion)
Ireland Derek O'Neill
Ireland Wayne Doyle (Junior entry)
Ireland Aidan Murray (4 x Ireland champion)
Ireland Mark Nolan
Jersey Guy Heys (Former Jersey champion)
Korea Hwang Chulho
New Zealand Wayne Carey (2 x New Zealand champion)
Qatar Mike Russell (Defending champion (both formats) / 16 x world champion)
Singapore Peter Gilchrist (2 x world champion)
Sri Lanka Abdul Sattar Omar
Sri Lanka Mohamed Aslam Shahull Hameed
Qualifier 1 TBC
Qualifier 2 TBC
Qualifier 3 TBC
Qualifier 4 TBC

Qualifying Competition
England Martin Goodwill (6 x English Amateur champion)
England Peter Atkinson
England Ian Williamson (Former UK professional champion)
England Adam Clarke
India Manish Jain
India Sushrut Pandia
India Jaiveer Dhingra
India Venkateswaran Subramanian
Scotland Stevie Baillie



Regards
PHIL MUMFORD

www.world-billiards.com

Re: 2012 - Billiards World Championships

Postby Roland

I'll be going down at some point to watch, specifically when Pankaj is playing although I'd like to watch Russell as well.

Re: 2012 - Billiards World Championships

Postby Roland

There's some other memorial tournament going on at the weekend. Will the main events be going on? I wouldn't mind popping down on Saturday or Sunday depending on what's going on and who I might see in action but I can't find any schedule.

Re: 2012 - Billiards World Championships

Postby PLtheRef

http://www.world-billiards.com/wp-conte ... gramme.pdf

Around half way through

Over the weekend there's one session of the timed from 8:30pm on Saturday and one of the 150up event from 8:30pm Sunday

More detailed schedule of who's playing who and when on here

http://www.world-billiards.com/wp-conte ... -20122.pdf

Re: 2012 - Billiards World Championships

Postby Roland

First link doesn't work but second does. Thanks for the info, I knew it would exist! Think if I go at the weekend it'd be Saturday night by the looks of things. Pankaj on main table in timed event.

Edit - downloaded first link, cheers.

Re: 2012 - Billiards World Championships

Postby PLtheRef

Casey wrote:What's the prize money for this tournament?



Winner £3,000
Runner Up £1,500
Semi Finalists £750
Quarter Finalists £375
Last 16 £175
High Break £125
TOTAL £9,025 (x2)

Its the same for both the timed and 150up competitions

Re: 2012 - Billiards World Championships

Postby Roland

There is a live stream for this:

http://t.co/rzD1Odag

I went along this evening and watched a round of the group stages of the time event. This was 90 minutes starting 20:30 and finishing 22:00. Prior to kick off all players lagged to see who had the honour, then waited for the gentleman with the stop watch to announce the start (he also called time at the end).

Player 1 starts with his own cue ball and the red. Each player has a cue ball, one player is white and one yellow. Pankaj Advani won the lag in his match and first shot attempted to bring red (which starts on the black spot) into baulk and leave his ball (he was yellow) on a side cushion. This is because in billiards you can't play back up the table from ball in hand, and player 2 comes to the table first visit with their ball in hand so must play down the table first shot. With Advani's cue ball on the side cushion, as he explained in the interview I did with him this makes it hard for the opponent to score. And he duely didn't score so Advani was immediately back to the table, and as it happened both the red and his opponents white were in baulk.

Within maybe 5 or 6 shots at most, Advani had the white pinned to the top cushion behind the red spot and was close in to play the scoring game. To get to having both balls in baulk to both balls at the other end of the table takes some skill, believe me! The scoring game entails a succession of pot reds and cannons, usually with the player rolling the red close to the corner pocket and cannoning the opponents cue ball in one shot, then potting the red and starting over. I started filming Advani's first visit when he was on 40, and he duely ran up to 156. It's uploading as I write so I'll post in the morning, although the glare of the table and my finger inadvertantly over the microphone for most of it is annoying I'm afraid.

To make a bit more sense of the clips I've uploaded if you don't know the rules, which most of you don't let's face it, the player has to send their cue ball in and out of baulk when the break is between 80 and 100. I saw Peter Gilchrist make a fast and fluent 97 break which ended when he potted the red but accidentally cannoned the other white which killed the pace and stopped him reaching the baulk line. He called a foul on himself and the break ended 97 even though his last shot was a scoring one at any other time in the break.

The other rule to note is that if you pot the red from its spot 3 times without another score (i.e. in-off or cannon) it goes onto the blue spot for one turn before going back to the black spot. In the second clip of Advani I started filming when he was on 97 or 98 (I missed the first 90 points due to watching another match) and you can see the red on the blue spot and he finished low (in snooker terms) so he could pot the red to middle and send the white in and out of baulk to continue the break from 100.

Anyway, it was a really interesting evening to see the best billiards players in the world in action. I highly recommend going if you can. The clips will be ready in the morning. I got a 40 odd break of Mike Russell too, it's just a sample of his game. I could tell the difference in style between him and Advani just from watching him for 15 minutes or so. Advani pots more reds, Russell plays more cannons.

I want to see a session of 150 up now. The timed event had some one sided matches, Mike Russell was over 500 points ahead when I joined the match about an hour in. So the timed events you get the big breaks and better scorers coming to the fore, 150 up will be more like snooker frames so will involve different tactics to get over the line and get that 150 points. I did see a couple of safety shots today, the guy playing Advani fluked his white (so it stays down leaving the scorer just his ball and red on table) so he played both balls in baulk, only for Advani to pot the red over the green pocket cushion first length of the table. And Advani at one point had a tough lie so instead of going for a speculative cannon he played safe, although his opponent did score from it. Not many though.

Re: 2012 - Billiards World Championships

Postby Roland

Here's the first video, the 156 break starting at 40 which was Advani's first visit to the table.




This is the 237 starting at 97 towards the end of the match

Re: 2012 - Billiards World Championships

Postby markj147

Thanks Sonny, nice to see the Masters in action. In the Pankaj video it looks like he is playing John Hartley the EASB chairman with Vic Hartley (no relation I believe) the legend of snooker refereeing relaxing next to him. I checked the scores here http://www.wbeventsonline.com/?page_id= ... 6&RID=1090 and it looks like he is scoring nicely.

It is good to see a few women playing in the event as well including Eva Palmius. Shame Emma Bonney isnt playing as she is a great ladies billiards player. Nice to see Eva Palmius battling away with the best on behalf of England. :)

Re: 2012 - Billiards World Championships

Postby Roland

I didn't see any ladies playing when I was there so they must've had that session off. And yes it was John Hartley playing Pankaj. You could see him question whether Pankaj had crossed the baulk line in the first video and it caused the ref to call the wrong score, but you can see him watching the shot where he did cross the baulk line. Obviously wasn't concentrating.

The refs were calling something when the player got to 80 and also at other occasions they said something after the break. I still don't know what they're saying, but it must have something to do with number of consecutive cannnons or pots?

Re: 2012 - Billiards World Championships

Postby Roland

No, it was 456. The 237 from Pankaj in the clip above is 5th highest so far

http://www.wbeventsonline.com/?page_id=256


They've also got the 156 break in the first clip down as 196. Error!

I saw the back end of the 265 from Sitwala as well when watching Mike Russell and I saw the 197 scoreboard ticking along from Matthew Bolton. I thought these sorts of breaks were flying in all the time but seeing the high break board now I realise they're not that common.

Re: 2012 - Billiards World Championships

Postby PLtheRef

Here's the draw for the second round in the 150 up format. The top 12 seeds in this draw each won their groups, seeds 13 to 24 were runners up and the eight best third placed players are seeded 25 to 32.

Second round matches are played according to the schedule as best of seven games

1 Pankaj Advani 4
32 Subramanian Venkateswaran 0

17 Ian Williamson 2
16 Robin Wilson 4

9 Geet Sethi 4
24 Dhruv Sitwala 0

25 Jonathan Bagley 0
8 Peter Gilchrist 4
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
5 Ashok Shandilya 4
28 Steve Brookshaw 1

21 Balachandra Bhaskar 2
12 Michael Pearson 4

13 Robert Hall 1
20 Rupesh Shah 4

29 Phil Davis 0
4 Mike Russell 4
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
3 Matthew Bolton 4
30 Simon Snee 0

14 Matthew Sutton 4
19 Neil Bolton 0

11 Alok Kumar 4
22 Aidan Murray 0

27 Christopher Taylor 0
6 Devendra Joshi 4
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
7 Martin Goodwill 4
26 Nalin Patel 2

23 Sourav Kothari 4
10 Arun Agrawal 1

15 Siddharth Parikh 4
18 Dhvaj Haria 0

31 Hwang Chulho 0
2 David Causier 4


Third Round Draw - matches to be played from 6pm Wednesday, best of 7 games

1 Pankaj Advani 4
16 Robin Wilson 1

9 Geet Sethi 1
8 Peter Gilchrist 4

5 Ashok Shandilya 4
12 Michael Pearson 0

20 Rupesh Shah 4
4 Mike Russell 2
-----------------------------------------------------------------
3 Matthew Bolton 4
14 Matthew Sutton 2

11 Alok Kumar 1
6 Devendra Joshi 4

7 Martin Goodwill 0
23 Sourav Kothari 0

15 Siddharth Parikh 1
2 David Causier 4



Quarter-Final draw to be played on Thursday evening, again best of 7 games.

1 Advani 1
8 Gilchrist 4

5 Shandilya 2
20 Shah 4

3 Bolton 4
6 Joshi 0

7 Goodwill 1
2 Causier 4


SEMI-FINALS

PETER GILCHRIST (SIN) v RUPESH SHAH (IND)

MATTHEW BOLTON (AUS) v DAVID CAUSIER (ENG)

Semi-Finals are Best of 9 Games
Last edited by PLtheRef on 25 Oct 2012, edited 5 times in total.

Re: 2012 - Billiards World Championships

Postby PLtheRef

Second Round draw for the timed format. These games are played over two hours.

1 Pankaj Advani 1063
32 Phil Davis 199

17 Martin Goodwill 578
16 Manish Jain 380

9 Rupesh Shah 525
24 Steve Brookshaw 342

25 Robert Hall 749
8 Michael Pearson 262

5 Sourav Kothari 855
28 Alok Kumar 373

21 Matthew Sutton 427
12 Arun Agrawal 408

13 Nalin Patel 313
20 Ashok Shandilya 535

29 Dhvaj Haria 300
4 Dhruv Sitwala 679
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
3 Geet Sethi 1016
30 Revanna Umadevi 193

14 Robin Wilson 851
19 Neil Bolton 266

11 Peter Gilchrist 947
22 Christopher Taylor 337

27 Phil Mumford 286
6 Mike Russell 1046

7 Balachandra Bhaskar 451
26 Devendra Joshi 436

23 Ian Williamson 271
10 David Causier 795

15 John Hartley 346
18 Siddharth Parikh 645

31 Ryan Mears 282
2 Matthew Bolton 344




Third Round draw, matches over 2 and a half hours in two 75 minute sessions with a 30 minute break in between.

Tie of the round being between Gilchrist and Russell who've got eighteen world championships between them.

1 Pankaj Advani 1303
17 Martin Goodwill 425

9 Rupesh Shah 571
25 Robert Hall 569

5 Sourav Kothari 574
21 Matthew Sutton 394

20 Ashok Shandilya 494
4 Dhruv Sitwala 626

3 Geet Sethi 776
14 Robin Wilson 615

11 Peter Gilchrist 627
6 Mike Russell 1033

7 Balachandra Bhaskar 617
10 David Causier 1115

18 Siddharth Parikh 342
2 Matthew Bolton 1127

Quarter-Final Matches played over the best of three hours.

1 Pankaj Advani 0
9 Rupesh Shah 0

5 Sourav Kothari 0
4 Dhruv Sitwala 0

3 Geet Sethi 0
6 Mike Russell 0

10 David Causier 0
2 Matthew Bolton 0
Last edited by PLtheRef on 25 Oct 2012, edited 3 times in total.

Re: 2012 - Billiards World Championships

Postby Wildey

150 up Quarter Finals Currently on in Leeds

Pankaj Advani 1-0 Peter Gilchrist
Ashok Shandilya 1-0 Rupesh Shah
Matthew Bolton 1-0 Devendra Joshi
Martin Goodwill 0-1 David Causier
Last edited by Wildey on 25 Oct 2012, edited 1 time in total.

Re: 2012 - Billiards World Championships

Postby Wildey

kolompar wrote:pity Advani lost after Russell was already out..
and how did this match end? <laugh>
Wild WC wrote:Martin Goodwill 0-1 Martin Goodwill

cloning

Pankaj should have thought of that <doh>

Re: 2012 - Billiards World Championships

Postby Wildey

150 up Format Semi Finals

Friday 26th of November 5pm Best of 9
Peter Gilchrist (singapore) v Rupesh Shah (India)
Matthew Bolton (Australia) v David Causier (England)

Timed Format Semi Finals

Saturday 27th of November 10am 4 Hour Matches
Pankaj Advani (India) v Dhruv Sitwala (India)
Mike Russell (England) v Matthew Bolton (Australia)