ISHWAR GANDA has lived in Christchurch for the last 54 years. A Gujarati from Navsari, he is today a representative on the City Council, for the people of Hornby, a Christchurch suburb. On September 22, minutes before the semi-finals of the Rockpool IBSF World Billiards Championship commenced at the Hornby Club, Ganda, walked in and planted an Indian flag on the edge of the competition arena. After all there were three Indians in the semi-finals and the chance for an all-Indian final was fairly high considering the manner in which Ashok Shandilya had performed throughout the 14-day event. Shandilya's opponent was Malta's Paul Mifsud, an experienced cueist who remains the only player to have won both the IBSF world billiards and the world snooker titles.
The other semi-final was scheduled between Devendra Joshi, India's national billiards champion and yours truly. As it turned out Ganda's hope of an all-Indian final was fulfilled. Shandilya cruised into the final with a comfortable victory over Mifsud while I edged out Joshi in what was described by many as the match of the tournament.
I had established a 200-point first session lead, but on resumption, Joshi compiled a superb 444 to lead by 108 points with 50 minutes to go. The only way to beat him was to occupy the table for a prolonged period of time and that is what I managed successfully, recording a 551 in the process.
Earlier, Joshi had exhibited remarkable form throughout the championship, compiling the first 400 break in the tournament and a 521 against Nalin Patel in the pre-quarterfinals. Clearly, he has managed to carve a niche for himself when compared to the other Indian cueists. But what impressed me the most was his gutsy display against Australia's Mathew Bolton.
The 22-year-old Bolton has been tutored by Bob Marshal, the 90-year-old four times winner of the IBSF trophy. Joshi exhibited devastating form in registering a 505 in his very first scoring visit. Bolton retaliated and negated the advantage with runs of 271, 252 and 145 to end the session enjoying a narrow lead over the Indian. Very rarely has a player compiled a 500+ break only to find himself trailing at the end of the session. In keeping his composure in the second session, and in eventually winning that match, Joshi, the 34-year-old Bharat Petroleum sports officer, has proved his credentials as a player of substance.
In reaching the final both Shandilya and I had knocked in over 50 three-figure breaks. The match was expected to be close given Shandilya's well proven fighting instincts, my own renewed enthusiasm for the game and the form, which I had managed to rediscover in Christchurch. However, when I led by over 900 points at the end of the first two sessions in the six-hour final, even my opponent's most ardent admirer would not have bet any money on him. And then I struck that purple patch in the second session. Breaks of 856 & 636 enabled me to stretch my lead to over 2000 points and break a 23-year-old record set by Mike Ferreira for the highest two-hour session average. The old record was established by Ferreira in 1978 at the Nationals in Calcutta. Thanks to breaks of 1149 and 995 in the second two-hour session he had recorded an average of 246. I edged out the record by two points.
Dhruv Sitwala was the find of this event. This 28-year-old from Mumbai who now turns out for the Central Railway started playing only eight years ago. One has heard about his 400+ breaks in practice, but he came into his own in this event. He managed a superb run of 463, a career best for him. The bespectacled left-hander is hard working, dedicated and plays with a natural fluency, which is so important to construct big breaks. Given his commitment and natural flair, it should not be long before he starts knocking on the doors of success at the international level.
The Indian contingent consisted of a team of eleven including Michael Ferreira (coach). I am including Nalin Patel in this list. Patel has found himself marooned after not being allowed to participate in the 1998 Asian Games in Bangkok because he held a British passport. The fact is that Patel was born in India, has lived in India since birth, pays taxes in India and has played all his billiards at Matunga Gymkhana and the Bombay Gymkhana. Akin to rubbing salt into his already smarting wounds, he was then precluded by the Billiards & Snooker Federation of India (BSFI) from participating in the nationals. Strangely, he was the only player in this tournament who did not represent any country because the Billiards & Snooker Federation of India decided to tell the International Billiards & Snooker Federation (IBSF) that Patel could not be allowed to represent India. While every participant was referred to by name and country, during introductions prior to the start of a match, Patel was in the unfortunate position of having WPBSA (World Professional Billiards & Snooker Association) attached to his name. On probing deeper, one found that the IBSF rules for participation in their championship is that any player, who has been a resident of a country for three years, can represent that country in the IBSF World Championship. One wonders what explanation the BSFI has for this glaring blunder.
The event was an unqualified success if only for the 359 century breaks that were compiled by the 36 participants over 13 days of play. Included were breaks of 856, 636, 551, 540, 521, 515 & 505, over five breaks over 400 and over 20 runs over 300. The standard of play was exceptional and the organisation of the event by the New Zealand Billiards & Snooker Association under the stewardship of Alan Parris and Chief Referee Lawrence Lloyd was outstanding. All in all a great tournament and one which the billiards enthusiasts will remember for some time to come.
The results:Final: Geet Sethi 3484 (349, 121, 144, 856, 636, 301, 133, 185, 205, 127) beat Ashok Shandilya 1289 (333, 136, 128).
Semi-finals: Ashok Shandilya 1797 (178, 183, 114, 254, 100) beat Paul Mifsud 873 (213). Geet Sethi 1529 (146, 300, 104, 171, 551) beat Devendra Joshi 1063 (278, 444, 168).
Quarter-finals: Devendra Joshi 1584 (505, 296, 282, 229) beat Mathew Bolton 1227 (271, 252, 145, 131).
Ashok Shandilya 1887 (159, 154, 216, 133, 192, 146, 118) beat Bhaskar 791 (140). Paul Mifsud 1527 (148,122, 151, 151, 118, 137) beat Dhruv Sitwala 1035 (105, 107). Geet Sethi 1735 (120, 103, 110, 515, 248) beat Alok Kumar 943 (119, 108).
Pre-Quarter-finals: Mathew Bolton 1785 (176, 113, 329, 120, 230, 109, 110) beat Arun Agrawal 791. Bhaskar 1762 (244, 157, 124, 136, 189) beat Manoj Kothari 827.
Alok Kumar 1547 (318, 128, 273, 126, 103) beat Joe Minichi 1003 (175). Dhruv Sitwala 1829 (212, 141, 463, 107, 170, 144, 190) beat Joe Millen 555. Ashok Shandilya 1708 (145, 264, 112, 204, 117, 296) beat Frank Humphries 732 (158). Geet Sethi 1649 (117, 125, 123, 246) beat Paul Stocker 816
Devendra Joshi 1931 (171, 233, 118, 165, 116, 540) beat Nalin Patel 983(401). Paul Mifsud 1687 (184, 126, 143, 109, 122, 180, 103, 103) beat Vishal Madan 757 (108).
Comments
SHARE