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2003 IBSF World Billiards Championships
LEE BREAKS INDIAN HEARTS AND TAKES THE TITLE
The Englishman's break of 94 in the final game saw him to victory, after he'd had to endure a two game fight back by Sethi. Sethi took the two opening games, the second with a run of 123, but Lagan pounded in breaks of 147 and 150 to level and then another 150 gave him a 15-142 win in the final game of the first session. He stretched his lead to 4-2 on the resumption with a run of 73, but 69 in the next wasn't enough as Sethi stroked in 89 to take the game. Lagan pieced together 85 to regain his two game advantage, before Sethi took the next and pulled level with a run of 150. It is by far the best win of Lagan's career. He first took up billiards at the age of ten, playing in the billiards hot bed in North East England. His early promise showed as he won the British title at Under 16, Under 18 and Under 19 levels. He'd previously reached the quarter finals of the IBSF championship in 2000. Photo courtesy of Peter Ainsworth. LAGAN WINS A THRILLER
Lagan took the first as the pair swapped game for game until Shandilya produced an unfinished 143 to level the game at 4-4. But there was nothing the Indian could do in the decider as Lagan compiled a match winning unfinished break of 150. Geet Sethi kept the home flag flying with a 5-2 win over Paul Bennett. Sethi took a 3-0 lead before Bennett pinched the fourth 154-142. The shared the next two games before Sethi won the seventh 15-75 to seal his place in the final.
Photo courtesy of Peter Ainsworth.
SHANDILYA EDGES IT TO SET UP ENGLAND V INDIA SEMIS
Sethi fired in breaks of 98, 128 and finished with a 147 as he beat former IBSF Champion Praput Chaithahasakun 4-2. Praput contributed runs of 116, 110 and 77 to a quality match. Shandilya's progress was far from smooth. He made 77 in the first but lost it as the Myanmar man made 77. The Indian responded with 99 and 51 to level. But he fell 3-1 behind as U Kuaw Oo ran in 116 and 73. Shandilya battled back to take the next three games, helped by breaks of 62 and 83. His semi final opponent will be England's Lee Lagan who ended Myanmar interest in the event with a 4-0 thrashing of Aung San Oo. Runs of 111, 54, 96 and 95 flowed from the Englishman's cue. Paul Bennett completed a great day for English sport and added to Australian misery, as he beat Robbie Foldvari 4-2, at the same time that his countryman across the world were completing their historic Rugby World Cup victory. Foldvari made breaks of 109, 150 and 119 but still couldn't shake off Bennett, who grafted his way to victory. THAKKAR AND ADVANI LOSE THEIR WAY ON THE ROAD TO MANDALAY
In a clash of the titans India's Ashok Shandilya beat England's whizz kid David Causier (pictured) 4-1 and will now face U Kuaw Oo in the quarters. India were guaranteed another quarter finalist as Geet Sethi and Alok Kumar went head to head and Sethi just scraped through 4-3 to keep alive hopes of a fourth title. Thailand's Praput Chaithanasakun lost his first game of the event to England's Ian Williamson, but was still strong enough to power through 4-1 and he'll now play Sethi in a tantalising match. Lee Lagan also dropped one game, against Devendra Joshi and his next encounter will be against Myanmar's giant killer U Aung San Oo. Paul Bennett gave England a second representative, with a 4-1 win against Thailand's Thawat Sucharit-Thurakaran. Australian Robbie Foldari will be Bennett's opponent was the former professional champion swept past Malaysia's Loon Hong Moh 4-0. SETHI SETS HIS STALL OUT
Sethi stuttered at the start as South Africa's Francisco took the opening game 150-125, but he ran out the next three 150-147, 151-142 and 151-82 to clinch victory. The Indian then added a 3-0 win over South Korea's Huang Chul Ho in under 40 minutes, making an unfinished break of 150 in the second game. Shock of the event so far was a 3-2 win by Malaysia's Loon Hong Moh against number four seed Dhruv Sitwala. Loon Hong started with runs of 93 and an unfinished 47 to take the first and 61 in the second. Sitwala pulled back the next two games but lost the fifth 150-110. David Causier beat Belgian carom specialist Martin Spoormans 3-0 in just over half an hour. A run of 73 gave him the opener and 98 secured the second. Causier saved the best until last, with an unfinished 153 in his first (and only) visit in the third game. FOLDVARI TURNS SHORT FORMAT INTO A LONG HAUL
The former World professional champion contrived to only complete three out of a possible five games, before his game was taken off to make way for the next session. Foldvari's opponent was Scotland's Mark Boyle, a player well known for his snooker skills but with little experience of billiards. "I've only had two hours practice at billiards", said Boyle. Boyle stuck to what he did know how to do, pot balls, and Foldvari took over four hours to beat the Scot 3-2. He led 2-1 when the match was suspended, but on the resumption he won the two games he needed, 151-0 and 150-60, with an unfinished 85 in the fourth game. Those two games still took an hour and a half. No such problems for Englishman David Causier. He rattled in breaks of 96, 131 and 143 in his 3-0 win over South Africa's Tauriq Samsodien. Pankaj Advani notched his second win with a 3-1 win over Ireland's Eugene Hughes. Having lost the first game 14-151, Advani responded to take the next three 151-96, 150-5 and 150-138. Fellow Indian Rishabh Thakkar beat Northern Ireland's John McIntyre 3-0 and Siddarth Parikh bet Ireland's James Moore 3-0, with a high run of 133, to complete a good day for India and a bad day for Ireland. Alok Kumar added to the Indian win tally with a 3-0 win against Sri Lanka's Khobala Sirisoma, with an unfinished 92 in the final game. ADVANI OFF TO A FLYER
The format is the best of five 150-up games during the group stages, which could cause some shocks, as high scoring is taken out of the equation. But the instant format appeals to sponsors and broadcasters and in addition to live television coverage in India, the event is being syndicated around the world by the ESPN channel. Bangalore's Advani kicked off with a run of 41 and added and unfinished 77 to take the first game. A run of 97 accounted for the second game and another unfinished 77 finished the match off in style for Advani. Scores: Pankaj Advani (India) 3-0 John Hartley (England) 150(77uf)-53, 150(97)-69, 150(77uf)-56.
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Twenty
eight year old Lee Lagan has been crowned the 2003 IBSF World
Billiards champion after a 6-5 win over India's legend Geet Sethi.
England's
Lee Lagan took his place in the IBSF World Billiards final following
a thrilling 5-4 win over Indian favourite Ashok Shandilya, thus
denying the home fans a guaranteed winner.
Ashok
Shandilya edged a thrilling 4-3 win against Myanmar's U Kuaw Oo to
join Geet Sethi in the semi final line up.
Myanmar's
U Aung San Oo and U Kuaw Oo sent Rishabh Thakkar and Pankaj Advani
crashing out of the IBSF World Billiards Championship in the Last 16
and with defeat went Advani's hopes of completing the double of IBSF
snooker and billiards titles.
Geet
Sethi started his bid for a fourth ibsf world billiards title with a
3-1 win over former snooker star Peter Francisco.
The
150 up, best of 3 format was devised to speed up billiards. But the
organisers and television obviously reckoned without the obdurate
Aussie Robbie Foldvari.
The
newly crowned IBSF World Snooker Champion got his bid for the
'double' off to a flying start with a 3-0 win over England's John
Hartley as the first of the group matches got under way in
Hyderabad.|
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