IBSF World Billiards 2010

23 AUGUST 2010

Semi Finals: Russell into Final

Semi Final 1: Mike Russell won the first Semi final defeating Geet Sethi (India) 5 games to 2 in the ‘Best of 9’ match. Russell eyeing the title started the match with the white ball and after a few shots, he pocketed the game in his favour smashing a break of 145. This was countered by Geet with a break of 143 in next game, followed with 137 in the third to step ahead Russell 2 games to 1. In the fourth game, Russell did not give a chance to Geet and leveled the match with his unfinished 152 on board.

The pressure was mounting on both the legends and the fifth game saw both missing on certain occasions. Russell was missing leaving Geet out of position and vice versa but in the end, Russell got to make a break of 73 to take lead as 3-2. Sixth game Russell crafted 90 odd points to broaden the lead to 4-2. Finally with a break of 96 in the seventh game, Mike made his entry into the final to take on the winner of Pankaj vs Gilchrist.

Semi Final 2: In a grueling 6 hours match between reigning world champion Pankaj Advani from India and former World champion Peter Gilchrist (Singapore), Pankaj managed to win the match in the deciding frame and is now one match short of retaining his title in Points Format. In the morning when the match started, Pankaj was struggling a little and as Peter was in awesome form, he quickly moved ahead 2-0 with a break of 140 in the first game. Pankaj fought back in the third and fourth games with meager but worthy breaks to level the match. Seeing Pankaj as emerging again, Peter played consistently and countered with the next two games to retain the lead. Needing one game to make the final, Peter kept scoring gradually but missed on 99. The chance Pankaj got was more than enough to make a comeback and he did justice with a smashing break of 120 in the seventh game. There onwards he sat in the driver’s seat and forced Peter to play the decider. In the decider, tension was on the faces of both cueists. Peter first missed on 45, then Pankaj on 77 and when Peter was looking to seal the match, he missed a straight red pot. The tension was emerging, excitement was on high, both the cueists were missing and in the final chance Pankaj scored the remaining 25 points to meet Mike Russell in the final.

FINAL: Russell the Emperor

The emperor of English Billiards, Mike Russell, has proved again, why he is chosen as an emperor. The final of the IBSF World Billiards 2010 (Point format) started at 1704 hours (India time) and Mike finished it in 2 hours 14 minutes claiming all six games in his pockets. Pankaj somehow managed to get two breaks of 43 and 45 in the opening game and score 129, but Mike claimed the first game smashing break of 129. There onwards, Pankaj was merely a spectator in the next four games where Mike smashed breaks of 145, 128, 92 and 149 (unfinished) to reach 5-0 very quickly.

In the sixth game on a score of 25 by Mike, Pankaj got an opportunity and he did justice with a break of 80, but again a missed long jenny cost him his world title. Finally Mike walked away with the world title and prize money US $ 6000 as total prize money (including US $ 4000 sponsors’ prize) and Pankaj received US $ 1800 (including sponsors’ prize US $ 1000). Geet Sethi (India) and Peter Gilchrist (Singapore) were awarded as Bronze medalists.

Time Format will start tomorrow i.e. 24 August 2010 @ 0900 hours (India time).