IBSF World
Billiards 2010
26
AUGUST 2010
Semi Final 1:
Peter's first entry into IBSF World
Billiards
On
the opening day of the world billiards championship when Mike Russell beat
Indian legend Geet Sethi, in the point format, he said
�I
don�t
forget good victories and bad losses�.
A year after losing the world pro title against Pankaj Advani at home, he
completed a grand double of world titles, thrashing Peter Gilchrist in the
final. It was a lop-sided 6 hours affair, in which Russell�s
versatility was on full display as he smashed a break of 1137 in 67 minutes.
With this 1137 he joined the elite 1000+ Group with Michael Ferreira (1149),
Geet Sethi (1276) and Peter Gilchrist (1346). He was not satisfied with this
and again after few visits, he smashed another 735 leaving his opponent
Peter Gilchrist way behind.
Mike
made his intentions very clear from the first session that he did not want
to let it go at any cost and this was reflected in his three consecutive
breaks of 281, 324 and 281 in 7th, 8th and 10th visits taking a lead of 634
points at the end of first session.
But,
Pune was not satisfied with his 600+ breaks in almost every match of the
time format and wanted something more and the best was yet to come and Mike,
keeping the aspirations high of Puneites fulfilled the dream of every
billiards lover by smashing a massive 1137 break in the second session. This
1137 put him way ahead of Peter and Peter was mere spectator. Once Russell
crossed the 1000 mark, everyone was expecting him to surpass the 1346 Record
break made by Peter two years back, but he missed out of position on 1137
and all three balls comes in a line on the top cushion. Mike tried a pull
back white in-off and missed. Every one present in the hall gave a standing
ovation to the emperor of English Billiards.
Mike�s
hunger did not end here, as in next visit after this massive 1137 he settled
again on table and crafted another 735 break followed by 439 in his last
visit before sealing the match in his favour with a huge difference of 3336
points.
It was
an ultimate day for me also as Billiards always fascinates me and the bucket
of such huge breaks in the entire championship, whether it�s
Mike, Peter or Geet will always remain in my memories...
With
all this I sign-out now and will be back in next edition of IBSF World
Snooker in Syria. Till then, you can enjoy the IBSF Photo Gallery of World
Billiards Championship 2010 @ Pune.