The Hindu : Patel advances

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Sunday, Mar 21, 2004

Sport

Sport - Billiards & Snooker

Patel advances

By Geet Sethi

PRESTATYN, MARCH 20. High quality play from Mike Russell, Peter Gilchrist, Nalin Patel and Geet Sethi was the key feature of the opening day of the 2004 world professional billiards championship being played here.

Patel, the world no. 7 has distinguished himself in the professional circuit after being consistently denied the opportunity of playing competitive billiards in India because of a British passport.

On Friday, by winning the opening two league matches against Ian Williamson and Mark Hirst, he consolidated his ranking as he qualified for the quarterfinal stage. Against Williamson, the world no. 12, Patel constructed a careful break of 136 in the concluding stages of the match to win by 153 points.

Later, he crushed Bradford's Mark Hirst with two significant contributions of 113 in the 24th and 189 in the 29th and cruised to a 595-256 victory. His last match against Chris Shutt will decide the winner of the group.

I have received some advice and much needed feedback from Michael Ferreira, the official coach of the Billiards & Snooker Federation of India after my recent poor performance in the National Billiards championship which concluded in Gwalior last month. He observed that I was not playing fluently enough and deliberating much longer than required on some shots. This spurred me into introspection and after long hours of practice, I seem to have rediscovered the fluency that helped me make big breaks.

On Friday, I scored a comfortable 716-341 victory over Clive Everton with two centuries and three other breaks over 80. But it was the emphatic win over Sushrut Pandia in the evening that perhaps provided proof of a genuine return to form. The final scores were 1291-110 in my favour. The points were accumulated with the aid of a 142 on the 11th visit, 216 on the 22nd and other contributions of 70, 89, 92, 65, 89 and 67. The match against Peter Gilchrist will decide the winner and runner-up in the group.

Devendra Joshi, unable to make a breakthrough in the Nationals last month, on Friday slumped to a 250 point reversal at the hands of Lee Lagan, the IBSF world champion in the opening round.

Lagan exhibited impressive form in compiling a break of 197 which terminated after he missed a red pot whilst trying to negotiate the mandatory baulk line crossing. Joshi's chances of qualifying for a place in the quarterfinal now hinge on his ability to score a victory over the dominant Mike Russell. The chances are negligible given Russell's superb display against Lagan whom he eliminated 655-472.

The results (round robin): Peter Gilchrist 774 (106, 119, 189) bt Clive Everton 233; Mike Russell 655 (265, 107) bt Lee Lagan 472 (122); Chris Shutt 912 (149, 117) bt Ian Williamson 310; David Causier 594 (122) bt Paul Bennett 539; Nalin Patel 595 (113, 189) bt Mark Hirst 256

Roxton Chapman 535 (220) bt Gary Rogers 246; Geet Sethi 1291 (142, 216) bt Sushrut Pandia 110; Nalin Patel 434 bt Ian Williamson 281; Lee Lagan 697 (197) bt Devendra Joshi 447; Roxton Chapman 399 bt Paul Bennett 344; Geet Sethi 716 (115, 103) bt Clive Everton 341.

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