The Hindu : Russell to clash with Causier in final

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Mar 23, 2004

Sport

Sport - Billiards & Snooker

Russell to clash with Causier in final

By Geet Sethi

PRESTATYN, MARCH 22. World No. 1 Mike Russell, and David Causier, the world No. 3, will contest the final of the 2004 World professional billiards championship.

Late on Sunday night Russell once again gave an imperious demonstration of high quality billiards to carve a one sided 1716-988 victory over Lee Lagan, the IBSF world champion, while the edgy and extremely quick Causier disposed of the challenge of Roxton Chapman 1244-1081.

The reduction in practice time does not seem to have had any adverse affect on Russell's game. Yes, he was a bit rusty in his opening two encounters in the league stage and was unable to compile breaks over 300. However by the time the event reached the knock-out phase, he had rediscovered the silken touch which has helped him in retaining the top spot on the ranking list for the last eight years.

He commenced the four-hour semifinal against Lagan by compiling breaks of 321 & 111 in his opening two visits. A comparison with cricket would translate perhaps to an opening batsman scoring 40 runs in the opening two overs of a one-day International.

Clearly, the 38-year-old is raising his own benchmarks all the time. This is not an easy task given that presently he is playing the game at levels which others can somehow only dream about and therefore has no one to push him.

Against such a ferocious and determined attack, it is hard for any opponent to retain composure. The mind weakens and rationalises the futility of responding to such a sublime performance.

But to Lagan's credit, he replied Russell's opening 321 with an equally fluent if not lethal 190. The focus, belief in his own ability and the mental strength were all reflected in that 190.

However Russell's 111 on the second visit crushed Lagan's mental reserves. Russell had won the mental battle with that break despite the courageous response from Lagan. The defending champion concluded the opening session with a knock-out punch.

An unfinished 326 helped him in establishing a substantial and almost insurmountable 1021-335 advantage. Russell averaged 92.8 in the first session, by far the highest two hour session of this tournament and perhaps the highest average complied in the last two years in competitive billiards.

On resumption, he added another 67 points to take the break to 393 before he missed a red pot whilst negotiating his cue ball to cross the baulk line. He allowed himself to relax for about twenty minutes before firing in runs of 120, 126 & 109 unfinished. He concluded the contest with a match average of 59.2 as compared to his opponents 25.3.

Causier's nimble, adventurous and quick thinking style is in stark contrast to Russell's composed, precise and careful manner. Causier can be very good in patches as he exhibited in the second hour of the first session in his semifinal encounter against Chapman.

Causier collected 648 points in the space of eight visits. with contributions of 113, 119 in the 14th & 15th visit and 206, 106 & 98 in the 18th, 20th and 21st visits. Whilst this kind of prolific scoring was sufficient to ward off the meek challenge posed by Chapman, Causier realises deep down that he will need to do much more to contain Russell.

The world No. 3, who is yet to win the World title, will find the going tough. There is a class difference between the two and over five hours it will be difficult for adventure and courage alone to triumph over precision, class and pedigree.

The results (semifinals, four hours):

Mike Russell 1716 ( 321, 111, 165, 393, 120, 126, 109 unf) bt Lee Lagan 988 (190, 189)

David Causier 1244 (188, 113, 119, 206, 106) bt Roxton Chapman 1081 ( 173, 257, 156).

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