The Hindu : Sport / Billiards & Snooker : World Grand Prix gets underway

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Feb 23, 2006

Sport

Sport - Billiards & Snooker

World Grand Prix gets underway

Geet Sethi

Prestatyn (North Wales): The IBSF World snooker Grand Prix got underway at the holiday resort of Pontins here at Prestatyn, North Wales on Wednesday morning. With many countries unable to make it for the amateur world's most prestigious championship due to rescheduled dates, the reserve entries have all been filed up with cueists from England, Wales, Northern Ireland and Scotland.

This event is being staged at this time of the year as the scheduled event last November, which was supposed to be held in Karachi, was cancelled due to the devastating earthquake that struck Pakistan last year.

However, the IBSF's resolve in staging the event to enable the champion to join the professional circuit has seen this event come through with the aid of the amateur Welsh Association, the English amateur association and the Pontins management.

World class conditions

The conditions are world class as the players will play on the same tables which have been set up for the professional qualifying rounds. The weather may be harsh at this time of the year but once the players enter the match arena, they are transported into a dream world with immaculate conditions.

India is represented by Pankaj Advani, the 2003 IBSF world champion, Alok Kumar, twice Asian snooker champion, and Aditya Mehta, the current National junior snooker champion who eliminated Advani in the final in Chennai in the finals. Advani will first face off Egypt's Wael Talaat, Kumar against Turkey's Muhammed Leysi and Mehta against Australia's Vinnie Callabresse.

Youngest competitor

The youngest competitor in the event is 14-year-old Michael White, the Welsh amateur championship runner up who is being considered as the next Jimmy White of the game. Besides Advani, the other favourites for the title include Steve Mifsud from Australia, England's Peter Lines and Mark Joyse from Wales.

The morning matches saw the first century, a break of 105 by Peter Bullen of Belgium who lost 3-4 to Mark Boyle of Scotland.

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