The Hindu : Foldvari makes last eight

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, May 22, 2002

Sport

Sport - Billiards & Snooker

Foldvari makes last eight

By Geet Sethi

Midsomer Norton (UK) May 21. The last pre-quarterfinal contest of the 2002 World Professional billiards championship being staged at the Centurion Hotel here saw Australia's Robby Foldvari grinding his way to a low scoring 783-513 point victory over English qualifier Paul Bennett. With Foldvari's victory, all the quarterfinalists have been identified.

Except for Chris Shutt, the world No. 5, who lost to Peter Sheehan by just 17 points, all the other seeds have survived their opening games. In the top half, the defending champion and world No.2, Peter Gilchrist, takes on India's Nalin Patel and Sheehan plays Geet Sethi, while the lower half will see an interesting contest between Foldvari, who is justifiably tagged the `slowest cueist in the pro ranks', and David Causier, arguably the quickest and most unorthodox player in the top eight.

In the last quarterfinals, Mike Russell will play Manoj Kothari, winner of the world amateur billiards championship in 1990.

Kothari must thank the Royal Air Force for making it into the quarterfinals of the world championship for the first time in his decade old professional career. Having qualified by defeating Mumbai's Sushrut Pandya by just 30 points in the qualifying round held at the Bombay Gymkhana, Kothari had received a walk over from Roxton Chapman, who has recently joined the RAF. Apparently, Chapman is not allowed to pursue a career in professional billiards by the RAF.

A fine exponent of the floating white technique and ranked seven in world rankings, RAF's gain is surely the billiard circuit's loss.

Kothari, in the meanwhile, is smiling his way to the bank with a guaranteed 2000 Pounds payout for just appearing at the venue. He arrives today from London for a 7 p.m. start of his match against the world No. 1.

The quarterfinals are to be played over two days. The first two-hour session of each quarterfinal will be played today and the concluding session on Wednesday. For long, commentators and followers of professional billiards have criticized Foldvari's deliberate use of tactics that slow the game down to a snail's pace. Time and time again it has been suggested to him that he kills a game which is in urgent need of rediscovering itself and which must be marketed better.

It is the unselfish task of each billiards player to attempt to market the game whenever they get an opportunity.

Last night, it was another one of those insipid matches, in which the former world champion gave the spectators a boring exhibition of safety tactics. Poor Bennett--he did not what came over him. And he is not alone in his frustrations over trying to overcome the inertia, which creeps in when one is pitted against the Aussie. The ironic part is that Foldvari has been known to play much better when he attempts to play with a quicker pace. Bennett just could not get into the match and could collect only 132 points in the opening two hour session to his opponent's 402.

However, the world No. 16 managed to compile a 187 towards the concluding stages of the second session. Foldvari could muster only a solitary 148 on his fourteenth visit. Despite his slow pace which puts off opponents and spectators alike, his quarter final opponent is the odds on favourite in their four hour contest which commences at 4 PM this evening.

In stark contrast to his opponent, Causier exposes himself adventurous recovery shots and plays with a break neck speed which can be as unnerving to a slow player. In the opening two-hour session of my match against Sheehan, the scores are 594-355 in my favour. The most interesting part of the match was not the 171, which I constructed at the 17th visit, nor the 140 compiled by opponent at the 27th.

For this first time in my competitive career, I saw a spectator faint while watching the match. An 80-year-old enthusiast just collapsed whilst the match was in its fifteenth minute. I was asked by the referee to halt play even as doctors were called in. Play was help up for forty minutes whilst the ambulance came and took the patient away. Luckily, he regained consciousness within ten minutes and whilst leaving for the hospital he genially apologized for causing the play to be held up.

At the time of writing, Nalin Patel is trailing Peter Gilchrist by over two hundred points after 40 minutes of play.

The results: last 16 (four hours): Robby Foldvari 783 (148) bt Paul Bennett 513 (187).

Quarterfinal line up: Peter Gilchrist vs. Nalin Patel; Peter Sheehan vs. Geet Sethi; Causier vs. Foldvari; Mike Russell vs. Manoj Kothari.

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