Indian Billiards Thread ...

[jaydeep]

In WPBSA 2011 World Billiards Championship at Leeds, England, our only 3 players reached in knockout stage - Pankaj Advani, Devendra Joshi and Rupesh Shah ... Pankaj Advani defeated Devendra Joshi 1000-721 in quarters ... Rupesh Shah lost in one-sided match in quarters against David Causier, 455-1000 ... In the semis Pankaj faced defending champion Mike Russell ... Pankaj fought hard but failed to convert in the win ... Mike Russell defeated Pankaj Advani 1250-1012 to book his place in the final.

[jaydeep]

The 2012 World Billiards Championship, Leeds, England

The newly formed World Billiards Ltd has brought together the International Billiards & Snooker Federation (IBSF) and World Professional Billiards & Snooker Association (WPBSA) events for a unified World Championship ... So 65 players from 15 countries participated for the first ever unified World Billiards Championship.

In time format, Balachandra Bhaskar (Group B), Dhruv Sitwala (Group C), Arun Agarwal (Group E), Geet Sethi (Group F), Pankaj Advani (Group G), Sourav Kothari (Group I) and Rupesh Shah (Group J) were group winners.

In 150up (point) format, Pankaj Advani (Group B), Devendra Joshi (Group D), Alok Kumar (Group F), Geet Sethi (Group G), Ashok Shandilya (Group I) and Arun Agrawal (Group J) were group winners.

In Point & Time formats Pankaj qualified as top-seed for knock-out stage with his superior scoring.

World Billiards Championship 2012 (Time format) - knockout

World Billiards Championship 2012 (150up format) - knockout

[jaydeep]

Our eight players r in thr round of 16 in time format knock-out stage ... In round of 32 matches only 3 players crossed 1000 points; Pankaj Advani (1063), Mike Russell (1046) and Geet Sethi (1016).

In 150up (point) format knock-out stage, former world champion Rupesh Shah scored biggest upset when he defeated the defending champion Mike Russell in round of 16 ... Geet also lost against former world champion Peter Gilchrist ... Four Indians r in the quarter-finals in this category.

After losing 1st game to Rupesh, Russell fought back winning next 2 games where he produced two consecutive breaks over 100 points, 150 (unfinished) and 101 to take 2 games to 1 lead over Rupesh ... Rupesh scored 71 points break at crunch time to make it 2 games-all ... In 5th game Rupesh scored 127 points break and lead 3 games to 2 ... In 6th game Rupesh scored 72 and 61 points break but Mike fought back scoring 67 points break ... Rupesh kept his nerve in final momemnts and completed his dream victory.

Rupesh Shah - “It was not easy to make a comeback from 2-1 down and that against a legendary player like Russell. When I got a break of 71 and 127 in third and fourthframe, I started looking for a positive result. In the last game I was going well but when I missed on the score of 131, there was a feeling of so near yet so far. But finally I managed to win.”

The 2012 World Billiards Championship, Leeds, England

World Billiards Championship 2012 - Time format
[R32] (1) Pankaj Advani (IND) bt Phil Davis (ENG) 1063-199
[R32] Martin Goodwill (ENG) bt (16) Manish Jain (IND) 578-380
[R32] (9) Rupesh Shah (IND) bt Steve Brookshaw (ENG) 525-342
[R32] (5) Sourav Kothari (IND) bt Alok Kumar (IND) 855-373
[R32] Matthew Sutton (ENG) bt (12) Arun Agrawal (IND) 427-408
[R32] Ashok Shandilya (IND) bt (13) Nalin Patel (ENG) 535-313
[R32] (4) Dhruv Sitwala (IND) bt Dhvaj Haria (IND) 679-300
[R32] (3) Geet Sethi (IND) bt Revanna Umadevi (IND) 1016-193
[R32] (7) Balachandra Bhaskar (IND) bt Devendra Joshi (IND) 451-436
[R32] Siddharth Parikh (IND) bt (15) John Hartley (ENG) 645-346

World Billiards Championship 2012 - 150up format
[R32] (1) Pankaj Advani (IND) bt S. Venkateswaran (IND) 4-0
[R32] (9) Geet Sethi (IND) bt Dhruv Sitwala (IND) 4-0
[R32] (5) Ashok Shandilya (IND) bt Steve Brookshaw (ENG) 4-1
[R32] (12) Michael Pearson (AUS) bt Balachandra Bhaskar (IND) 4-2
[R32] Rupesh Shah (IND) bt (12) Robert Hall (ENG) 4-1
[R32] (11) Alok Kumar (IND) bt Aidan Murray (IRL) 4-0
[R32] (6) Devendra Joshi (IND) bt Christopher Taylor (ENG) 4-0
[R32] Sourav Kothari (IND) bt (10) Arun Agrawal (IND) 4-1
[R32] (15) Siddharth Parikh (IND) bt Dhvaj Haria (IND) 4-0

[R16] (1) Pankaj Advani (IND) bt (16) Robin Wilson (ENG) 4-1
[R16] (8) Peter Gilchrist (SIN) bt (9) Geet Sethi (IND) 4-1
[R16] (5) Ashok Shandilya (IND) bt (12) Michael Pearson (AUS) 4-0
[R16] Rupesh Shah (IND) bt (4) Mike Russell (QAT) 4-2
[R16] (6) Devendra Joshi (IND) bt (11) Alok Kumar (IND) 4-1
[R16] (7) Martin Goodwill (ENG) bt Sourav Kothari (IND) 4-1
[R16] (2) David Causier (ENG) bt (15) Siddharth Parikh (IND) 4-1

[jaydeep]

Five Indians in the quarter-final of time format including Pankaj and Geet ... Pankaj continued with his terrific form and scored dominating win ... Geet struggled against young Robin Wilson ... Sourav Kothari was lucky as last 13 minutes remaining he was leading 111 points until time end Hall managed unfinished 109 points and lost by 2 points ... Our finalist is guaranteed as in top draw all Indian players r remaining ... In the quarters Geet having tough test against defending champion and favorite Mike Russell .

The 2012 World Billiards Championship, Leeds, England

World Billiards Championship 2012 - Time format
[R16] (1) Pankaj Advani (IND) bt Martin Goodwill (ENG) 1303-425
[R16] (9) Rupesh Shah (IND) bt Robert Hall (ENG) 571-569
[R16] (5) Sourav Kothari (IND) bt Matthew Sutton (ENG) 574-389
[R16] (4) Dhruv Sitwala (IND) bt Ashok Shandilya (IND) 626-494
[R16] (3) Geet Sethi (IND) bt Robin Wilson (ENG) 776-615
[R16] (6) Mike Russell (QAT) bt (11) Peter Gilchrist (SIN) 1033-627
[R16] (10) David Causier bt (7) Balachandra Bhaskar (IND) 1115-617
[R16] (2) Matthew Bolton (AUS) bt Siddharth Parikh (IND) 1127-342

[jaydeep]

Peter Gilchrist scored huge upset win over Pankaj ... So only Rupesh Shah enter into the semis-final.

At the 2012 World Billiards Championship, Leeds, England

World Billiards Championship 2012 - 150up format
[QF] (1) Pankaj Advani (IND) l (8) Peter Gilchrist (SIN) 1-4
[QF] Rupesh Shah (IND) bt (5) Ashok Shandilya (IND) 4-2
[QF] (6) Devendra Joshi (IND) l (3) Matthew Bolton (AUS) 0-4
[QF] (2) David Causier (ENG) bt Martin Goodwill (ENG) 4-1

Report -

Peter Gilchrist made two big dents in Indian camp. After defeating former world champion Geet Sethi last night he knocked out Pankaj Advani, another world champion from India today in point format quarter final match.

Peter cleared his intention since the beginning when he claimed first game against the expectations of crowed witnessing the match. Pankaj instantly replied the same by winning next game but after that Peter did not allow Pankaj to stay on the table. Third frame he crafted magnificent unfinished break of 150 and then 78, 51, 75 point breaks in subsequent games to settle the match score 4-1 in his favour.

Disappointed Pankaj praised the high quality match played by Peter especially after losing time event match in the morning to Russell.
Pankaj switched off immediately and moved to focus on his timed event quarter final scheduled for tomorrow morning.

Matthew Bolton also played brilliant knocks to outplay Devendra Joshi from India. Leaving no chance for Joshi at any stage he produced
breaks after break and knocked out Joshi in straight set of games 4- NIL.

Now the all four Semi finalists are from different part of the world. Peter from Singapore will play against Rupesh Shah of India and Matthew Bolton (Australia) will take on David Causier (England).

[jaydeep]

Another closely fought match in the quarters of time format ... Sourav Kothari was leading most of the part until last minute when Dhruv managed to put important balls for the victory ... Pankaj showed ruthless form to beat Rupesh Shah ... Geet and Mike were neck to neck until the break but after that Mike put 485 points break which ended Geet's hope.

At the 2012 World Billiards Championship, Leeds, England

World Billiards Championship 2012 - Time format
[QF] (1) Pankaj Advani (IND) bt (9) Rupesh Shah (IND) 1647-705
[QF] (4) Dhruv Sitwala (IND) bt (5) Sourav Kothari (IND) 562-558
[QF] (3) Geet Sethi (IND) l (6) Mike Russell (QAT) 739-1345
[QF] (2) Matthew Bolton (AUS) bt (10) David Causier (ENG) 927-581

[jaydeep]

After scoring back to back win against Geet and Pankaj in previous matches Peter Gilchrist failed to overcome Indian challenge in third match ... Rupesh Shah defeated him comfortably in the semis ... Rupesh is meeting Aussie Matthew Bolton in World championship match in point format.

At the 2012 World Billiards Championship, Leeds, England

World Billiards Championship 2012 - 150up format
[SF] Rupesh Shah (IND) bt (8) Peter Gilchrist (SIN) 5-2
[SF] (3) Matthew Bolton (AUS) bt (2) David Causier (ENG) 5-3

[jaydeep]

Rupesh Shah continued with his giant killing and lifted this first unification World Billiards Championship title in Point format beating Australian Matthew Bolton in the final.

Pankaj started well with big breaks in the first session ... He scored three breaks of 167, 205 and 257, which built a lead of 600 points by the session break ... That lead proved too big for Dhruv to overcome as finally Pankaj won the match by 514 points ... In the second semi-final Bolton tried hard to catch Russell but Mike Russell's huge 740 points break in the first session proved decisive.

At the 2012 World Billiards Championship, Leeds, England

World Billiards Championship 2012 - 150up format - Final
Rupesh Shah (IND) bt (3) Matthew Bolton (AUS) 6-2

World Billiards Championship 2012 - Time format
[SF] (1) Pankaj Advani (IND) bt (4) Dhruv Sitwala (IND) 1381-867
[SF] (6) Mike Russell (QAT) bt (2) Matthew Bolton (AUS) 1562-1028

[arjun2761]

When can we make billiards an Olympic sport? Perhaps, if we host the Olympics, we can introduce both singles and doubles in each format and then throw in 4-5 weight classes and we'd have pretty good set of medals.

[jaydeep]

Pankaj defeated hot favorite and defending multiple times World champion Mike Russell to lift this first unification Billiard World Championship ... Pankaj won the final by 650+ points ... Huge victory for Pankaj.

So both titles, Point and Time formats, won by Indians.

At the 2012 World Billiards Championship, Leeds, England

World Billiards Championship 2012 - Time format Final
(1) Pankaj Advani (IND) bt (6) Mike Russell (QAT) 1895-1216

[prashanthm]

Fantastic result for Pankaj & Rupesh!

This victory for Pankaj made it worthwhile to skip the International Snooker Championship which started yesterday, where only Aditya Mehta is playing now.......

International Snooker Ch - Chengdu

Aditya Mehta will be up against Stuart Bingham in the first match....

[Omkara]

Alok Kumar and fellow-Indian Ashok Shandilya entered the points format semi-finals of the World professional billiards Championship.

David Causier (ENG) bt Balachandra Bhaskar 1000 (200, 118, 102)-636 (209, 185, 119)
Alok Kumar bt Nalin Patel (ENG) 1000 (112, 140, 166)-490
Peter Gilchrist (SING) bt Rupesh Shah 1000 (108, 102, 102)-853 (141, 102, 102)
Ashok Shandilya bt Sourav Kothari 1000 (135, 127, 109)-989 (243).

[Saniapower]

Pankaj Advani won his 11th world title outplaying former champion Peter Gilchrist in the 150 up points format World Billiards Championship final at Leeds on Friday. Advani conquered Gilchrist 6-2 in a high-quality finals of the shorter format of billiards. While Advani had lost to Gilchrist in the league stage 3-2, the Indian seemed determined to reverse the outcome in the most crucial match of the tournament.

Final Score:
Pankaj Advani defeated Peter Gilchrist 6-2: 23-151 (145unf), 151 (127)-16, 116-150, 151(108unf)-104, 150(150unf)-0, 151(118)-58, 150-4, 150(77unf)-145(104).

Congratulations to Pankaj Advani

[Saniapower]

Ace Indian cueist Pankaj Advani claimed another World Title to bag a record 12th world crown by convincingly beating Robert Hall of the UK in the World Billiards Championship finals in the Timed Format and in the process he also completed a rare 'Grand Double', his third in both the long and short formats in the same year. Advani beat Robert Hall of England with a score of 1928 – 893 in what looked like a one-sided final. Pankaj has already pocketed two ‘grand doubles’ in 2005 and 2008 respectively. He has done it again with two back-to-back titles this week adding yet another record to his already illustrious career.Last Week, Pankaj claimed the World Title in the Points Format by beating Peter Gilchrist, current World No. 1 in the Finals.
Congratulations to Pankaj Advani

[armchairsportscritic]

Hi,

Please see my interview of Pankaj Advani - http://sportsrediscovered.com/4552/inte ... kaj-advani

One of the classiest sports men to represent India . And winning 12 World titles does help a bit !

Cheers
Manish
PS - looking for sportswriters...pls PM if you know someone