INDIVIDUAL BILLIARDS
CHAMPIONSHIP

Lee Lagan and Peter Shelley will contest the final of
the 2001 CIU National Billiards Championship at
The Oatlands Mount WMC, Harrogate on
Saturday 28th April. A full report of the match
will appear in our next issue.

The second round of the competition saw the defeat of reigning
champion Darren Kell at the hands of Tony James who accomplished
the feat on Kell’s home table in Middlesbrough. The early part of the
game appeared to be going the way of the champion as a break of 61
helped him to a 78 point advantage. However, after this, James was the
more consistent and he gradually drew well ahead. Despite a late rally
by Kell, James held on to win by 45 points, recording an average of
13.9. Such giant-killing acts are not new to James who also put an end
to Tony Mackinder’s reign when he was defending champion last year.

Newcomer to the event, Richard Beckham, had put up an excellent
performance to dispose Geoff Charville in the previous round, but
found Lee Lagan just too much to overcome. He certainly had plenty of
chances and was 160 points in front at one stage in the match. Lagan,
however, came back strongly to finish with two 80+ breaks and progress
to the quarter-finals.

Tony Mackinder’s campaign this season continued with an impressive
home win over Derick Townend in a one-sided match, while Peter
Shelley, despite breaks of 71, 58 and 53, struggled to overcome Maurice
Chapman by just 50 points. Top break of the round came from Jack
Hedley with 105 as he experienced little trouble getting past Ivan
Stevenage 500-139.

The quarter-finals saw Lee Lagan at his best, giving Phil Johnson no
chance as he ran in breaks of 91, 110, 85 and 112 unfinished to complete
a 500-95 victory. His match average of 41.7 was a nostalgic reminder of
the days when Norman Dagley was sweeping all before him. Even so,
Lagan was not entirely happy with his home venue. “I am not confident
on this table—it rolls off too much” he said after the match, making us
wonder how he would have performed on a table he liked!

Tony James put up another great performance to eliminate Tony
Mackinder for the second year in a row. The match did contain some
controversy however. At one stage in the game, Mackinder was fouled
for playing with the wrong ball, which had been passed to him in error
by the referee. This unfortunate incident provided what his supporters
felt was a turning point in the match as James went on to clinch a 53
point victory.

In the other matches, Peter Shelley managed to overcome a strong
challenge from Neal Rewhorn 500-425, while Jack Hedley had a more
comfortable 500-368 win over Phil Davis.

CIU semi-finalists Tony James and Lee Lagan pose with match referee Vera Selby.

Tony James looked as though he was set to continue his “giant-killing”
run as he led Lee Lagan by 119 points at the interval of their three-hour
semi-final match at the Witton Gilbert WMC in Durham. Staged in the
Club’s games room, both players had to contend with the noise of no
less than two televisions operating simultaneously in the adjoining bar
area—one of these broadcasting the English International football match,
the other horse racing—and both with a more enthusiastic and vocal
audience than the billiards! Lagan, who had won the English Amateur
title the previous week-end, looked sadly out of touch averaging just
8.3 over the first half of the match. However, picking up a break of 14
unfinished after the interval, he took this to 53 and was suddenly
transformed. After 20 minutes he had added runs of 70 and 68 to
convert his opening deficit into a lead of 63. Consecutive breaks of 93
and 55 followed soon afterwards and with James struggling to regain
his scoring touch, completed a 376 point victory with additional runs
of 53, 137 and 53. In the second 90 minute session Lagan had scored
almost 700 points with an average of 30.

In complete contrast to the other semi-final, Peter Shelley and Jack
Hedley arrived at the Walsgrave Club in Coventry to find a billiard table
specially erected for the occasion in the Concert Room, providing an
ideal setting for a National Billiards competition. Unfortunately the
game did not manage to do justice to the conditions as both players
found difficulty in producing their best form. The highlights of the
early play were breaks of 54 and 96 by Shelley which gave him a lead
of over 100 at one stage, but Hedley fought back and with an unfinished
break of 68 had recovered to be 38 points in front at the interval.
However, he could only increase this by two points on the resumption
and the game remained close for much of the second session. Then
Shelley, with a burst of two visits producing 89 and 48, took a decisive
advantage of 123 which he held to the end of the match, concluding
with an unfinished run of 61 to increase his winning margin to 211.