Riley’s Northern Open Billiards Championship

North Ormesby Institute, Middlesbrough

9th-13th November 1997

Teesside saw competitive tournament action after a lapse
of eight years, since the Marton Country Club last staged
an event.

The world’s top four players were seeded into the second
round amongst the 28 entrants. Eugene Hughes proved to be
the opening round’s highest scorer, while Bob Close, Alok
Kumar and David Causier found conditions to their liking with
800+ totals in the 2 hour games. Robby Foldvari averaged 45
points per visit in that round.

Chris Shutt scraped home by only 4 points against Arun
Agrawal to set up a mouth-watering clash with World Champion
Mike Russell.

Mike was back in his native Teesside to face the player who
had bettered all but one of his nine scoring records in the
Teesside Boy’s League and who had recently beaten him at
Darley Dale.

Tournament Director Alan Chamberlain reports a spectator
audience of 300 watched the match that produced averages of
45.5 and 55.2. Chris played the game of his short pro career,
but ran out of steam as Mike overtook him in the closing
minutes.

The game produced an aggregate of 1,558 points with the
players scoring at the rate of 13 points per minute.

Hughes dried up against Foldvari, while Roxton Chapman and
Peter Gilchrist almost clocked up four-figure totals.

Regional TV cameras were present for the first of two visits on
the day of the quarter-finals that saw Russell break the 1,000
point barrier, then Gilchrist smash it with a 1,327 score that
included three double and four single century breaks.

Roxton Chapman defeated David Causier with a tournament
best break of 457 when the Peterborough player had looked
destined for defeat.

Geet Sethi was humbled by an impressive Foldvari, but the
Aussie then lost to Gilchrist in the semi-final, while Russell
accounted for Chapman.

An all-Teesside final in the area regarded as the hot-bed of
billiards, brought the TV cameras back to the venue, and
healthy crowds to spectate.

Russell averaged almost 84 points in the opening session to
swamp Gilchrist and end the contest, but thankfully not the
spectacle, as the pair concluded with runs of 440, 233 and
three other centuries in the last session.

Sunday 9th-10th November

Wednesday 12th November

Thursday 13th November