Gilchrist romps to title

Billiards World Championship: Singaporean drubs India's Kothari 1500-617 in final

Legendary Peter Gilchrist romped to glory in the IBSF World Billiards Championship (long-up format), handing maiden finalist Sourav Kothari a brutal lesson and continuing his love affair with India here on Thursday.

The 48-year-old Gilchrist, the defending points format champion and long-up version runner-up, played like a man possessed, producing a masterclass in billiards to down the 32-year-old Kothari 1500-617 in four hours and 20 minutes at the KSBA hall.

“It feels very good. I started off a little slowly but I picked up the pace as the tournament wore on,” said Gilchrist. “I got off to very good start in the final and Sourav couldn’t make it to the table many times. I got a 100 break nearly every time I came to the table. The 300 points put distance between me and him,” he added.

It was actually Kothari who set the pace in the final. Feeling rejuvenated after stunning defending points format champion Pankaj Advani in the quarterfinals on Wednesday night, Kolkatan Kothari began with a break of 90. There were no signs of pressure as he played the billiards that helped him win the Asian Championship in 2014.

However, he was soon reduced to a mere spectator as Gilchrist took charge. The Singaporean, who won two of his previous four world titles in India in 1994 and 2001, first cracked a 127-point break to surpass Kothari. Gilchrist then posted breaks of 68 and 66. In both those efforts, he looked good for a big one but was undone by casual shot making. Despite those unforced errors, he placed himself comfortably at 263-98.

Kothari got his chances then to show that he was no easy meat and the determined cueist looked like making a fist of the challenge as he stitched together a good break. However, an unforced error while on 88 points saw him gift the table back to Gilchrist.

The Singaporean, having warmed up his engines nicely in his previous visits of short bursts, then exploded to take complete control of the final. Playing free-flowing billiards that even drew appreciation from Kothari, Gilchrist posted the tournament’s biggest break of 354 points.

Making the game look ridiculously easy, the silken Gilchrist just kept operating at the top table area, only returning to the bottom every 80-100 points to comply with the baulk-line rule. Be it cannons, in-offs, red ball pot, Gilchrist just went about his work with clock-like precision. His breathless run came to an end when the red ball and Kothari’s cue ball got stuck on the opposite ends of the centre cushion. Gilchrist did try an audacious in-off but his cue ball ricocheted off the centre pocket. In complete control of the match at 705-198, Gilchrist then nailed a 150-point break to further increase his lead to 855-205.

He then took a 10-minute breather and came storming back after resumption. Showing no mercy whatsoever to a demoralised opponent, Gilchirst notched breaks of 207, 49 and 98 to all but seal the game at 1295-308.

Down and out, Kothari tried hard to mount a comeback but even he knew he had very little life left. He managed a 280-point effort but Gilchrist uncorked breaks of 110 and 64 to register perhaps the easiest of his world championship final victories and a third one in India.

Results: Final: Peter Gilchrist (Sing) bt Sourav Kothari (Ind) 1500 (127, 68, 66, 57, 354, 150, 65, 207, 98, 110, 64) - 617 (90, 88, 280).

Semifinals: P Gilchrist bt Rupesh Shah (Ind) 1251 (87, 55, 52, 171, 95, 74, 84, 129, 194, 86) - 958 (95, 137, 130, 67, 138, 55, 83); S Kothari bt Dhvaj Haria (Ind) 1250 (141, 98, 68, 228, 60, 50) - 816 (55, 52, 55, 53, 221).