2006 World Professional Billiards Championship Final
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Geet Sethi, one of India's most celebrated sportsmen, recorded perhaps the finest achievement of his career by regaining the World Billiards Championship title.
Billiards is the oldest cue sport, with a World Championship dating back to 1880, and is the forerunner of modern pool and snooker. Since then many rules have changed, and after the original Championship ended in 1932, it's rebranding in 1980 has not seen as high breaks. Billiards faltered to Snooker and Pool because the rules used to make repetition a serious problem, that bored the paying fans. The new rules make it more difficult to make such large breaks. It is now virtually impossible to make a 1,000 break that was once seen as the standard for a good break. It is now about 100.
The rules give varying points for cannons between the three-balls, or for potting either ball. They score more points for a combination of those ideas, e.g. potting the red whilst cannoning the opponents cueball. Uniquely, each player has their own cueball.
India's Geet Sethi won this year's championship. The 45-year-old from New Delhi beat Middlesbrough's Lee Lagan 2093-1057 in the final at Pontin's in Prestatyn, Wales on Friday.
It is Sethi's fifth World Professional Title and his first since 2001. He takes home the trophy and a cheque for £5,000.
In the first 150-minute session he built a 930-503 lead, helped by breaks of 104, 186, 127 and 101.
Lagan tried to pull back in the second session with a 138, his highest of the match. But Sethi was not to be denied and rolled in a 238 to stretch his lead, then finished the match on an unbroken 206.
Sethi is a recipient of India's highest sporting award, the Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna, and is sure to receive a warm welcome when he returns home.
Source
- www.worldsnooker.com
Date
Sun 06/04/06, 5:04 am EST
