And finally... (July 28, 2007)

Here is another look back at unrecognised efforts in the world of sport.

You have to feel sorry for Professional Billiards players. Instant fame and fortune would have been de rigeur for them in the 19th and early 20th century.

But how times change. Walter Lindrum, and the popularity of snooker, essentially killed Billiards. Professional billiards players are a thing of the past - the modern professionals are simply WPBSA members, they still work for a living.

The history of billiards is long and chequered, but it has been played since the 17th century at least. It was prevalant enough for a World Championship to be organised in 1825. Now, in 2007, the event was organised for the Northern Snooker Centre, in Leeds, England.

The 16 entrants were drawn into four groups of 4, with the top 2 in each group advancing to the Knockout stage of the competition.

Defending champion Geet Sethi, a 7 time Champion from India, came up against a difficult draw in Group A. Mike Russell, an 8 time World Champion was in his group. The Sethi-Russell game was the decider in Group A, with Russell pounding Sethi 1,192-236.

Nothing flashy - no electronic scoreboard as in snooker, so the old fashioned manual one is used. This would have been needed in the days of Edwin Kentfield when he was Champion in 1825.

Group B saw 2 time champion Peter Gilchrist, of Singapore, as comfortable favourite to go through. But the group was a three way tie, between Gilchrist, Devendra Joshi, and Dhruv Sitwala. But Sitwala went out because the other two players had scored more points than him in the Group stage.

Group C was an evenly matched group, featuring three Indian players. Pankaj Advani, World Amateur Champion, won the group, and went through along with Paul Bennett of England.

Group D was another strong one, featuring David Causier and Chris Shutt. Both comfortably advanced, with Shutt losing to Causier 893-786 in the group to fall into second place.

The Quarter Finals saw Russell up against Gilchrist. Gilchrist could only score 482 points in the match - Russell made one break of almost that - a 476 break - as Russell trounced him 1,387-482. The all Indian Quarter Final between Sethi and Joshi saw Sethi hang on and win narrowly 850-673. Shutt beat Advani in the third Quarter Final. Causier thrashed Bennett as was expected.

The Semi Finals saw Russell against Sethi - players with 15 World Championship titles between them. Russell was giving Sethi a killing - after the first session Russell led 1,265-219. And that was only due to an unfinished break of 81 from Sethi at the very end. Sethi put up more of a fight in the second session, and completely outscored Russell, but he was too far behind, losing 1,835-1,231. Russell had a phenominal average break of 97.3 in the first session, with four breaks over 200, including a 326 break.

The second Semi saw Shutt and Causier in a rematch from their group. Causier fought well, but trailed only 829-740. An immediate 421 break from Shutt looked to give him the match, but Causier came back, but ran out of time. A 157 unfinished at the end from Shutt saw him run out 1,698-1,464 winner in a tight Semi.

So Shutt and Russell would meet in the Final. Russell was again inspired in the opening session. Breaks of 274, 309, and 382 saw him race into a 1,319-584 lead. Shutt again came back in the final session, but couldn't score quickly enough, and failed to make the breaks that Russell did in the afternoon. Breaks of 246 and 280 from Shutt was answered by a break of 241 from Russell, and he ran out 2,166-1,710 winner.

Russell's 9th World Champion So Mike Russell claimed his ninth World Billiards title. Only 19th century legend John Roberts Jnr. has won that many titles.

Russell then, is a 9 time Champion. If he can win his tenth title in 2008, or at any stage in the future, it will be a great day in the history of billiards. A sport that has faded so much from the public eye, that nobody will notice even if he does record the historic win.

Another tragedy, is the ignorance from the game's governing body. The WPBSA is the World Professional Snooker and Billiards Association. On the official WPBSA website, there is next to no coverage of the Billiards, whereas comparatively unimportant non-ranking minor snooker tournaments are covered. It is strange that the governing body of a sport is ignoring it to such an extent.

The decline of billiards was halted in the early 1980s with the resurrection of the professional championship, and once more it is on its last legs. With only £6,000 going to the winner - compared to £250,000 for the snooker equivalent - there is little motivation for young players in Britain. India seems to have the stronghold at the moment in the game, with the majority of the competitors coming from there - prbably due to Sethi's success in the 1990s. Billiards has died once, and at the moment, seems to be dieing again.