Masterly exhibition in billiards championship

Press, Volume CIX, Issue 32035, 9 July 1969, Page 15

Masterly exhibition in billiards championship

npHE final of the 1969 CanA terbury billiards championship last week would not compare with some of the tension-packed finishes of previous years. However, the masterly exhibition by the winner, B. D. Kirkness, on the first night ensured that it would be a match not quickly forgotten. It was unfortunate that the larger gallery on the second night—swelled, no doubt, by the news of Kirkness’s first-night brilliance — was not treated to the same exhibition of skill as were spectators at the opening session. The match was essentially a clash of two different styles of play: Kirkness’s top-of-the-table scoring pitted against Simons’s more common New Zealand practice of hazard scoring. Kirkness is keen to encourage young players in New Zealand to switch to top-of-the-table scoring as a way of bringing the game in this country up to world standard. By his example in last week's match he should have won-over many disciples. Kirkness and Simons had met twice before in club matches this season and with a win each the championship final was expected to be closely fought However, with Kirkness in outstanding form and Simons sadly out of touch early, the match was virtually decided in the first hour of the opening session. A break of 98 at his third visit to the table followed by a 40 at his next were largely responsible for Kirkness passing 200 before Simons had reached 50. The highlight of the match came in the second period of the first evening’s play. A weak shot by Simons left the balls set-up for Kirkness and the latter with a rich mixture of control and judgment made a break of 100, the highest of the entire championship. He began the break with 10 consecutive losing hazards off the red and was on 40 when he moved to the top-of-the-table. The next 60 points were scored with Simons’s ball and the red ball never leaving the top quarter of the table. The applause that greeted Kirkness when he reached the three-figure mark could have upset his concentra-

tion as he failed to score from his next shot Kirkness’s scoring was at all times brisk and once he had the balls positioned at the top end of the table he was able to further increase the tempo with a succession of relatively easy shots.

It took him a little more than an hour and a half to reach the first-night target of 500 and on the second night the scoring was again steady with Kirkness reaching 1000 in slightly more than two hours.

The fact that Simons spent a good deal more time at the table on the second night resulted in 1075 points being scored compared with 680 at the first session. At the second session, Simons, with far better appreciation of the table’s speed, was a different player and revealed the form that earned him No. 1 ranking in the championship. Kirkness was ranked second. As the evening wore on and any hopes Simons had of wiping out his deficit gone he raised the standard of his game even further. In the final half-hour he had breaks of 45, 77 and, with Kirkness only six short of

victory, a 61. The 45 was made up of 15 consecutive losing hazards off the red, the maximum allowed in succession. Kirkness required 79 visits to the table to score his 1000 points and Simons, whose score was 755 when the game ended, had one less opportunity to score. Kirkness failed to score on 23 occasions compared with 21 non-profitable attempts by Simons. As well as his breaks of 100 and 98, Kirkness had four other breaks of better than 50. Simons had four breaks of 50 or better. Both Simons and Kirkness are to contest the 1969 New Zealand billiards championships at New Plymouth in September. If Kirkness can reproduce the form he showed last week he must have a strong chance of bringing the title to Canterbury for only the second time in nearly 30 years.

In 1964 T. Yesberg won the billiards title for Canterbury and the same year the New Zealand snooker championship. Kirkness is also the present Canterbury snooker champion and, if he should contest both events, might possibly emulate Yesberg’s feat. His potting last week certainly suggested there was nothing wrong with his snooker game. The photograph shows Kirkness about to play a shot while Simons looks on.