Rolleston top in A grade billiards

Press, Volume CX, Issue 32322, 13 June 1970, Page 9

Rolleston top in A grade billiards

(By

K. J. McMENAMIN)

'THE half-way stage has been reached in the Canterbury Billiards Association’s A grade inter-club competition but only one player, L. Rolleston (Kaiapoi W.M.C.), can boast an unbeaten record in the nine rounds. Rolleston, who fills the No. 3 berth for Kaiapoi, had his closest call in the first game of the season when he beat L. Saunders (Spreydon W.M.C.), 200499. The only other opponent” to test him was J. Young (Hornby W.M.C.), whom he beat 200-191., ,

In each of his other seven games Rolleston gained handsome wins, with the advantage in his favour never being less than 66 points. His most decisive victory came last week when he beat D. Collie (R.S.A.), 200-49. Two weeks ago Collie was one of only two other A grade players who could match Rolleston’s unbeaten record. Two players have had their rec6rds marred by one loss. They-are the current New Zealand billiards champion, E, Simons (Post Office the talented, but unpredictable, K. Murphy (Woolston W.M.C.), who is

this season making a comeback to competitive play after a break of three years. Simons was beaten, 200142, in the fifth round by the present Canterbury champion, B. Kirkness (Spreydon W.M.C.), and Murphy’s run was broken in the eighth round when he was surprisingly beaten by W. Burney (Kaiapoi W.M.C.), the score being 200-168. As No. 1 for Post Office, Simons has few easy games and for a player in this position to lose only once in nine games is a most satisfying achievement and

one which suggests he will be a strong prospect again at this year’s national championships, which will be held in Christchurch during September. Murphy, on the other hand, has rarely met opponents of his standard playing at No. 2 and his defeat by Burney is all the more surprising in view of the fact that Burney has lost more games than he has won this season. In the first round of the Canterbury billiards championships next week, Murphy has been drawn to meet Burney and both, no doubt, will be mindful of

their inter-club clash. Six players have suffered two losses, and rather remarkably they comprise two teams. They are the Spreydon trio of Kirness, G. Foster and Saunders and the R.S.A. team of C. Kelly, R. O’Callaghan, and Collie. It is not surprising, therefore, that these two teams at present lead the competition, Spreydon holding a one-point advantage with a total of 21. The points difference is due to the fact that Kelly missed the opening round and his stand-in, T. Hall, was beaten.

Kirkness’s losses were inflicted by M. Maffey (Shirley W.M.C.) and Kelly; Foster was beaten by Burney and O’Callaghan; and Saunders after his early loss to Rolleston went down by nine points to T. Mintrom in the sixth round. Kelly’s first loss was to R. Dowler and in his next game suffered a smilar fate at the hands of Simons; Collie was beaten in the final two games of the round, by Saunders and Rolleston; and O’Callaghan’s conquerors were E. Henzel (Woolston W.M.C.) and Murphy.