Easy billiards win to Tarrant

Press, Volume CXII, Issue 33094, 8 December 1972, Page 14

Easy billiards win to Tarrant

The Australian, P. Tarrant, who only came into the world open billiards championship as a replacement, proved himself a player of considerable ability when he easily beat J. Fryer (England) in a first-round match of the tournament at the Richmond W.M.C. yesterday. Tarrant, who this year won the Australian amateur title for the first time, took an early lead with a break of 95 at his fifth turn at the table and always maintained this advantage. At the end of the first

two-hour session, Tarrant was in front, 727-263, and scored Just as well in the second session to win, 1462-627.

Tarrant, aged 34, from Vietoria, has only been playing billiards seven years and a half, but in style and technique he has the assurance of a veteran. His top-of-the-table play was particularly good. In the main, he favoured cannons to hazards or pots, and whether It was a straightforward cannon, a drop cannon, or one using the cushion he was extremely steady, and on occasions brilliant. Fryer had to battle not only his Indifferent form, but also misfortune.

Only rarely did he eome to the table with much to work on, and time and again he missed shots by the barest of margins. He managed some very difficult shots at times — particularly

long-range and screw cannons—but the ball would simply not run for him. The table's rather slow cushions possibly also affected his game more than that of his opponent. Tarrant’s 93 after eight minutes was the highest break of the game, and the nearest he came to it was in the closing minutes when he got good position at the top-of-the-table and ran up a brisk 91. After Tarrant’s forceful opening both players went through a very lean patch and there was much shaking of heads as each had 13 visits to the table without reaching double figures. Breaks of 49 and 63 lengthened Tarrant’s lead, and he made it almost unassailable towards the end of the first session with a 77 and a 70. Two 58s early in the second session pushed his advantage to more than 600, and although Fryer was playing a little better the gap continued to widen.

In the first session Fryer** best break waa a mere 90, and he had only one other of meito than 20 He showed that he, toe, knew something about top-of-the-table play when he made a solid 78 midway through the second session, but with good position constantly eluding him he could only get past 20 on four other occasions and each time he broke down before 40. Tarrant had a total of 24 breaks of more than 20 and eight of these he continued past 50. At Pukekohs, the Indian, Satish Mohan, had a devastating victory over his countryman, M. Ferreira. Mohan won 1722 1273, and remained the only unbeaten player In the event. The Welsh champion, C. Everton. beat E. Charlton (Australia). 858-798, Charlton produced the highest break of 200, and Mohammed Lafir (Ceylon) defeated J. Karnehm (England), 1596-741. During this match Lafir had a break of 284.