Two distinctions for Simons

Press, Volume CXIII, Issue 33413, 20 December 1973, Page 26

Two distinctions for Simons

1 The former Canterbury and New Zealand billiards champion, E. Simons, returned home yesterday from the world amateur championships in Bombay with I two distinctions.

His eighth placing in the field of 10 was the highest achieved by a New Zealander at the championships. And he was a party—albeit, a silent one—to the setting of a world record break. It was against Simons that the eventual winner of the tournament. Mohammad Lafir. of Sri Lanka, set the new mark of 859.

"It was an amazing performance,” said Simons, “and perhaps the most remarkable thing of all was it took him onlv 49 minutes.

"He scored it nearly en-

tirely at the top of the table and broke down when the red died in the drift of the nap and stopped on the edge of a centre pocket.”

Simons said that Lafir, who was a very popular winner, and the other leading contestants scored heavily from what is known as "postman’s knock.”

“They get the white hard up against the cushion at the top of the table and use it for an occasional cannon; most of their points are scored bv potting the red off the spot.” Even when they missed, said Simons, the player coming to the table had his ball so placed that he faced a difficult shot to get started. The tournament had been dominated by three players, said Simons. Lafir and the two Indians, Satish Mohan and Michael Ferreira, were in a class of their own—certainly in a completely differ-

ent league than he and his fellow New Zealander, B. D. Kirkness, who has gone on to Europe.

Simons and Kirkness both beat the Scottish entrant, L. U. Demarco, and Simons had an easy win over Kirkness to finish one place ahead of him. Simons said that while he had suffered some heavy defeats, he had learnt much and his game should improve as a result.

He suffered something of a “complex” about his losinghazard method of scoring, for he was the only one who played the game this way. “All the others went for the top of the table and they were not too happy about me slowing the game down. However, I think I am a little too old now to change my style,” Simons added. Kirkness, he said, had played very well at times, scoring six century breaks—the highest a 195 (his best in

competition)—and leading Ferreira at the half-way in their four-hour game. Simons made no century breaks, his best returns being 90 and 94 against Kirkness. Simons said he had expected the standard to be high and he had not been disappointed, but he still believed that the retired New Zealander, Clark McConachy, who was the world professional champion for a number of years, would, even now at 79, beat the best amateurs “with one hand tied behind his back.” He added that it was a great pity that K. Murphy, a Canterbury player who dropped out of the game a few years ago, had not realised his potential. "He was the only New Zealand amateur of recent times who could have held his own with the Lafirs and Mohans,” he said.