Snooker New champion

Press, 14 July 1980, Page 18

Snooker New champion

By R. T. BRITTENDEN

Canterbury has a new snooker champion. In a hard-fought match which went the full 11 frames, Doug Hallum beat Dave Meredith, the reigning national title-holder on Saturday.

Hallum is fashioning a remarkable record in the Canterbury championships. He won the title in 1965, and at 19 was the youngest to hold it. He was runner-up the following year, but then spent 12 vears in Australia, where he played regularly with the noted professional, Warren Simpson. A carpenter working on the airport extensions, he has had little time for practice, but his deliberate methods and determination took him through to a fine victory.

Although he was ahead by two frames to nil, and led. again at 3-2 and at 4-3, Hallum had to take the last two frames to win the title. He often looked in danger of losing. Quite regularly, the long defensive exchanges ended in Meredith’s favour, but the New Zealand champion made some potting errors at vital stages, and Hallum seized on his chances with the alacrity of a chameleon. Deliberate he certainly is. At address, he takes a long time. A count of practice swings varied from about 15 to 44. It is unlikely that Hallum plays golf, similar methods there would reduce his partners to gibbering idiots. , Meredith, recently married and working at two jobs, has also had little time for practice, and the quality of play in the final was not always as high as expected. But he produced touches of his genuis, particularly in an eighth-frame break of '72. If Meredith had any belief in omens, he might have foreseen the result when he went in off

when breaking to start the match. There were some simple errors by both players in the opening frames, and when the score was two-all tile balls were changed. There had been trouble with an under-weight white. Hallum breezed through the first frame and also took the second, but this was a bitter battle. It took them 36 minutes to clear the reds and Hallum won with a fine angled pink. The frame was the longest, 43 minutes. Meredith won a hard-fought third frame, and was always in control in the fourth. The next frame flowed more freely, Hallum establishing a lead of 49-1 before taking it. Showing fine judgment of pace, Meredith won the sixth comfortable, but Hallum went ahead again in the seventh, although when they began on the colours he was but two points ahead. In the eighth, Meredith won m 16 minutes, with two reds left. In his beautifully-controlled break of 72, he started with six blacks, sank the pink, then had two more blacks. There were no such extravangances in the ninth, which looked at one stage likely to last an hour. As the gale howled around the building, Hallum and Meredith fought out a defensive duel in snooker’s sepulchral calm. It was a strange set-up; there was a green over a top pocket, and 13 reds grouped in the same quarter of the table. After 20 minutes there had been only two legal pots, an early red to each. MTC Meredith broke the deadlock, and applied pressure with a series of snookers. At the colours ho led 82 to one and that frame put him in front for the first time.

There was another protracted defensive struggle in the tenth, but Hallum broke away with an assertive, skilful break of 63.

The final frame also started slowly, the situation complicated by tiie pink and black being in the bunch of reds. A daring pot gave Hallum the last red and a lead at 32-28. That gave him the pink, and after sinking the yellow, a brilliant fine cut shot gave him the green. Hallum went on to the brown, and Meredith, in difficulties, left the blue over a top pocket, and that was that. Hallum’s best breaks were 63, 24, 24, 23, and 22, Meredith’s 72, 3p, 29, 28, 28, 24 and 23. Hallum gave a good, methodical display in the semi-finals in beating Lou Adams, runner-up in the 1978 national championship, by five frames to two. Adams had little luck, but Hallum was sounder in all departments. Meredith had a stern struggle before beating Claud McQuolde by five frames to four. At one stage Meredith led by four frames to one. McQuoide is a fine potter, and a resolute player. He looked likely to lead two-one as he controlled the third frame, but Meredith doubled tho yellow and cleared th'e colours.

McQuoide was in desperate straits in the sixth, after Meredith had had a break of 34. but he took the last five colours to win by a single point, the last four colours in the next frame.

In the eighth, Meredith again had a commending lead, but they were 45-all at the colours and McQuoide survived some testing situations before going ahead. Meredith ended a match lasting more than five hours with an impressive performance, based on a break of 39 early in the frame. Results:— ,

Semi-finals: Hallum beat Adams 35-64, 65-19, 66-23. 61-31, 42-56, 60-33, 62-58; Meredith beat McQuoide 36-100, 113-19, 62-55, 58-45, 72-34. 59-60, 52-65, 47-67, 72-24.

Final: Hallum beat Meredith 65-29, 60-51. 39-47, 29-69, 70-33, 31-71, 68-50, 7-72, 7-85, 84-15. 58-28.