Giles had a sound record in India

Press, 9 December 1981, Page 31

Giles had a sound record in India

By

KEVIN McMENAMIN

Ken Giles is more than satisfied with his performance at the recent world amateur billiards championship in New Delhi.

“Before I went away, I thought I would be lucky to win one game, and as I won three to finish fourth in my section, I guess I didn’t do

too badly,” said Giles on his return home last week. Giles, in fact, had a better record than New Zealand’s other representative, Dave

Meredith, also of Canterbury, and Meredith was the No. 1 ranked of the pair. Meredith won two games in his section, although he scored seven century breaks (154 being the best) to Giles’s five (162). However, one Win Giles does not put a lot of store on was against the sole Egyptian entrant, Amro Essam. Amro was a converted snooker player and he had only been playing billiards for five weeks. His best break against Giles was a 26 and his best of the tournament was a 59 in his last game. Giles said that although the playing conditions were quite good, the organisation of the tournament left something to be desired and the inevitable “Delhi belly" affected just about all the nonAsian players. Both Giles and Meredith had their “difficult” days and for the last 10 they survived on little else but tea and toast and bananas. Giles advice to anyone planning to spend any length of time in India is to take a suitcase full of food, as some of the better informed British competitors did. “You can last a long time on fruit juice and biscuits,” he noted. Meredith, according to Giles, did not play up to his best New Zealand form, but

he generally felt that his form was as good as he could have expected in the circumstances. 'He held the winner of his section, Norman Dagley (England), who went on to narrowly lose the final to the Indian champion, Michael Ferreira, to a lead of around 300 until the last three-quar-ters of an hour. “But then he cut loose and all I could do was watch and you can’t score points when you haven’t got the table. At his last two visits, Dagley had breaks of 272 and 186 unfinished.” Giles feels that he learnt a lot at the tournament and he will be disappointed if his game does not develop as a result. In addition to Ferreira and Dagley, he was greatly impressed by the second Indian representative, S. B. Agarwai, who scored very heavily' in the section rounds, including the world record total of 3010, and was eliminated by Ferreira in the semifinals. Ferreira, perhaps sensing the -threat from his young compatriot, played brilliantly in his game, scoring three breaks of more than 500 — a 630 being the tournament’s best. “All these top players play percentage billiards,” said Giles. “They get the bulk of their points at the top of the

table, but they don’t hesitate to go elsewhere and then work their way back if position at the top is lost.” New Zealand top-of-the-table players, he feels, try too hard to stay there once difficulties arise. The Asians, he said, were fine all-round players, although from experience he found they could be checked to some extent by safety play and their play rarely flowed so long as the scores remained close. “But once they get away from you. you might as well hang up your cue.” Giles said that the final two hours of the FerreiraDagley final was the best billiards he had ever seen. “Ferreira went into the session with a 450-point lead, but Dagley immediately cut into this with a break of 281, Ferreira replied with a 244 arid Dagley then had a 182. “And so it went on, one big break after another until Dagley needed just on 100 points in the last five minutes to snatch victory. However, in trying to quicken his scoring he broke down.” Although unhappy experiences with food and accommodation in New Delhi had left Giles with mixed feelings about his trip, he said the four days he and Meredith spent in Hong Kong on their way home had done wonders to their spirits. A visit to the Taj Mahal was another highlight. “I am not one to get excited about old buildings, but it was really quite breathtaking in its beauty,” he said.