Meredith in fine touch

Press, 11 September 1989, Page 21

Meredith in fine touch

Dave Meredith, of Canterbury, maintained his brilliant semi-final form when he whipped his Canterbury team-mate Brian Kirkness, 1639-551 in the final of the Lion Brown New Zealand billiards championships in Wellington on Saturday. Meredith’s display in the final was described as one of the greatest by a New Zealander in the history of the sport.

Kirkness was never allowed into the match by Meredith who averaged 40 points on his visits to the table. The win gave Meredith a notable treble. Earlier in the season he won the Canterbury and South Island billiards titles.

In his semi-final last Friday Meredith trounced Paul Stocker of Hawke’s Bay 1267-834 and he maintained that superb form against Kirkness with breaks of 53, 236, 52, 80, 82, 108, 79, 181, 69, 133, 72 and 102. His points average would compare favourably with that of any of the world’s top amateur billiards players. Kirkness, a four-time winner of the national billiards title, paid tribute

to Meredith after the final saying he was the greatest New Zealand billiards player since Clark McConachy. The final was played in two two-hour sessions and Kirkness’ hopes of a fifth title had disappeared at the end of the first session. He trailed 299-737.

The hopes of Kirkness slumped further with Meredith’s first visit to the table after the resumption. He compiled

a break of 108 and followed that quickly with breaks of 181 and 133 which confined Kirkness virtually to a role of spectator. He could only watch in awe at the mastery of his team-mate.

Meredith said after the match that he believed he was improving with each match and paid tribute to the tables at the Wellington Workingmen’s Club which he said were conducive to high breaks.