THE 43rd edition of the Bar Billiards World Championship was held over the weekend of the 15, 16 and 17 November at the Merton Hotel.
In line with previously held tournaments, the weekend was made up of separate challenges – the Individuals tournament and the “Peter Noel Memorial Trophy” doubles tournament – to see who would be crowned 2024 World Champions.
The weekend started on the Friday evening with 60 pairs battling out the early rounds, with the big shock in seeing the 2023 doubles champions, Joe Oakley and Martin Smith (BRI), crash out in round one to the strong UK pairing of Stuart Mepham and Phil Osbourne (WOR).
An early start on the Saturday saw the Individuals tournament begin, with 32 groups of four players playing round-robin games.
The top two from each group progressed to the last-64, with third and fourth placed into the Plate competition.
Although not seeded, the group draws were sympathetic to most of the favourites, the exception being two “groups of death” that saw a total of three previous World Champions, Kevin Tunstall (WOR), Paul Sainsbury (KENT) and the 2023 winner Matt Jones (BUCKS) (with a total of 11 titles between them), two England Internationals, Curt Driver & Gerry Fitzjohn (both KENT), a very strong Guernsey player, Ian Champion, and two unfortunate souls, all placed together.
Sainsbury, Fitzjohn, Tunstall and Champion all progressed, and, like the Doubles on the Friday night, the reigning champion, Jones, crashed into the Plate Competition.
Saturday evening saw the conclusion of the Peter Noel Memorial Pairs, where the three remaining Jersey pairs were hoping to upset the odds against their stronger UK counterparts.
Unfortunately, “luck” of the draw saw two of the pairs brought together in the last 16, with James Jeanne and James Pallot facing the mother and daughter pairing of Jenny and Emma Noel.
After a tight first game, Jeanne and Pallot ending up running away with it in the second game to book their place yet again in the last 8.
The other Jersey pairing of Scott Malorey and Dave Huby faced a similar game pattern, and, despite being only 50 points behind after the first game, ended up on the losing end.
From the quarter finalists, three of the pairings had at least one individual who had won it before with a different partner, including the afore-mentioned Tunstall (WOR), who had won it three times with other partners.
In semi-final one, Tunstall and Fitzjohn met two times previous winners, Matt Jones and Cliff Slade (BUCKS), on what was a very tricky table, but Tunstall and Fitzjohn progressed 4,600 – 3,400.
In the other semi-final, Gary Powell and Colin Robbins (SUR), having dispatched the last Jersey pair Jeanne and Pallot in the previous round, faced upcoming stars Michael Wilson and Max Burt (SUR).
With both pairs in their first ever pairs semi-final it was tense and only in the dying moments of the game did Powell and Robbins manage to pull sufficiently ahead to win 4,250 – 3,260.
The final is traditionally a quad game, with each player having a “break” and thus is always a game of attrition.
Less than 400 points separated the two pairs in game one in Tunstall and Fitzjohn’s favour, as both pairs composed themselves.
However, experience began to shine through as games two and three were more of a one-sided affair and Tunstall and Fitzjohn ended up winning three games to nil.
The Sunday is always focused on the Individuals, starting with the last-64, having been drawn “FA Cup style” upon conclusion of the group stages.
Made up of nine Guernsey, five Jersey and 50 UK players it was always going to be a struggle for the Channel Islanders to make an impression.
Traditional strong players and prior World Champions all made headway into the last 32, ensuring one of the strongest line-ups in many a year, although among them were some surprise contenders who were proving difficult to stop.
In the last-16, four previous World Champions remained, including Guernsey’s three-time winner, Trevor Gallienne.
Three of those four progressed to the quarter finals, with only Paul Sainsbury (KENT) falling to a rejuvenated Tony Cross of Surrey.
The quarter final line-up kept all three ex-champions apart, although Mark Trafford (OXON) faced the strong challenge of Champion from Guernsey.
Champion ousted the two-time winner, coming from behind in game two to win by 2,000 and book his semi-final place.
Quarter final two saw up-and-coming star Michael Wilson (SUR) face the evergreen Chris Tupper (BRI). Wilson kept his nerve and comfortably won, ensuring a meeting with Champion in the semi-final, a first for both players.
The bottom half of the draw saw Cross face Ingram and a strong and steady performance from Ingram saw him sail into his first semi-final since winning it.
Meanwhile, Gallienne faced Max Burt (SUR) in match four. In a one-sided affair, Gallienne put the newcomer in his place and was starting to warm up to the occasion of the weekend by knocking in his third 14,000 game.
Semi-final one between Champion and Wilson was a back-and-forth event, with both players trying their best not to progress.
Eventually Wilson managed to keep more than he lost and while the 2-0 score line seems one-sided, it certainly wasn’t the case and Wilson had booked himself an appearance in the World Championship final at only his third attempt.
Semi-final two between former champions Ingram and Gallienne saw a contest both players deserved to win.
Ingram’s first leg lead of 6,000 would usually place a player in good stead to progress. However, Gallienne would not give in.
Game two saw the Sarnian arrive at the table and score slowly and effectively to overhaul Ingram 9,430 – 7,780 and land his spot in the final alongside Wilson.
The final played out a story that you would usually associate with a Hollywood movie. A big build up, an elongated walk-on and the upcoming star against a traditional winner.
Wilson in his first final; Gallienne unbelievably in his fourth consecutive final, but hoping to reverse the result of the previous three defeats.
Both players started the game incredibly nervy, and a scrappy leg saw both lose far more points than they kept.
Leg two wasn’t much better, although Gallienne kept more than Wilson, whose nerves got the better of him.
The Guernseyman kept his nerve and rounded out a successful weekend to win his fourth championship, and his first since 2008.
The organising committee thanked all the sponsors and specifically the Seymour Group for their ongoing support to the event and for allowing the sport to use their venue for the past 15 years.
