The Hindu : Sport / Billiards & Snooker : Kothari goes down fighting

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Wednesday, Nov 05, 2008
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Sport - Billiards & Snooker

Kothari goes down fighting

Geet Sethi

India’s No. 4 loses to Ben Judge

Ireland’s Colin Gilcreest is top-seeded
Manan Chandra receives fourth ranking

Wels (Austria): After eight days of constant play, the knockout stage draw of the 2008 IBSF World snooker championship was made with Republic of Ireland’s Colin Gilcreest getting top seeding on the basis of the least frames lost in the round robin stage. Gilcreest had earlier compiled a fine 142, the highest break of the event so far.

India’s Manan Chandra received the fourth ranking on the basis of his unbeaten record in his group.

Sourav Kothari who qualified for the final stages despite losing one round robin encounter went down 4-2 to Australia’s Ben Judge in a match, which was keenly contested and could have gone either way.

The final score-line does not reflect the quality of Kothari’s potting nor does it reflect how close the contest really was. After losing the opening frame, courtesy a fluent 59 by his opponent, Kothari responded by clinching the second 60-46 with two efforts of 40 and a yellow-to-pink clearance.

Early initiative

In retrospect, the loss of the third frame changed the course of the match. The India No. 4 established an early initiative with an effort of 46 and led 57-20. However, a momentary lapse saw Kothari over-hitting the cue ball whilst negotiating a safety shot.

The 25-year-old Judge, winner of this year’s Australian National title cleared with a praiseworthy 47 to win the frame and established a 2-1 advantage.

Kothari must be given credit for his resilience. He dug deep to level at 2-2 but lost the fifth with a terrible slice of luck when, in the course of playing safe, he disturbed the black to leave it near the top right pocket and a red on the top left pocket.

His eager opponent made full use of the opportunity and once again cleared to clinch the frame 62-51. Losing frames in this manner dents the confidence of the best cueists. Yet, Kothari played on with his chin up. However, his end game let him down once again in the sixth frame, as he saw his early advantage being eroded and his opponent snatching a 58-47 win in the sixth to win 4-2.

Kothari was understandably disappointed after being on the losing side of such a close contest. In the final analysis it was his end game, which let him down and if he can get back home and work on this, he could be a world-beater in the not so distant future.

Close encounter

In another closely contested encounter, Thailand’s Thepchai Un-Nooh held his nerve to effect a creditable 32 clearance and clinch the deciding frame 60-50 against Northern Ireland’s Jordan Brown.

The Thai who compiled breaks of 67 & 60 in the first two frames has now reached the round of last 32.

The highest break of the day was a 138 by David Donovan of Wales who demolished Robert Butof of Austria 4-0. Canadian Kirk Stevens, who rose to fame and fortune two decades ago by becoming one of the first few players to have made a televised 147 maximum on the professional snooker circuit, rediscovered some magic in constructing a 90 in his 4-1 victory over South Africa’s Francois Ellis.

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