Billiards isn’t exactly the easiest sport in the world to understand, after all compared to its other cue sport counterpart, pool; the former’s scoring system is downright confusing. 2 points for this, another 3 points for that rather than just simply trying to get all the cue balls into the nets, talk about confusion reigning supreme. It’s no wonder so many youths prefer the relative simplicity of pool But with a world class billiards competition in the form of the International Billiards and Snooker Federation (IBSF) World Billiards Championship 2007 coming to town from Sep 5 to 14 at the Orchid Country Club, the initial impression of billiards as a dour overly complicated sport will surely be given a rethink, especially given that Team Singapore stands a good chance of winning the Championships as well.

With a total prize purse of US$8000 ($12200), the tournament will see some of the best billiard players from 15 countries like Australia, England and traditional powerhouse India come to stake their claim as the best in the world.

This year’s tournament will retain the formats used in the 2005 Championships held in Malta, namely the ‘Traditional Time’ and ‘Frame’ format.

In the ‘Traditional Time’ format, the players have to chalk up as many points within 2 and a half hours while in the ‘Frame’ format, players will be competing with each other over 5 frames (each with a size of 150 points) to see who will come out on top.

According to Mr Ronnie Chua, Chairman of the World Billiards Championships organising committee, “players will be divided into 8 groups for both formats, 2 from each group will qualify for the last 16”. Thus the tournament might even see 2 champions thanks to its format, although in the 2005 Championships, both formats were dominated by Pankaj Advani from India.

The Singaporean Hope

While some eyes will be on the star studded Indian team that consists of the likes of Geet Sethi and Advani, Team Singapore won’t be in the tournament as a minor, consisting of SEA Games bronze medallists 66-year-old Alan Puan and the relatively young 32-year-old Glenn Yeo, the team is made even stronger with the well travelled and certainly highly successful Peter Gilchrist.

All hope on Team Singapore’s chances seem to have fallen on the 39-year-old naturalised Singaporean, and he’s certainly proven to be in great form this year, bagging the Asian and European Billiards Championships respectively.

While taking all the attention in his stride, the 2-time former World Professional Billiards champion said, “I’ve obviously got a good chance, I don’t have to travel, I feel that this is my year [to win].” Although he added that his despite his successes this year, he still has to be careful during the build up to the tournament especially during the 2-3 weeks leading up to the competition especially since there are “4-5 players that stand a good chance a good chance of winning”.

One of the players that Gilchrist mentioned to look out for in the tournament is the young Australian Matthew Bolton who had previously defeated Gilchrist in another competition.

Popularising the Sport

But as we mentioned earlier, billiards isn’t as popular among youths as pool in part due to its complex play compared to other simpler cue sports such as pool.

Nonetheless, the tournaments organisers are hoping that with free entry to the event coupled with Gilchrist’s achievements in the sport will see bigger interest in the sport with youngsters following in his foot steps and taking up billiards. Mr Chua enthused, “Hopefully, Peter will nurture them as champions.”

However even if there is a sudden clamour to take up the sport after the tournament, don’t expect our tiny island nation to become a dominant force in the world of billiard so soon, after all, even Gilchrist explained that he started as a 12-year-old and took years to develop his skills, “It just takes that long unfortunately”.

Nonetheless, expect this September to be a month whereby billiards in Singapore will never be the same again.

IBSF World Billiards Championship 2007

Venue: Orchid Country Club
Date: 5-14 Sep
Admission Details: Free