Russell, Gilchrist in final

Dwayne Williams

Four-time World professional billiards champion, Mike Russell, and the 1994 champion, fellow-Englishman Peter Gilcrhist will contest the title round of the 2001 Mega Ace edition of the championships. The world no. 1 and no. 3 overcame all sorts of problems during the four-hour semi-finals and staged remarkable late recoveries to scamper through at the CCI, in Bombay, on Saturday.

While Russell, the defending world champion who showed indifferent form, broke away on a tremendous 389-break at the start of the last hour to run away from the clutches of the hounding David Causier, winning by a margin of 114 points. Gilchrist, who had problems with his cue tip, also came good in the last hour, knocking in breaks of 87 and 91-unfinished on his last to visits to pip Australia's Robbie Foldvari by an even slender margin of 81 points.

With the Indian challenge having come to a premature end, the few who turned up were there mainly to see the world's best player, Mike Russell. And the Peterborough pro may have entertained them with early breaks of 146, 78, 113 and 269 during the first two-hour session. But all those efforts, save the 269 maybe, did not have the real Russell stamp of class on them.

Causier, meanwhile kept abreast with his reknowned rival right upto that double hundred with some consistent play, rolling in a hundred and three 50-plus runs.

But it was the second session that saw most of the excitment. Russell converted the unfinished-65 into a 93. But he was still struggling with his cueing which was evident over the first hour. Causier, meanwhile, exploded. A 78 on the first visit was followed by a 252 that was fast, furious and full of fascinating shots.

At that stage, with an hour to go, Russell suddenly struck a rhythm. He was into top-table position in a flash and stayed there. What unfolded was a superb exhibition of the execution of the Floating White technique. The object white rarely moved away from around the billiards spot, nudged around as Russell manoeuvered beautifully to get towards a 400-run.

However, when attempting to comply with the baulk-line rule for the third time -- at 389 -- a cut on the red saw the ball jump out of the pocket. Russell had by now opened up a lead of around 500 points and with only around 20 minutes left it would have seemed curtains for any lesser player.

But not Causier. He fought back in his inimitable bustling style. Breaks of 51, 86 and 117 saw him cut the lead to around 300 points. Russell realised the danger staring in his face. And he coolly potted white and played inoffs on the red for 33 points in four minutes.

Still Causier soldiered on. He hit a 91, missed a red pot but with three minutes left tried gamely to hit the 240-required to pip Russell. But time ran out on him as he reached 133-unfinished.

If that was a close shave for the current world champion, the one that former champion Gilchrist came through was even closer. Having fixed a new tip only last night, he struggled to get a feel of it. He had to keep shaving it off, yet managed breaks of 64, 182, 59 and 102 which gave him a 200-odd point lead by the end of the first session. Foldvari had only a 99 and, of course, and unfinished 81 to show for this session.

The Aussie was able to extend that by only 14 points but rifled in runs of 130 and 98 to to go ahead, though marginally. The last hour was the crucial one and here it was Gilchrist came good. Having shaved off the tip almost upto the metal, he came in to construct breaks of 87 and 91-unfinished off succesive visits to leave Foldvari in the cold.

Results (semi-finals): Mike Russell 1539 (146, 78, 113, 269, 93, 389) beat David Causier 1425 (64, 115, 69, 55, 112, 78, 252, 51, 86, 117, 91, 133-UF); Peter Gilchrist 832 (64, 182, 59, 102, 70, 87, 91-UNF) beat Robbie Foldvari 751 (99, 95, 130, 98).