Well, another month has past and some interesting goings on in the world of Snooker and Billiards.I went to Matamata to assist with the Matamata Invitation and saw some great snooker.  Once again it was Bay of Plenty’s Alistair Davidson who came out the winner over Taranaki’s Chris Malby.  Some of the results in section play raised eyebrows and the highlight would have been David Meier-Bailey beating Chris McBreen to stop Chris from qualifying.  The field in the Plate looked almost as hard as the main event with names like Chris McBreen, Harry Haenga and Ben Farnworth making up the numbers.

Auckland played host to the NZ Seniors Champs and the NZ Under 21 Champs, with Henry Killian the 2007 Seniors Champion and David Meier-Bailey the 2007 Under 21 Champion (again).  As at the time of writing the IBSF Senior Championship will be played in Thailand and the IBSF Under 21 Championships are to be held in Goa, India, in August.

Chris McBreen made up for the disappointment at Matamata by travelling to Oamaru and taking out the Whitestone Snooker Classic with a win over Gary Gillard in the final.

The only Billiards during April has been the A-Grade Championships and results to date have Wayne Carey the Auckland Champ, Darcy Boyce in Waikato, Paul Stocker in Hawkes Bay and Derek Gibb in Wellington.

May sees a great NZ Contingent travelling to Brisbane for the 2007 Oceania Billiards and Snooker Championships.  NZ has seven Billiard players: Gary Oliver, Grant Hayward, Wayne Carey, Ray Habgood, Paul Stocker, Darren Taylor and Malcolm Cooke.  Snooker has Dene O’Kane, Chris McBreen, Ben Farnworth, Wyn Belmont, Ramona Belmont, Scott Farnworth, Malcolm Beehre, Steve Feierabend, Mark Hannah, Gary Gilliard, Brent Jones, Gordon Fitzgerald, Steven Church and Daniell Haenga.

This would have to be the largest contingent of NZ players to play in an Oceania event outside of New Zealand for many a year.  Would be great to think that we could get at least this number to play in Oceania 2008 in Papua New Guinea.  A group of five referees, Chris Anderson, Cliff Hazelton, Ron Hunt, Jill Sinclair and myself will also be attending.

Finally, up and coming tournaments are the City of Invercargill Snooker, all Association A-Grade Snooker, the South Island Billiards & Snooker Championships and the Barton McGill Open Billiards, so get your entries in. 

There are also two new Snooker tournaments, the Onehunga Workingmen’s Club/North Harbour Open Snooker in June and the revived NZ Open Snooker in early October.  The NZ Open Snooker carries TRIPLE ranking points so mark it down in your calendar.

Billiards also has a new event with the Christchurch City Open in late September, the weekend before the NZ Open Billiards.

Cheers for now

Warren Burke (NZBSA President)