March News - Australian Billiards and Snooker

4 Mar 2018 by Alex Render

With the 2018 year moving fast here is a short summary of what has transpired over the last 2 months and what’s just around the corner.

Locally on the National Snooker scene we started the year with the QLD Open Snooker which was played at the Redcliffe Snooker Club in Brisbane. The first Reventon Ranking event of the year was won by Aaron Mahoney defeating Ben Judge 5-1. For a list of Reventon events for 2018 go to http://absc.com.au/news-detail.aspx/685. The Reventon Classic will be held from the 4th-6th May at the Reventon Snooker Academy at Yarraville, Melbourne.

In Billiards the SA Open was held at the Snooker SA@ The Venue from the 10th-11th February. Peter Gilchrist visited us all the way from Singapore to take out the event against Steve Mifsud. Peter also had the high break of 621. Well done also to Jason Colebrook and Ben Judge for making the semi-finals.

In January the Australian Junior Championships were held also at the great venue in Adelaide. Well done to Under 18 champs Marc Fridman (VIC) in the Snooker and Hayden Goode (QLD) in the Billiards. The Mitchell Billiards Australian Team Challenge was also held at the same time with QLD proving too strong for VIC winning 5-0 in the final. Well done to all the Juniors who participated in the championships.

The Oceania Snooker and Billiards Championships take place in Sydney starting this week on the 7th and concluding on the 17th of March. A big thanks to Mounties for their ongoing support of Snooker and Billiards in Australia and supporting this great championship. If you are not competing why not come down to Mounties and check out some awesome Snooker and Billiards. The Billiards and the Women’s Snooker kicks off first followed by the Oceania U21’s on the 10th. For draw and results please visit www.absc.com.au

For those of you that have not heard the Adelaide Open Snooker scheduled for the 23rd-25th April has been cancelled unfortunately. However don’t despair as the SA Billiards and Snooker Association has big plans for the future so watch this space. As a plan B, use the time to sharpen your skills and get ready for the two big Reventon events in May staring with the Classic and the new Double Ranking Ron Atkins Classic in beautiful Launceston, Tasmania from the 18th-20th May. This is a new event in memory of Ron Atkins who passed away last year. The Tasmanian Billiards and Snooker Association are going to great lengths to put on a fantastic event so it would be great if we can all show some strong support. Who hasn’t been to Tasmania yet?

On the world professional scene late 2017 saw Neil Robertson win yet another World Ranking event taking out the Scottish Open. Neil is accompanied on the tour by Matthew Bolton and Kurt Dunham who are battling their way through an extremely competitive tour. Kurt has recently had some fantastic results first reaching the last 32 of the Coral Open Snooker Shootout and then just last week defeating Ryan Day 4-2 in the first round of the Welsh Open. This is definitely Kurt’s biggest scalp so far on the main tour. Another strong performance in his next match however going down 4-2 to China’s Yan Bingtao. Keep it up Kurt!

In another part of the globe (Qatar) the Aussie team consisting of Steve Mifsud and Ryan Thomerson made it through the Last 16 of the IBSF World Teams Cup. They had a great win against the India 1 team but lost in their next match 3-2 to Hong Kong after leading 2-0.

Recently the ABSC become a member of the newly formed World Snooker Federation (WSF). The inaugural World Snooker Federation Championships will take place from 14-24 March 2018 at the Dolmen Hotel, Malta. Australia is well represented with Ryan Thomerson (VIC) and Steve Mifsud (VIC) competing in the mixed event (Open). Steve is also competing in the Masters event alongside Jeff Farrugia (NSW). In the Women’s event Judy Dangerfield (SA) will be doing her best to represent Australia. Good luck to all of you.

Last week the ABSC Executive held a board meeting and covered a lot of agenda and priorities for 2018. Some of the themes covered included Governance with the drafting of an updated constitution as well as focus areas for new marketing and sponsorship opportunities. Fresh to the ABSC Executive is Barry Jennar (SA) and Paul Cosgriff (VIC) who recently joined last year. For a summary of the meeting please visit http://absc.com.au/news-detail.aspx/722

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