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Agarwal goes down tamely in semi-final

Bill McArthur in Madras

Apparently, it hadn't sunk in as yet. Arun Agarwal's sensational one-point win over defending champion Geet Sethi on Friday, that is. And the occasion he was transported to, in the process, seemed like a huge mountain to climb; a stream too difficult to ford.

For, at the Taj Connemara on Saturday, the task of playing the semi-final of the Florsheim World billiards championship seemed a trifle too gigantic to tackle for the genial cueist, who hails from a family of cue sport exponents. And, Peter Gilchrist, a seasoned pro who once had the king's crown on his head, took the cue, literally, to record a runaway 1501-569 victory en route to the title round.

"Good victory, but I will have to play much better in the final," said Gilchrist, who will be playing in his third World Championship final.

Agarwal admitted he lacked big match temperament. "I have to work harder to be consistent in this grade of the game," he said.

Gilchrist will take on Mike Russell in the final. The world No. 1 easily beat compatriot Chris Shutt 1501-336 in the other semi-final.

This will be Russell's fifth final this year. The maestro of the green baize was in total command as he demolished Shutt with a splendid demonstration of top table billiards. Breaks of 69, 96, 247, 352, 283, 221 and 55 were enough to show his domination in the in the two hour 35 minute match.

All that Shutt could muster was a moderate 74 and a lone century break of 183.

Russell is now all set to emulate Geet Sethi as far as the number of world titles won goes. To his credit, he put himself back on the rails following a close encounter with India's world No. 7 Nalin Patel in the quarter-finals last night and showed that he showed that he had regained his touch, as he touched the halfway mark, 1001-331, with a flourish that was conspicuous by its absence in the earlier round.

If Arun Agarwal's victory over Sethi, whom he beat only once before and, that too, during the Bangkok Asian Games camp last year, was indeed a big boost for the affable cueist then it also appears to have taken its toll on his present prospects. For, the solidity, the steel of nerves, he showed against Sethi was never evident during the two-hour 48-minute opening session with Gilchrist. There was just a solitary century run and two half-centuries, quite labourious, that he had to show for during this period.

Meanwhile, it did not take time for Gilchrist to gauge his opponent. After opening with a 119, he realised that his opponent was all in knots. He could take his chances. And, that's precisely what he did as he set out to rifle in breaks of 171, 119 (successive visits), 189 and 81 to put himself into a position of invincibility.

There was craft and control in those breaks. But there also were the cheeky chances that he considered and carried out when going into overdrive.

The second session was no different. In fact, it lasted only an hour, as Gilchrist, the 1994 champion, took his unfinished break to 86 and then banged in a 99, besides a 139, before closing out with a neat 145 unfinished.

For Arun, who will gain both in terms of ranking points and prize-money from his triumph over Sethi and Roxton Chapman in an earlier round, the second session was even more pathetic. He did not have a single decent break in his 19 visits to the table.

Russell showed that he is too seasoned a pro to let a mild hiccup ruffle his feathers. He put Friday's shoddy performance, as he himself chose to describe it, behind him like a bad dream. Yet, he chose to test his arm initially. A 69-run on the third visit was only a test run. Then came a 96. The next visit produced a 247 which was exhilarating.

But it was the 352, two visits later, that saw the master blaster in full flow. Of course, it was nowhere close to the 582 unfinished, which flattened poor Rupesh Shah of India the day before yesterday, by way of perfection. But it was authoritative enough to chill out Shutt who, it must be said, had responded to the earlier aggression with breaks of 74 and 183. However, they turned out to be mere jabs and not solid punches.