A Grade Billiards 2022
Darren Taylor has won the Waikato A grade billiards championship for the fifth time beating another former title holder (three times), Adesh Shekatkar, in the final 399-293. The plate was won by Kevin Crighton defeating Graham Hills 337-266.
Due to Covid, the competition moved away from its traditional home of the Matamata Club and the 49th edition was held at the Hamilton Cosmopolitan Club on April 2-3.
The field was made up of a good spread of experienced players and billiards youth as three of the B Grade participants dipped their toes in the water with five of the top 12 ranked players in the country.
The eight-man field played a round robin of 75 minute matches with the top four progressing to the main championship and the final four contesting the plate. All post section matches were 90 minutes.
At the end of round robin play Darren Taylor (7 wins) was drawn against current Waikato B Grade champion Brian Roebeck (4 wins) and Adesh Shekatkar (6 wins) was to clash cues with Andrew Draper (5 wins). Things were a little tighter in the plate division with three players ending with two wins apiece. The final qualifying positions were decided on points differential. After the numbers were crunched Graham Hills had the best differential and he played Chris Hick. The remaining match was against two ex-NZ B Grade champions Kevin Crighton and Mark Taylor, with Taylor being a previous winner of this competition too.
In the championship Taylor 412 d Roebeck 326 and Shekatkar 312 d Draper 297. Draper had lead for the majority of the match and just missed out on making his second A Grade final when Shekatkar finished with a wet sail to pip him on the line.
The championship final was between two ex-champions Taylor (4 times) and Shekatkar (3 times) and these two always have great tussles. An example of which, just a few hours earlier in round robin play, saw Taylor score an unfinished break of 43 to win by just 10 points when the bell rung. In the final there was nothing in it most of the way until Taylor made a few small contributions that stretched the gap out to 60-80. Such a margin is never comfortable against Shekatkar as he has many sizeable breaks that could eradicate a lead of that size in one visit. However, no such break flowed from the Rotorua cueist and it was Taylor who secured the victory 399-293.
In the Plate Hills 270 d Hick 118 and Crighton 306 d Taylor 261. In the final Crighton put his billiards knowledge into action to defeat Hills 337-266.
Highest break was shared for the weekend with Adesh Shekatkar and Darren Taylor, scoring 62 . (Finalists pictured below)
The next NZBSA ranking event is the North Island Billiards Championships – May 28-29 at Hamilton Cosmopolitan Club.