Australian Billiards & Snooker Council

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Joe Minici Wins Australian Open Billiards
30 Jun 2002

Joe Minici has won the 2002 Australian Open Billiards Championship, defeating Frank Humphreys 1566-1269 in the six hour final held at the Super 8 Entertainment Centre in Brisbane on 30 June. This is the second title for Joe, who first won the event in 1998.

Minici came back from a shaky start to the week, winning just one out of his first five matches in the round robin section. His final group match against Mark Hammer became a sudden death knockout, with Joe needing to win to create a three way tie with Hammer and Mac Rynkiewicz, and also needing a margin of at least 28 points to go through on points differential. Joe won the match by 129 to secure a place in the quarter finals.

The field of 14 were split into two groups of seven for the round robin, giving each player a guaranteed 12 hours of tournament play. This was an unexpected positive side effect of the small number of entries, with most years just giving six hours play in groups of four.

Matthew Bolton was the only undefeated player throughout the round robin section, and looked to be a certainty to take out his third successive title until the final 10 minutes of his quarter final encounter against Frank Humphreys. Bolton led by 200 points at the end of the first session, but suffered from a touch of complacency which allowed Humphreys to claw back with some solid open game play. Humphreys hit the lead with five minutes remaining and held the table with a break of 84, leaving Bolton with no time to come back. Humphreys won the match 774-702.

Young Victorian Tim Walters showed a big improvement in his top-table play from last year, and made his mark as one of the elite players in Australian billiards with two double century breaks and seven centuries throughout the tournament, including a 241 in his quarter final match against David Collins.

The highest break for the tournament was 591 by Matthew Bolton, which is only the second 500+ break scored in Australian championship play since 1961. The other one was his 649 in last year's final. Breaks of this calibre cement Bolton as Australia's number one player, but a break of 633 by Danik Lucas in the Queensland state championships suggest that there may be a challenger to the crown. Unfortunately, work commitments kept Lucas out of the tournament.

Six time former champion Phil Tarrant made a return to the championship for the first time since 1993, but failed to make a big impression on the tournament, losing in the quarter final to Ian Gilbee 648-638. Tarrant struggled with a flu bug which made its way around the room throughout the week, and seemed to have difficulty maintaining consistency throughout the two hour sessions.

Minici took an early lead in the final and managed to maintain it throughout the match. At the end of the first session he led by 250, and the result looked to be a formality with Humphreys stuggling to find form. Minici extended the lead in the second session, but Humphreys fought back towards the end to trail by less than 200. Humphreys continued his run into the third session with a break of 163, and when he narrowed the gap to just 76 it looked as though yet another upset win was on the cards. Minici managed a break of exactly 100 to regain his buffer, and with 20 minutes remaining and a lead of 200 the title was within his grasp. Minici sealed the win with a break of 154 at his final visit to the table.

Visit averages for the final were 19.6 for Minici and 15.9 for Humphreys.