UK PROFESSIONAL BILLIARDS
CHAMPIONSHIP

Final – Wednesday 29th November 2000

BIC, Bournemouth

The United Kingdom Professional Billiards Championship was
established as a direct response to Walter Lindrum who took the
World Championship Trophy back to Australia in 1933 and refused to
return it to the BA&CC for further competition. The first UK
Championship was won by Joe Davis who defeated Tom Newman
18,745-18,301 after two weeks play at Thurston’s Grand Hall on
Saturday 28th April 1934.

On Wednesday 29th November 2000, David Causier became UK
Professional Champion in just 78 minutes when he defeated Robby
Foldvari by five games to one under the new 50-up format.
The Championship had started at the North Ormesby Institute in
Middlesbrough on 7th November and over two days a field of just 18
WBA members had played down to find the finalists who would
compete as sideshow to the UK Professional Snooker Championship
at Bournemouth. This compares to an entry of 27 last year when the
event was played under the traditional time-limit format at Harrogate.
The reason for breaking the Championship and taking the final to this
remote venue, with all the difficulties that entailed for the players, was
to take advantage of the television coverage and display the new format
to a hopefully enthralled TV audience. It was even decided to produce
some striped balls especially for the occasion, intended to show the
delicate use of side to those who were not yet initiated into the mysteries
of the game.

The plan was clear enough, but it’s application became somewhat less
certain when by Tuesday afternoon, the new set balls had still failed to
put in an appearance. Even worse, it was discovered that the BBC
Producer was blissfully unaware that he was supposed to be providing
television coverage for the match which was due to start at 9.30am the
following morning. Although the new balls were still not forthcoming
for the start, at least they managed to find a camera crew to record the
proceedings. However, the BBC could not be persuaded to include the
event in their televised schedule. Although time could be found to
feature Women’s snooker, wheelchair snooker, and even a skit on the
game show “The Weakest Link”, the new form of billiards was not
considered worthy entertainment for television viewers.

Not surprisingly, considering the early
morning start, and a total lack of
advertising at the venue, the match
itself was played to a virtually empty
arena. However, this did not seem to
deter David Causier who put in an
unfinished break of 50 to take the first
game 50-0. Apart from this, the contest
was not of particularly high quality
although Foldvari managed a run of 51
in his solitary success, making the
score 4-1. This only temporarily
delayed the conclusion, as Causier
then rounded off the match by taking
the next game.
Causier, who earned £4,000 for this
victory, is planning to get married to
his fiancee, Susan, in July, and said

that he intends to spend the cash on his honeymoon arrangements.
After the Teesside professional’s biggest ever pay-day he confirmed
his new-found approval of the short game, saying “I like the 50 up
format, it’s good. I think it gives everyone a chance. People don’t find
billiards that interesting to watch if the same players win all the time
and make huge breaks.”