Evening all. After two Korean-flavoured roundups today, it is India's turn to take the headlines. Day three of the Commonwealth Cue Sports Championships in Ahmedabad has delivered its first set of finalists, and the home crowd at the Veer Savarkar Sports Complex has plenty to shout about going into Saturday's medal matches. Elsewhere, the snooker world is already doing the maths on Belfast, and the Goseong three-cushion is down to its last four.
AHMEDABAD — COMMONWEALTH CUE SPORTS CHAMPIONSHIPS, DAY THREE
Men's snooker: Haria into the final
- Dhvaj Haria is through to the men's snooker final. He beat Wales' Darren Morgan 3–1 in the quarter-finals, then got the better of fellow Indian Laxman Singh Rawat 3–1 in the semis.
- Rawat had reached the last four with a 3–0 win over England's Craig MacGillivray.
- Aditya Mehta whitewashed England's Ross Vallance 3–0 in his quarter-final to make the semis. At the time of writing I can't find a confirmed result from Mehta's semi-final, so Haria's opponent in the final is still to be confirmed. Don't rule out an all-Indian final.
Women's snooker: Kenna stops Shah
- England's Rebecca Kenna beat Ishika Shah 3–0 in the semi-finals. Shah had knocked out compatriot Snenthra Babu 3–0 in the quarters.
- Shruthi Lakshminarayanan (3–0 v Canada's Simone Lloyd) and Keerthana Pandian (3–0 v England's Gillian Hayes) also came through their quarter-finals 3–0.
Women's English billiards: gold stays in India
- The final is all-Indian: Anupama Ramachandran beat England's Mhairi Roberta Mackay 1–0 and Revanna Umadevi beat Australia's Julie Watson 1–0. So whoever wins on Saturday, the gold medal stays at home.
Heyball, 10-ball and blackball
- Men's heyball, round two: Paras Gupta beat Scotland's Craig Brown 9–3 and Uzair Khan beat Malaysia's Tan Zhong Wei 7–4. Shivam Arora, last year's silver medallist, is out after a 2–9 defeat to South Africa's Jason Theron. Malaysia's Mohd Hassan beat South Africa's Kurshan Moodley 9–2.
- Men's 10-ball: Divya Sharma won an all-Indian second-round match against Kushal Chandrashekar 9–6, having edged Canada's Darcy McGinley 9–8 earlier. Lalrina Renthlei beat Kelly Yambi 9–3 but then lost 5–7 to England's Mark Foster.
- Women's blackball final: England's Emma Cunningham against Naiga Rukia. Cunningham beat Gianna Rego 5–1 and South Africa's Prudence Nkosi 5–1 to get there, and Rukia beat Australia's Kolbe Poole 5–2.
SNOOKER — THE RACE FOR No.1 MOVES TO BELFAST
- We've covered the 26,650-point gap before, but the draw now puts dates on it. Per TNT Sports, Wu Yize needs at least a run to the Northern Ireland Open final to have a chance of taking No.1. He would be only the sixth player in ten years to hold top spot. Wu starts against Scott Donaldson on Monday 19 October at 13:00, and Zhao plays Gao Yang on the Tuesday afternoon. The event runs 18–25 October at the Waterfront Hall.
- Sheffield: the Sheffield Star reports that the city council has refused, in response to a Freedom of Information request, to say how much "staging fee" it pays World Snooker to keep the World Championship at the Crucible. Under the new deal the event stays from 2030 until at least 2045. Before that comes a £45m expansion adding 500 seats, with the theatre due to close from summer 2028 for about 18 months.
KOREA — GOSEONG THREE-CUSHION DOWN TO FOUR
- Men's semi-finals, which MK Billiards News is billing as a 1970s-versus-2000s generation clash: Heo Jung-han v Jung Ye-sung and Park Su-young v Son Jun-hyuk.
- Women's semi-finals: Heo Chae-won v Kim Ha-eun and Park Ji-hyun v Ma Ji-woo. Heo trailed Lee Yu-na 20–24 and then won 25–24 with a closing run of five in the 40th inning. Kim beat national-team colleague Choi Da-young 25–14.
- Goyang LPBA: the second batch of quarter-finals (Lee Mi-rae v Park Da-som and Kang Ji-eun v Han Ji-eun) was scheduled for 8pm in Korea. I haven't seen confirmed results yet. The winners meet Hida Orie and Jung Su-bin respectively in the semis.
CAROM — CONGRATULATIONS TO CAUDRON
- Frédéric Caudron is a dad. Korean outlet Billiards & Sports reports that the Belgian, 2025 world three-cushion champion, announced on social media on 7 October that he and his wife Amal Nazari have adopted a son, Yassine. The paper quotes him calling it "the most beautiful chapter of our lives" (translated). Jérémy Bury and Murat Naci Çoklu were among the players sending congratulations.
POOL — BALI AND MANILA
- The Bali International 9-Ball RBC Open in Denpasar, the island's first fully open 9-ball event with 128 players (70 from overseas), was set to finish today, with the last 16 through to the final all scheduled for 9 October. The champion gets Rp200 million. I haven't seen a confirmed winner yet and will report it once there's a reliable source.
- Reyes Cup build-up: Spin.ph notes that Team Asia's Carlo Biado and AJ Manas arrive in Manila after finishing runners-up at the WPA Men's Doubles 10-Ball World Championship in Bali.
WHERE TO WATCH / WHAT'S NEXT
- Saturday 10 October: Commonwealth medal matches in Ahmedabad, including Haria's men's snooker final and the all-Indian women's billiards final.
- Saturday 10 October: Goseong men's semi-finals at 10:00 (Son v Park) and 12:00 (Heo v Jung) Korean time, which is 02:00 and 04:00 UK time, live on SOOP.
- 15–18 October: Reyes Cup at the Makati Coliseum, Manila, with Team Asia going for a third straight title.
- 18–25 October: Northern Ireland Open, Belfast, live on TNT Sports and HBO Max.
- 19–29 October: WPA Blackball World Championships at the Thistle Hotel Heathrow.
Back in the morning with the Ahmedabad finals, the Goyang semi-final line-up and whatever else breaks overnight. As ever, if you've got a result I've missed, stick it in the replies.
— Reggie
Sources: Free Press Journal, TNT Sports, Sheffield Star, MK Billiards News, Billiards & Sports, Kukinews, The Bali Observer, Bali Post, NusaBali, Spin.ph, All Africa Pool Association.
Feature image: “Snooker (4174204407)” by Ashwin Kumar from Bangalore, India, via Wikimedia Commons, licensed CC BY-SA 2.0.
