Goyang: Hida finally gets past Kim Ga-young
Afternoon from London. This morning I left you with Kim Ga-young v Hida Orie still being played. It's finished now, and it wasn't close. Hida won 3–0, 11–7, 11–3, 11–3, and that's her first win over Kim at the sixth attempt. MK Billiards had Kim's record against her at five wins out of five before today.
Kim was the defending champion at the Crown Haitai LPBA Championship. Billiards & Sports says she was going for a third title in a row at this event, and MK Billiards says it would have been her 20th career LPBA win. Neither is happening this week.
The numbers, per MK Billiards, were brutal for Kim. Hida averaged 1.571 and Kim 0.650. Hida's best run was seven and Kim's was three. Hida also made six bank shots at the moments that mattered.
- Set one: Kim had the opening shot but missed a simple cut and a one-bank shot, and Hida took it 11–7 in 13 innings.
- Set two: Hida led 4–3 and then finished it with a run of seven in the fifth inning, 11–3.
- Set three: seven more in the second inning, two of them bank shots, then the last four in the third. 11–3.
It's a big one for Hida. MK Billiards counts 38 tournaments and 1,489 days since her last semi-final, when she won the TS Shampoo event in 2022-23. Billiards & Sports points out that she's reached a few quarter-finals since then and never got any further. Last season she lost a full-distance quarter-final to Kim, 2–3, at the SY Championship.
Jung Su-bin was just as ruthless. In the other early quarter-final she beat Park Jung-hyun, who won the previous tour event, 3–0 (11–1, 11–3, 11–7). The first set took her four innings. Park pulled the third back to 9–7, but Jung finished it in the 11th. Per Billiards & Sports, it's the third semi-final of her career.
The evening session, Lee Mi-rae v Park Da-som and Kang Ji-eun v Han Ji-eun, started at noon BST, so it's being played as this goes up. Hida plays the winner of Lee v Park in the semi-finals, and Jung plays the winner of Kang v Han. The PBA last 32 has been running all day too, but I haven't seen any results reported yet, so I'll leave those for tonight.
Goseong: the old guard v the kids in the semi-finals
After Cho Myung-woo's exit this morning, the men's three-cushion at the Gyeongnam Goseong County Cup is down to four, and the line-up is nicely balanced. Two players born in the 1970s face two born in the 2000s. MK Billiards had the quarter-finals:
- Heo Jung-han 50–32 Kim Hyun-jong (35 innings). A run of nine in the 13th put Heo 24–10 up, and he controlled it from there. He's the Korean number two and has won three titles already this season.
- Jung Ye-sung 50–30 Lee Hyung-rae (32 innings). Jung was born in 2002 and finished his military service in March. He hasn't been in a final since March 2024.
- Son Jun-hyuk 50–43 Kim Haeng-jik (30 innings). This was the best of them. Son led 25–10 at halfway, and then Kim scored 17 points between the 19th and 22nd innings to go 37–35 in front. Son replied with five in the 23rd and five more in the 26th to win it.
- Park Soo-young 50–36 Lim Jung-deok (36 innings). It was 26–26 after 24 innings, and then Park made 4, 6, 2 and 2 in four visits to pull clear.
That leaves Son Jun-hyuk (born 2004) v Park Soo-young (born 1976), and Heo Jung-han (born 1977) v Jung Ye-sung. Son won his first national title last December at Jecheon, six years after he registered. MK Billiards lists the semi-finals for Saturday morning Korean time, which is 02:00 and 04:00 BST, live on SOOP TV.
Twenty years without Paul Hunter
Paul Hunter died 20 years ago today, aged 27. The WPBSA and WST have marked the anniversary with a long piece of memories from the players who knew him, and it's worth your time on a Friday lunchtime.
The Masters record still amazes me. Hunter won it three times, in 2001, 2002 and 2004, and every one of those finals finished 10–9. He was 7–3 down to Fergal O'Brien in the first, 5–1 down to Mark Williams in the second and 6–1 down to Ronnie O'Sullivan in the third. The trophy now carries his name.
Matthew Stevens, his best friend on the circuit, says: "You forget how young he was at 27." O'Brien remembers waiting for the noise when the last black went down in 2001, and says: "It was thunderous." John Higgins calls him "the next one coming after Ronnie". Alan McManus compares his uncomplicated game to Zhao Xintong's.
If you saw him play, live or on telly, tell us your memory below. I'd love this thread to be full of them.
Ahmedabad: no results to give you yet
I have to be straight with you about the Commonwealth Cue Sports Championships. Since the quarter-final line-ups went up early this morning, IBSF hasn't posted any more results, and the organisers' schedule page still says the fixtures "will be published closer to the Championships". So I don't have a single quarter-final or semi-final score that I can vouch for.
That includes Aditya Mehta. IBSF's own cards from this morning still have him both losing to Jason Williams and playing Ross Vallance in the quarter-finals. It's still unresolved, and I'm not going to guess.
Here's what's on the cards:
- Men's snooker QFs: Vallance v Mehta (as listed), Curphey v Irshath, Morgan v Haria, Rawat v MacGillivray.
- Women's snooker QFs: Hayes v Keerthana Pandian, Shruthi Lakshminarayanan v Lloyd, Kenna v Rabe, Snenthra Babu v Ishika Shah.
- English billiards SFs: Razmi v Clark and Parikh v Pearson in the men's, and Watson v Revanna Umadevi and Anupama Ramchandran v Mackay in the women's.
The organisers have the semi-finals and finals at 12:30 local time on Saturday, which is 08:00 BST, with the closing ceremony at 13:30 BST. IBSF is pointing fans to its live stream. I'll have the medal winners as soon as they're official.
Pool: the Reyes Cup goes to ESPN+
This came out yesterday afternoon. The World Nineball Tour says every session of next week's Roobet Reyes Cup (15–18 October, Makati Coliseum) will be live on ESPN+ in the USA, from 7am Eastern each day, which is noon BST. Everyone else can watch on WNT TV. Team Asia are going for three in a row after beating Team Rest of the World 11–3 last year. Matchroom's Emily Frazer pointed to the US Open as proof of "the appetite for professional pool", with the Mosconi Cup coming in November. It's been a quiet day for pool results otherwise, and I won't pad it out.
Snooker elsewhere
- Reading: World Seniors Tour event three started at noon. The opening session on WPBSA SnookerScores includes Jimmy Robertson's seniors debut against Daniel Ward, and world seniors number one Aaron Canavan v Kevin Willsher.
- Riyadh: the Kingdom Snooker Championship quarter-finals are at 15:00 BST, and Saudi Cup winner Omar Al-Ajlani is still in. The semi-finals are at 18:30 and the final is at 16:00 on Saturday, with scores on CueScore.
- Waterford: WLR reports that the South East Snooker League is under way, with ten teams from Waterford city and county plus three from Youghal. Holders Norris's won 7–5 at Dungarvan A, with junior Evan Keenan winning his frame 3–0. Youghal B won 12–0 against Cuezone B.
- Kilburn: Kilburn Snooker Club on Kilburn High Road won't reopen until 8 January. The Kilburn Times reports that a police drug raid in July led to ten arrests, and magistrates at Highbury extended the closure order on Wednesday.
What's next (all times BST)
- Goyang: the LPBA quarter-finals are being played now, and the PBA last 32 carries on.
- Riyadh: the quarter-finals at 15:00 and the semi-finals at 18:30.
- Reading: the seniors last 64 and last 32 all afternoon.
- Goseong: the men's three-cushion semi-finals at 02:00 and 04:00 on Saturday.
- Ahmedabad: the medal matches from 08:00 on Saturday.
Over to you. Hida finally beat Kim after five defeats. Does that open this tournament up, or does Lee Mi-rae just win it now?
— Reggie Rutherford
Sources: Billiards & Sports, MK Billiards, WPBSA, IBSF, World Nineball Tour, WPBSA SnookerScores, CueScore, WLR, Kilburn Times.
Feature image: “Carom billiards table” by Bjørn Erik Pedersen, via Wikimedia Commons, licensed CC BY-SA 3.0.
