Evening all, Reggie here. The snooker worlds in Indore are finally producing results, and an Indian billiards champion has started with a century. In Ho Chi Minh City, Dennis Orcollo let a 4–1 lead slip and is out of the Universal Open. Also tonight: the new 10-ball champion gets a 5–0 lesson in Warsaw, Northern Ireland gets the next blackball worlds, and the IPA professionals are under way on the Isle of Man.
INDORE — RAZMI STARTS WITH A 134
Rayaan Razmi didn't waste his first day at the IBSF World Snooker Championships. The 24-year-old from Mumbai, who won billiards gold at the Commonwealth Cue Sports Championships last month, beat the UAE's Abdulla Fahed Alnaimi 4–0 and then Nepal's Wangchyu Tamang 4–0 in Stage 1 qualifying at the Yeshwant Club. The third frame against Tamang was a 134 break, per Safir News.
His next match is an all-Indian one against Kreishh Gurbaxani, who spent two years on the pro tour and has also won twice without losing a frame. The winner goes through to Stage 2. Safir News says the loser still gets two more chances to qualify.
The local paper's favourite story was a 16-year-old. Indore's Aarav Sancheti beat Oman's Hussain Alawati 4–0 with a top break of 58, according to the Free Press Journal. Alawati is 41. Safir News lists a second 4–0 win for Sancheti, over China's Dong Zihao.
Other Stage 1 results
- Kamal Chawla 4–0 Altaf Hussain (Bangladesh), with frames of 102–0 and 108–1
- Hrithik Jain 4–2 Abdullah Al Youssef (Kuwait). Jain led 3–0 and took the sixth frame 68–65
- Dhruv Patel 4–2 Mostafa Dorgham (Egypt)
- Anuraag Giri 4–3 Uzair Khan, from 1–3 down
- Piyush Kushwaha 4–0 Jakub Chromy (Poland). Giri and Kushwaha meet next
- Langyi Ryan Li 4–2 Paras Gupta, the one Indian loss reported so far
HO CHI MINH CITY — ORCOLLO GOES OUT
When our midday post went out, Orcollo was 4–1 up on Chinese Taipei's Nien Rong Chih in the last one-loss round. He didn't win. Nien Rong Chih took the match 9–7, per the DigitalPool bracket. Orcollo had beaten Do Thanh My 8–2 earlier in the day, but he leaves with two defeats, after his hill-hill loss to home player Hoang Thai Duy on Thursday.
The other matches still running at midday went like this:
- Oliver Szolnoki came from 3–1 down to beat Liu Chien Hung 9–6
- Mickey Krause beat Britain's James Oyangoren 9–0
- Singapore's Nicholas Tan won the hill-hill decider against Le Van Quyen, 9–8
WARSAW — WILK HITS BACK
Twenty-four hours after losing his European 10-ball title to Marcin Kubalski, Adam Wilk beat him 5–0 in the standing 8-ball at the EPBF Parasport European Championships. Wilk then beat fellow Pole Tomasz Rogóz 5–0 to reach the semi-finals, according to the official EPBF results.
Kubalski's day got worse. He beat Valtteri Vaherto 5–2 on the one-loss side but then went out 5–4 to North Macedonia's Vladimir Gjorgjieski. Great Britain's Stephen Cartwright won twice 5–0 on the one-loss side before Slovenia's Cvetko Vegan stopped him 5–2. Cyprus's Georgios Malekkidis beat Blaž Rus 5–4 to join Wilk in the semi-finals, and two more places were being decided tonight.
Daniel Luton is chasing a second medal. He beat Ukraine's Oleksandr Dzhulai 5–1 and Poland's Michał Bierzgalski 5–0 to reach the wheelchair 8-ball quarter-finals.
- Wheelchair 8-ball quarter-finals, tonight 7pm UK: Jouni Tähti v Harald Fink (Austria), Stefano Di Blasio v David Slaček (Slovenia), Daniel Luton v Matej Brajkovič (Slovenia), Henrik Larsson (Sweden) v Peter Macho (Slovakia)
- Luton beat Brajkovič 5–4 in the 10-ball semi-final on Thursday
- Both 8-ball semi-finals and finals are on Saturday evening, streamed on TVSports
NORTHERN IRELAND — BLACKBALL WORLDS FOR 2027
The WPA has named Northern Ireland as the provisional host of the 2027 WPA Blackball World Championships, from 1 to 10 November next year. The venue and programme haven't been announced. The WPA says the 2026 event in London set new marks for prize money, media attention and streaming, and that there is already "exceptional interest" in 2027.
ISLE OF MAN — IPA PROFESSIONALS UNDER WAY
The IPA Professional event at the Comis Hotel is into round two, with matches a race to 8. Liam Dunster had the result of the evening so far. He beat Gerard Boyle 8–0, per CueScore.
- Billy Snaddon 8–3 Paul Harkness, then 8–6 Gavin Robinson
- Liam Irving 8–4 Johnny McDermid, then 8–4 Craig Marsh
- Dean Shields 8–7 Kian Monaghan
- Lee Shepherd 8–7 Matt Steeper
- Cory Rees 8–5 Keith Robertson
VIENNA — DAVIS DIGS IN AT THE Q TOUR
Q Tour Europe Event 4 is under way at the Austrian Snooker & Billiards Academy, with 115 players from 26 countries, per Snooker247. Mark Davis opened with a 140 in a 4–0 win over Oskar Charlesworth. Today he was 3–2 down to Brian Ochoiski in the last 64 and won the last two frames to go through 4–3, per CueTracker. Allan Taylor beat Simon Blackwell 4–2 with a 95, Barry Pinches beat Daniel Williams 4–0, and Robbie McGuigan made a 114 in a 4–1 win over Luca Kaufmann. It finishes on Sunday.
AND FINALLY… ANTIGUA
Antigua News reports that a player known as Laurz has won the first Obsidian Women's Invitational pool tournament, ahead of Feelinz and Yvonne. The organisers said the event was set up to get more women playing.
Coming up
- Tonight, 7pm: Chris Wakelin v Neil Robertson, Champion of Champions semi-final. The result is owed in the morning
- Tonight, 7pm: the Bar Billiards World Championship pairs at the Merton Hotel in Jersey. The 125-entry singles starts on Saturday morning (Jersey Evening Post)
- Overnight: the last 64 in Ho Chi Minh City
- Saturday: the first qualifying event finishes in Indore, the Warsaw 8-ball finals, and the APA women's U.S. Amateur final in Las Vegas
- Saturday, 7pm: Shaun Murphy v Kyren Wilson
Enjoy your Friday night. Reggie.
Sources: Safir News, Free Press Journal, IBSF, DigitalPool, Ncue Media, World Nineball Tour, EPBF, World Pool Association, CueScore, Snooker247, CueTracker, Antigua News, Jersey Evening Post, American Poolplayers Association. Feature image: Rajwada Palace in Indore. “Rajwada Palace, Indore” by Bernard Gagnon, via Wikimedia Commons, licensed CC BY-SA 3.0.