Glory For Gilchrist at Walter Lindrum Open

Peter Gilchrist defeated Dhruv Sitwala 1101-757 to win the Walter Lindrum Open at the Mounties Club in Mount Pritchard, Australia.

Victory for the Singaporean cueiest secured his first World Billiards ranking title since the Sydney Open back in November and means that he and David Causier, absent from the event, continue to dominate the tour having split the last nine ranking crowns between them.

A total of 40 players from six nations competed in the event, named in honour of Australian multiple world champion Walter Lindrum, and they were initially split into eight groups of five to narrow the field down to the last sixteen.

As most will have anticipated, top seed Gilchrist stormed through his group with a clean sweep of victories before defeating Australia’s Todd Hayward by a score of 835-140 to book his place in the quarter-finals stage.

A high break of 189 helped the reigning world champion to then overcome Adwin Teh of Malaysia to set up a semi-final meeting with Steve Mifsud.

Mifsud, a former snooker professional, gave Gilchrist his toughest contest thus far but two breaks of over 100 were still not enough to stop the Singaporean as he eventually ran out a 826-593 victor.

Gilchrist’s opponent in the title match was India’s Sitwala, who was competing in a second consecutive ranking event final after finishing runner-up to Causier in the Austrian Open earlier in the month.

The final was a high-quality affair with the players compiling eleven breaks over 50 between them in the four-hour contest. Gilchrist ultimately proved too strong, however, to secure the victory by a margin of 344 and lift the prestigious title.

The next stop on the World Billiards tour is a double-header in Carlow, Ireland, where both the Irish Open and World Matchplay will take place between 12th and 19th April.