Golden Gilchrist Wins World Billiards Championship
Peter Gilchrist defeated David Causier 1824-783 in the final at the Landywood Snooker Club to win the 2023 World Billiards Championship and claim the fifth world title of his illustrious career.
The evergreen 55-year-old has now won the sport’s blue riband event in four different decades with previous successes having come in 1994, 2001, 2013 and 2019. This latest title match was Gilchrist’s 13th appearance in the final; his first was in 1989.
A total of 50 players representing nine nations qualified for this year’s Championship which was being hosted by the popular West Midlands venue in England for the first time.
The top two ranked players in the world, Gilchrist and Causier both reached the final with 100% records having finished top of their round robin groups when making it through to the knockout rounds. The semi-finals featured the world’s top four cueists with Gilchrist seeing off Peter Sheehan 1882-735 and defending champion Causier eliminating Rob Hall 2073-816.
Those results set up a blockbuster title decider, with the decorated duo meeting in the world championship final for the fifth time. Gilchrist won their first encounter in 2013, but Causier had triumphed at the following three, including last year in Singapore. It was also the second time in just four days that the two played each other in a ranking final; Causier retained the Landywood English Open title at the same venue last Sunday evening.
The beginning of the five-hour final was a very scrappy affair with neither player settling.
Singaporean citizen and world number one Gilchrist, though, was resourceful and constructed the first century break of the contest with a 193 before missing a pot when trying to cross the baulk line.
However, Causier was unable to get into any sort of flow – a theme which continued for him throughout the entire match – as he made a plethora of uncharacteristic errors. Aiming to become the first player since Mike Russell in 2011 to retain the title, Causier compiled the tournament’s highest break in the last four with a 519, but he bizarrely failed to craft a single three-figure break during the whole final.
Gilchrist – who himself was nowhere near his best – made another ton before the halfway stage and went into the interval exactly 300 points ahead of his struggling opponent.
With Causier not able to ignite his hopes with a stirring counter attack, Gilchrist did what he needed to do as he registered further runs of 210, 104, 106 and 132 to run out a comfortable victor and lift The John Roberts Trophy.
