World Billiards Championship 2024 | Tournament Preview
The 2024 World Billiards Championship takes place on 28-31 October at the Landywood Snooker Club in Walsall, England.
The flagship event on the World Billiards calendar will see 55 competitors from ten countries over three continents battling it out for The John Roberts Trophy, which was first contested in 1870.
Peter Gilchrist is looking to become the first man since Mike Russell in 2011 to successfully defend the title after he defeated David Causier 1824-783 to win the World Championship for the fifth time in his career twelve months ago.
The Contenders
Peter Gilchrist and David Causier will arrive at the Landywood Snooker Club as the favourites for the title and the top two seeds could meet in the final for the sixth time next Thursday.
The two have met in the previous two World Championship finals. In 2022, Causier won his fourth world title by defeating Gilchrist 1,776-1,092 in Singapore before Gilchrist exacted revenge in the title match last year.
England’s Causier, aged 51, has been the form player over the last 12 months having won seven ranking event titles across four countries – including the prestigious World Matchplay crown at the SBI Academy in Carlow, Ireland back in April.
The four-time winner is joined in his initial group by compatriots Terry McAdam and Paul Mather, Northern Ireland’s Korbin Lowe and India’s Devendra Joshi.
Defending champion Gilchrist has won three further ranking event titles since his World Championship win last year, picking up the trophy at the Sydney Open, Walter Lindrum Open and Pacific International Championship.
He will be aiming to make it back-to-back titles at the Landywood Snooker Club and begins his campaign in a group with England’s Mel Oakes, Wales’ Jason Goodwin, France’s Akhilesh Mohan and Carl Walter Steiner of Austria.
Eighth seed Dhruv Sitwala is the only other player to have won a ranking event this season. The Indian cueist arrives in Staffordshire in fine form, having defeated Gilchrist in back-to-back finals to win the Auckland Open and New Zealand Open double-header last month to claim ranking event glory for the first time in his career.
English national champion Robert Hall is the third seed, behind only Gilchrist and Causier, while his fellow countrymen Peter Sheehan, Martin Goodwill, Darren Clark and Jonathan Marwood make up the top eight.
Draw & Format
A level 6 World Billiards ranking event, the 55 competitors at the 2023 World Billiards Championship have been drawn into 11 groups of five. Matches during this round robin phase each last 90 minutes.
Group matches will be played across Monday and Tuesday, with the knockout rounds starting Tuesday afternoon/evening.
The final on the afternoon of Thursday 31st October will be a five-hour affair.
Live streaming of the World Championship will be available on the World Billiards YouTube channel, and spectators are welcome at the venue.
Women’s World Billiards Championship & English Open
Following a one-year absence, the Women’s World Billiards Championship returns and will be contested at the Landywood Snooker Club on Wednesday 30th October.
Seven competitors from five nations will compete in the one-day event which was first contested in 1931.
Australia’s Anna Lynch, who won the title in 2019, is the top seed and favourite for the title. She is joined in her group by Keerath Bhandaal, Michelle Cohen and Shruthi L, while Julie Watson, Gaye Jones and Eva Palmius make up the other group in the opening round.
The 2024 English Open, won last year by Causier, also once against precedes the World Billiards Championship at the Landywood Snooker Club on 26th and 27th October with 60 players competing in the first event of the double-header.
