Snooker: Bay player eyes final world champs fling

DOHA BOUND: Hawke's Bay snooker player Dave Judd will play at his final world championship this month. PHOTO/PAUL TAYLOR

HAWKE'S BAY snooker player Dave Judd was talking big on the eve of today's start to the Hawke's Bay Masters tournament at the Havelock North Club.

"I want to make the top two," Judd said as he pondered the Everfresh Transport-sponsored handicap event which has attracted 64 players from around the country. It's a big call when one considers Hawke's Bay cue sports king and New Zealand No 1 Bayden Jackson is the top seed.

"It's my last tournament before going to the world championships in Doha later this month and I want a polished rehearsal," Judd, 50, explained.

A New Zealand representative at Oceania Championship level for the past four years and at the 2014 world championships in India, Judd, fellow Bay player Paul Temple and Wellingtonian Peter Leslie will be the three Kiwis reps in the masters division which caters for players over 40 in Doha. The Kiwi contingent will also include three open men's division players, an open women's division player and four referees at the November 18-30 tournament.

"At my last world champs I played in the open men's division. The aim was to get a feel of that level and win some frames which I did. I was up against players aged 14 to 25 with young eyes and no fear.

"It was a real eye opener to see the input into coaching which a lot of other players received. This time the aim is to win some matches," Judd said.

There will be 96 masters in Doha including a couple of former professionals. One of them is Welshman Darren Morgan who won the world amateur title in 1987 before going on to make more than £1m ($1.6m) as a professional.

A New Zealand Billiards and Snooker Association executive member, Judd, pointed out it will be his final outing as a world championship player.

"I want to get into the coaching of New Zealand players at under-21 world championship level and then I want to go to the world championships as a referee ... I want to be the next Lloyd Lawrence," Judd said referring to the Waipukurau-based Lawrence who retired in 2007 after 23 years of national and international travel as a cue sports referee.

The CityAerials Wellington, New Zealand Masters Snooker, Havelock North Club and Palmerston North Cosmopolitan Club-sponsored player still intends to play at national championship as well as Oceania Championship level. He has played off and on since his teenage years and got into competition play seriously during the 1990s.

Judd's biggest break in competition play is 108 and he has had one of 139 during training. He said the cut-throat nature of this weekend's tournament will be ideal training for Doha.

The 64 players have been divided into eight sections of eight for section play which will consist of one-frame matches. The top four players from each section will qualify for the top 32 which will involve best-of-three-frame matches.

The semifinals and final, which will be played on Sunday, will be the best of five frames. If things don't go to plan for Judd this weekend he will be able to rectify things during some exhibition matches at the Palmerston North Cosmopolitan Club on Tuesday night.

Expect Judd to rely a lot on his ruthless and nasty safety play this weekend. It's a tribute to the coaching he received from his grandfather Andrew Judd and father Brian Judd during his teenage years.

"It has always been a family sport for us. The coaching I received back then is the reason why I thrive with safety play ... that was the style of that time," Judd added.