Terry Davidson has returned from the World Snooker Championships on cue to meet his personal goal in his sport and represent Canada’s Masters division with pride.
“I played very well in the World Championship and I qualified out of my round-robin group and into the last 64 round, which was my objective this year,” Davidson said.
The 68 year-old certified snooker coach was one of only three Canadians who took part in the global competition. Davidson competed in the Master’s category for men over 40 years of age, which included 75 players from over 70 countries.
The tournament, hosted by the International Billiards and Snooker Federation (IBSF), took place at the Olympic Sports Centre in Daugavpils, Latvia from Nov. 27 to Dec. 8.
“Over a 12-day period, everyone competes in six or seven player round robin groups within their category and the top three or four from the round robin portion advance to the last 64 (44 for the Master’s) which is on a straight knock-out basis,” Davidson said.
“My six-man round robin group had players from Israel, England, South Africa, Iceland, Lithuania and myself from Canada.”
Playing down to the finals, Davidson advanced to the knockout stage. “I won my first round, defeating Belgium’s best player 4-3 against Alain Vandersteen, a 41-year-old and lost my next match to Jamie Bodle of England, who is 41 years of age and an ex-pro who played on the pro circuit until a little while ago. He plays very well. Bodle reached the semi-finals and only lost there to the eventual winner by the odd frame, 5-4 I believe.”
The 2014 championships will take place in Bangalore, India in November.
“If you love snooker this is the best place to be, as most of the talk revolves around snooker and it’s very interesting to get all the different opinions from the players from the rest of the world,” Davidson said, adding his hope is that Canadians will appreciate the sport and sponsors will get behind it. “It’s disheartening for me to hear that snooker is becoming more popular in the rest of the world but is slowly fading out in Canada, realizing in the 1980s we would send players for every category.”
To ensure he is continuing to do his part to promote snooker, Davidson continues to coach from his home and competes in tournaments across the province. For more information, contact Terry Davidson at terrydavidson45@gmail.com.
