Billiards Open kicks off

TWENTY-four players have confirmed participation in the 2012 Moni Plus Billiards Open that cannoned off last night.
Port Moresby Billiards and Snooker Association public relations officer John Chan said the response was overwhelming.
“We received more nominations but unfortunately we can have only 24.”
“The interest in billiards is growing and next year we’ll be looking at more participants.”
The 24 players have been pooled in four groups of six, with games starting last night.
The round robin pool matches will be played over three sets of 25 minutes, while in the knockout stage (top 16) it will be played over three sets of 35 minutes.
The quarter-finals will be the best of three sets,  45 minutes for each set.
The semi-finals will be played on Sunday morning, with three sets of 60 minutes, followed by the final at 3pm over three sets of 60 minutes.
The winner will pocket K1,000 and a trophy, runner-up K500, semi-finalists K200 each and the final 16 K150 each.
Chan said the top seeded player would get K200 and the player scoring 35 points or more would get K200, while K50 would be paid out to players who make breaks of 50 or more.
All matches will be played at the Port Moresby Country Club.
Chan said any player who did not attend the presentation or did not wear the sponsors uniform when getting their awards would forfeit 50 % of their prize money.

He thanked Moni Plus for its seventh consecutive year of sponsorship and support sponsors Bizprint, Grafitti Signs, Telikom PNG Ltd and Evandar Ltd.
“There will be plenty of brilliant billiards to be played over the weekend so all billiard enthusiasts are most welcome to come and watch,” Chan said.