Day 3
The Americas’ Cup kicked off today with the first of the group matches. The format is single game target or up play, the group matches all being a race to 400 points, or 400up as it is more commonly known.
The Baulkline Crossing Rule is in operation during this event, currently the only event outside of the World Championship where this applies. Rather fittingly perhaps, Vimy Ridge Classic winner Rob Hall received the first Baulkline warning of the day at 80, but missed on 90. On the next table however Mike Russell channelled his frustrations from the previous day in to raising the bar again with an unfinished break of 384 in his 400-66 win over in form local player Rick Kendall. Other centuries of the day came from Russell, with 229 against Rick Hutcheon, Martin Goodwill with 162 against Shane Bartelette and Phil Mumford with 102 against Guy Heys.
Following his earlier 400-49 demolition of Alan Senkiw, Rob Hall encountered some serious resistance from Canadian Warren Dyer, who started off with a 63 break and maintained the lead until finally being overhauled in the latter stages, Rob eventually winning 400-253 after 2½ hours. Clash of the former World Championship finalists resulted in a 400-323 win for Dhruv Siwala over Indian compatriot Devendra Joshi. There were some close matches between several of the Canadians; former Northern Ireland player Daniel Scullion beat Rick Hutcheon by the narrowest margin of the day 400-389, and Steve Jones had a 20 point victory over Grant Thiessen.
The group stages continue for another day on Tuesday, following which there will be the draw for the last 16 knockout stage to be played Wednesday and Thursday.