Billiards: Advani, Causier advance to last 1

Title favourites Pankaj Advani and David Causier of England led a quality field into the pre-quarterfinals of the World billiards championship (timed format), here Monday.

Advani, the 29-year old from Bangalore, cracked a 318, his second triple-century break of the tournament, while defeating England's Jonathan Marwood 814-356, and Causier displayed impressive form in outclassing Australia's

Neil Bolton 1119-451 with a massive run of 403 marking the Englishman's progress.

Causier's 403 was the third highest break of the tournament so far, behind Peter Gilchrist's 551 and Robert Hall's 406.

Also through to the round of 16 were Rupesh Shah, Siddharth Parikh, Aditya Agarwal and Dhruv Sitwala and Ashok Shandilya with contrasting victories.

Earlier, 14 of the 17 Indians qualified for the knock-out stage with Advani, Dhvaj Haria, Balachandra Bhaskar, Sitwala, Shah, Devendra Joshi and Shandilya topping their respective Groups with an all-win record.

The results:

Round of 32 (2 hours): Rupesh Shah bt Mark Hirst (ENG) 665 (118, 104)-371; Pankaj Advani bt Jonathan Marwood (ENG) 814 (318)-356; Siddharth Parikh bt Alok Kumar 669 (104)-393; Aditya Agarwal bt Nalin Patel (ENG) 551 (151)-427; Dhruv Sitwala bt Todd Hayward (AUS) 767 (271)-290; Ashok Shandilya bt Chris Taylor (ENG) 462 (103)-403; David Causier (ENG) bt Neil Bolton (AUS) 1119 (176, 403, 162unf)-451 (146); Phil Mumford (ENG) bt Wayne Doyle (IRE) 489 (106)-413.

League (2 hrs) - Group B: Jaiveer Dhingra bt Ross Doyle (IRE) 765 (139)-283. Group C: Pankaj Advani bt Gaye Jones (ENG) 1268 (196, 100, 199)-107. Group D: Aditya Agarwal bt Mark Hirst (ENG) 645-452 (112). Group E: Dhruv Haria bt Sushrut Pandia 964 (101, 101, 151)-239. Group F: Siddharth Parikh bt Joshua Burns (AUS) 944 (230, 208, 104)-183.

Group H: Dhruv Sitwala bt Jamie Barker (ENG) 545 (110)-345. Group I: Rupesh Shah bt Patrick Stegmeier (AUT) 895 (101, 105, 125, 198)-241. Group J: Devendra Joshi bt Emma Bonney (ENG) 945 (112, 113, 108, 101, 141, 235unf)-223. Group K: Ashok Shandilya bt Carl Walter Steiner (AUT) 977 (109, 105, 138)-278.