Darryl Hill represented the Isle of Man at the International Billiards Snooker Federation World Amateur Championships in Doha, Qatar this week.

After his success in the event last year when reaching the last-16, Hill was seeded straight into the last-48 while many other players from around the world went through qualifying rounds.

The eventual 48 were split into 12 groups, with the top two from each progressing to the knockouts.

Perhaps feeling the effects of arriving in Doha at 7am the previous morning, Darryl was somewhat below-par in his first best-of-seven match versus Asjad Iqbal of Pakistan. Iqbal romped into a 3-0 lead, with Hill only accruing 16 points in total.

Hill managed to nick frame four 59-42 and then found form with a run of 60 in the next but missed frame ball red and Iqbal made a classy 51 clearance for frame and match 4-1.

This defeat made his next two matches ‘must wins’ in order to have a chance of progressing.

Hill achieved his first goal with a 4-3 win over Khamis Alobaidli of Qatar, a tight match with Darryl coming back from 3-2 down. In a nervy finish, Alobaidli obtained three of four snookers required before Hill finished it off.

After a good night’s sleep Darryl produced some excellent snooker to defeat Iran’s Milad Fathpour Kashani 4-2 - he was never behind and his place in the knockouts was secure.

Frame four saw a memorable, fantastic 117 clearance from Hill which was covered on the livestream for all to see.

A familiar face awaited in the last 24, Nicolas Mortreux of France whom Darryl had played a few days earlier in the European Team Championships along with Dollin Mercer.

Mortreux was in good form, having defeated the 2023 champion in his final round robin match. The Frenchman took the first two frames 75-46 and 57-30 but Hill replied in style with another century clearance, 102-13.

Mortreux hit straight back with a 97 to go one frame from a place in the last-16. Hill wasn’t beaten though and reeled off the next three 68-17, 66-37 and 67-25 for a great win.

Into the last-16 and Darryl’s opponent was India’s Sourav Kothari, better known as a top billiard player where he was 2018 world champion. Like Hill he has a 141 competition break and had defeated ex-pro Michael Georgiou the previous day.

Kothari edged the first two frames then produced a 72 break to go 3-0 up. Once again, Hill wasn’t finished and, in the words of his Blinders team-mate Conor Mahon who was in the arena, produced some ‘insane stuff’ to win the next three frames and force a decider.

Sadly, a place in the quarter-finals wasn’t to be as Hill agonisingly lost out in a nail-biter on the final blue.

MIKE CROOK