Darryl Hill has just returned from one of his favourite venues, Doha, Qatar where he was once again competing in the International Billiards and Snooker Federation World Snooker Championships.

In view of the Manx player reaching the last 16 in 2024, going out after a decider, he was seeded straight into the final 48 players.

Once the competition’s preliminary round was over, the players were placed in 12 groups of four, the top two from each group progressing to the knockout stage.

The matches were best of seven.

Hill’s group included Khamis Alobaidli (Qatar), Shahid Aftab (Pakistan) and Michal Szubarczyk (Poland).

Hill had met Alobaidli in the same competition last year, coming away with a 4-3 win.

However, on this occasion, Hill was very comfortable once he got used to the surroundings, winning 4-0, finishing off the match with a 61 break.

Next up was Aftab and despite Hill taking the opener 56-3, mistakes crept into the Manxman’s game as Aftab went 3-1 ahead.

Had a rattled final yellow from Hill in frame five dropped it would have probably gone 2-3 and it would’ve been interesting, but alas it didn’t and the match ended as a 4-1 defeat.

With qualification to the knockouts still possible, but out of his hands, ex-pro Hill went into his final group match against 14-year-old Szubarczyk with nothing to lose.

Szubarczyk holds the record of becoming the youngest player to qualify as a professional and has recorded several match wins since his professional debut on the World Snooker Tour in June.

Hill eased through a scrappy frame one before Szubarczyk showed the kind of form that got him his professional status with an 87 in frame two.

The Manxman failed to score in frame three, but he fought back well, taking two of the next three frames to set up a decider.

Hill hit a 69 break in the fourth plus 45 in the sixth and the momentum was seemingly with the island player.

The decider really could’ve gone either way. Hill was most unlucky cannoning the green in early on and had a very good chance with a few reds left but took his eye off a pink.

Finally, 30 points behind he tried to lay a snooker on the last red, (Szubarczyk very lucky not to leave it potable) misjudged it by a fraction and left it on and a 4-3 win for Szubarczyk.

No doubt Hill was kicking himself afterwards but to take the current world ranked 101 that close was nothing to be ashamed of.

As it turned out, a 4-3 win for Hill still would not have been enough to proceed but it would have been a good scalp to take, especially as the young Pole went on to take the world title a couple of days later, with nobody getting closer to defeating him than the Manx player.

Szubarczyk walked away with $10,000 and looks destined for even bigger things on the World Tour.

MIKE CROOK