Bengaluru: One of the connoisseurs of the game, Peter Gilchrist still gives his competitors a run for their money having started his tryst with the green baize sport almost three decades ago. The Englishman, who shifted base to Singapore to coach, later on swapped his nationality to represent that country, and believes that is ‘the best thing’ he has done so far.
The 48-year-old took a fancy to the table at the age of ten and there has been no stopping him thereon. The champion has several records and titles to his name but it hasn’t quenched his thirst for more as he aims to keep playing as long as the trophies keep rolling in. Back to the country where he picked up his first world title back in 1994, Gilchrist opens up about his love for the game as he enjoys another spectacular run at the ongoing World Championships.
Excerpts:
On what keeps him going after so many years:
I like billiards better than snooker. There are a lot of very good snooker players and I don’t think I could have done anything in snooker, whereas in billiards there are only a handful of very, very good players. So I will always have a chance of winning tournaments, especially like these tournaments because we haven’t got Mike Russell here, we haven’t got David Causier, we haven’t got Mathew Bolton here, so it makes it a little bit easy.
On only one united World Championship?
Maybe that would be the way. At the moment, we have two world championships. Mike Russell has won what I call the real world championship. WBL is the real world championship. We can have one real world championship per year. We have IBSF and WBL world champions, so people say ‘Who is the real world champion?’
On future plans:
I will play as long as I think I can win a tournament, I’ll keep on playing. If I play well, I can win tournaments. I’m 48 now, maybe five more years. When I stop playing, I’ll probably go into coaching.
On his favourite memory in India:
I always love coming to India. It’s been eight years since I last came to India. I was here in the 90s when the sport was doing really well. I won the world championship in 1994, that’s my favourite moment. I beat Mike (Russell) in the final. Then I won again in 2001, that was a great moment for me. But the first one was the best one for me.
