Butof breaks back into business

While targeting the 2008 IBSF Amateur World Snooker Championships in Austria, retired Robert Bütof decided to re-enter competitive snooker a year in advance. As Maximumbreak reported, Bütof teamed up with Robert Burda, Bernhard Müllner and Hans Nirnberger to form the Künstlerbüro Snooker-Team. Bütof, who won the national championships back in 1997 and 2001, and Burda battled their way through ASL Qualifier and Challenge events convincingly to qualify for the Valhalla of Austrian snooker: the ASL Grand Prix. Burda, a three-time former champion in the nineties, proved he is back on track as he won six matches at this month's world championships in Korat, Thailand. At this weekend's ASL Grand Prix at the Snooker Bulls in Salzburg, it was Bütof's turn to be in the spotlight.

... Robert Bütof made an impressive return into Austria's snooker elite ...

Bütof started the event with a 108 break in the second frame of his round-robin match against Paul Schopf. It was Bütof's best tournament break ever, exactly ten years after he made a 103 against Roland Strasser. The 15Reds player also beat vice champion Sebastian Hainzl, who had compiled a 102 break in practice just one day before the tournament. Bütof dropped his first frame in the last 16 when Tegshee Nyamaa took a 0-1 lead but ultimately won it 3-1. His next victim was reigning national champion Felix Pleschek of Top Snooker Graz, who was beaten 3-0 in the quarter-finals. In the semis, Bütof had a tough fight against Müllner, also just back from Thailand, and used breaks of 44 and 37 to advance to the final.

His opponent in the final, not surprisingly, was teammate Nirnberger. The top-ranked SEBC player beat Nyamaa, youngster Kai Klien, and Hainzl without dropping a single frame. But Jack lost his way a bit against Ebrahim Baghi, who took a 2-0 lead in their best-of-five quarter-final. Nirnberger won the third frame on the black, then had a 40 break to pull even, and finally won a scrappy decider. In the semis, Nirnberger met Graeme Fish of Inter Snooker Club. Fish, who scored a 101 in practice during the week before the event, had also made it to the semis of the final ASL Grand Prix of last season, but history repeated itself as he lost to Nirnberger again. Fish rallied from 3-0 down to 3-2, but then Jack wrapped up the victory.

Bütof had a great start to the final as breaks of 47 and 50 saw him race into a 2-0 lead. Nirnberger hit back by taking the next three with a best run of 35, before Bütof leveled the score at 3-3. Nirnberger finally got his nose in front once again as he won the decider 57-48 for a 4-3 victory. Nirnberger had not celebrated a ranking event victory between November 2005 and April 2007, but has now won three of the last four ASL Grand Prix events, only losing last month's final to Chau Zi Kim. Though, the honour of the tournament's best break was all Bütof's, who had five breaks over 40 including his magnificent century. By the way, Bütof had beaten Nirnberger by 3-2 in an exhibition match in Vienna just days before their encounter in Salzburg...

Kim wasn't able to successfully defend his title as he faced Burda and Alexander Pichler, who finished third in last month's ASL Grand Prix, in a real group of death. All players won and lost a match, with Kim finally being eliminated in a shoot-out competition. Burda went on to beat Garry Balter but was upset in the quarter-finals by Fish. Pichler also made it to the quarters, but was outplayed by Müllner, who finished third after beating Fish 3-2 in the small final. Which made it a highly successfull weekend for the Künstlerbüro Snooker-Team, claiming the top three spots and with just Burda missing out on reaching the semi-finals. The ASL Grand Prix circuit continues in January next year at KÖÖ 5, home to SEBC in Vienna.

3. ASL GRAND PRIX 2007/08
[Salzburg, 24/11 - 25/11]

Results:

quarter-finals:
Hans Nirnberger - Ebrahim Baghi 3-2
Graeme Fish - Robert Burda 3-1
Robert Bütof - Felix Pleschek 3-0
Bernhard Müllner - Alexander Pichler 3-0

semi-finals:
Nirnberger - Fish 4-2
Bütof - Müllner 4-2

final:
Nirnberger -Bütof 4-3

Break list:

- 108 Robert Bütof
- 59 Bernhard Müllner
- 52 Hans Nirnberger, Tegshee Nyamaa
- 50 Bütof
- 48 Bütof, Müllner
- 47 Bütof
- 44 Bütof, Ebrahim Baghi
- 43 Müllner
- 40 Nirnberger

Click here for full tournament results.

© text: Eric Willemsen [Vienna] / picture: Peter Mann