Oxford’s Phil Collins showed his true colours with a double title triumph in Jersey over the weekend. Picture: DAVID FERGUSON (00829200)

THE 2009 Bar Billiards World Champion is Phil Collins of Oxford.

He defeated Paul Sainsbury of Reading in Sunday night’s final played before an enthusiastic crowd at the Merton Hotel.

In doing so he made bar billiards history as 24 hours earlier, together with Leon Beer, he had taken the pairs title against father and son Keith and Steve Sheard and thus became the first player ever to hold both titles simultaneously.

The individual championship got under away on Saturday morning with just under 200 players involved. There were some early shocks as a number of fancied players took their leave.

Among these was former winner Bernie McCluskey of Reading who went out to Jersey’s Ashley Malorey in the first round. McCluskey was to gain some solace on Sunday when he triumphed in the final of the plate competition, for first and second-round losers, against Jersey player Nigel Bisson.

• Full report and results in today’s Jersey Evening Post