Ladies Snooker - A maiden voyage

Captain Courageous bowled over the maidens of Indian Snooker by hosting an "All India Ladies Open Snooker Tournament" at Hyderabad from 12 to 14 April 2008. It was on April Fools day that the news broke out of this impending tournament. Believe it or not the response was good considering the short notice. Those who came were not fooled. There were surprises galore for the participants thereafter. We were treated or rather pampered well. Excellent pick-up and drop arrangements from the Airport/ Railway Station/ Bus Stands and to the venue for the matches on each day. Lovely arrangements for lodging and boarding – AC comfort for all in the sweltering heat of Hyderabad. A sumptuous lunch at the venue on match days. The warmth and courtesy displayed by the organizers – the APBSA – was touching indeed. I have deliberately talked of the administrative arrangements in the beginning of this brief squirt as I can sense it is just the beginning of better things in store for us.

The biggest surprise was yet to come. On the first day when the first set of matches was to take off, Captain in his inaugural speech declared that the format would be a Six red game instead of the usual fifteen. We were definitely taken aback, as all our calculations and schemes had to be rethought and reworked but we sportingly accepted the change which was in line with the new version – akin to 20 – 20 in cricket. It definitely turned out to be a novel idea. The underdogs saw an opportunity to upset the better opponents. They did steal a frame or two in the bargain. The veterans did find the going tough in the beginning as all the reds disappeared and yet the game was on for both players. A good format for a level playing field probably better than a handicap. However as the tournament progressed over the three days there were no more surprises as from the field of seventeen which included a new entrant, Lahari a eleven year old from Hyderabad the final eight who entered the quarters were more or less expected – Vidya, Chitra, Meenal, Uma, Neena, Heena ,Suniti and self. Sangeeta aunty was unlucky to miss out. Her spirit though has to be admired and so was her display of accurate potting, despite having come out of a recent major operation. A perfect example of a person who loves and cherishes playing Snooker. We young girls do look up to her. The Quarters were tough and went the full distance. The Semis did get a new entrant – Neena @ cost of Meenal. The Semis was a perfect setting for settlement of the Cauvery Waters Dispute between Karnataka and Tamil Nadu  -  Vidya (TN ) v/s Chitra (K) and Neena (TN) v/s Uma (K).

The Finals  - Vidya (TN ) v/s Uma (K) –was possibly an indication that the real dispute may never get resolved. The Best of Seven started in earnest and Vidya zoomed ahead but the never-say-die Uma with some brilliant snookers resolutely clawed her way back to make it level at two-all. Whilst the match was in progress the State Electricity Board took the cue from Uma and kept snookering the duo with power trips during the match. Both players were cautious and a wee bit negative as they drew long yawns from the audience and some sniggers and laughter too. Captain too could not help but join in as he kept looking at his watch and wondered about the fate of the Dinner which was slated at 8 pm.. Maybe it would have to be rescheduled to 10 pm.

Finally the ordeal was cut short by the Chief Referee Simhachalam Sir, who possibly couldn’t take it any longer as one of his scorers could be seen holding his head maybe in a bid to retain whatever strands of hair that were left after he watched a league encounter between Shilpa and Shreya as each was scoring for the other through fouls and misses. And, here he was stuck once again in a different situation. Simhachalam Sir’s proposal to the players to reduce the match to a Best of Five was sportingly agreed to as the audience collectively heaved a huge sigh of relief which reverberated through the tinned roof structure which was put together in a record time of one month purely for this tournament on the very three acres of land on which the proposed Snooker Academy would be coming up. Vidya finally woke up and with some of her trademark display of precision potting and placement won the frame and the match. The Prize Distribution ceremony also had the ladies in splits as the announcer was all at sea whether it was "Miss ya Mrs". Young Lahari chuckled at being addressed as “Mrs” and Senior Citizen and much married Indira Hegde beamed when she was addressed as “Miss”.  He eventually gave up and decided to drop the prefix and only call out our names. He did rechristen a few of us though – Suniti became Sunita, Gowda became Ghoda (horse), I, Arantxa dropped my “X” and Sangeeta was made a Sindhi – Hemchandani. The best part was the prize money which was a bounty for the ladies as all participants received assured prize money, the Quarter Finalists ,Semi-Finalists and the Finalists definitely got more than what one gets at the Nationals. The Winner, Runners Up and best break (Uma – 43) received classy Mementos too. This memorable voyage ended with a well laid out feast at Captains sprawling “SEAWAYS” Roof Top. A tour of the Ship (Business Office premises) left the visitors gaping. A few girls even walked the plank (constructed atop the building) and had the feel of being on the Titanic. All through the Dinner the ladies dug into the tasty faire and laughed away as they related incidents of the enjoyable three days. Maybe it was that the ice-cream had something in it that got them laughing through the night. Neeta aunty thought it may have been bhang. Maybe so, because she, Heena aunty and our senior ladies were literally doing bhangra on the chairs and relating a lot of interesting incidents to us . I consider myself fortunate to be there and not miss out and I must say that a good start has been made for the Ladies with promises of many more such events in the future.

Aye! Aye! CAPTAIN.  My Colonel (dad) will surely not miss the next event.

Arantxa Sanchis - Ladies Snooker Cueist

Mumbai - India :: 15 April 2008