Tata's Mhatre wins markers tourney

Liladhar Mhatre of Tata Sports Club won the second Islam Gymkhana Pro Clasic 6-red snooker tournament for markers when he edged out Bernard James of Sher-e-Punjab Gymkhana 5-4 in the best of nine frame final at the Islam Gymkhana on Friday.

Mhatre, who learnt the game under legends Geet Sethi and Mike Ferreira during the early years of his 21-year-old service at Bombay House, was 4-2 up but lost his grip. In fact, James was poised to win when leading 36-24 in the deciding ninth frame. At that stage he rolled the hand-ball to the pink assuming his opponent needed a snooker when in fact it was an all-ball game. Mhatre potted pink and black to win Rs.15,000 the top prize.

"I thought I would get that one more frame easily," said Mhatre who was grateful to Iqbal Khakhu for organizing the event. "I miscalculated," said a disappointed James. MLA Yusuf Abrahani announced Rs.20,000 prize money for the markers. "I myself have learnt a lot from them" said the Islam Gymkhana patron.

CCI's Kekoo Nicholson said the markers deserved all help as they helped the youngsters from a formative age. He was happy to hear that the idea for this event germinated when this writer told Khakhu that a markers event should be revived as they were being discriminated against by a club that told marker James that they would not give him the promised club membership for the winner of the handicap event at their club. He didn't win and saved them the embarrassment.

Anthony Menezes of the NSCI was adjudged the best player. Pradeep Vijayakar said cue sports must follow  the example of squash which has a National event for professionals. He said Mahendra Agarwal had formed an Indian Squash Professionals body for markers and that in 15 years time they were earning upwards of Rs.20,000 and driving  around in Marutis.

Shyam Kotak of PJ Hindu Gymkhana told Islam Gymkhana to count on them for future events. The country's oldest player 89-year-old Uttam Chandarana of PJ Hindu Gymkhana watched the final and gave a demo of his shots, lovely jennies to the audience. He plays everyday for two hours with the likes of Dhruv Sitwala and Meenal Thakur.

Arun Agarwal from the famous family said his brother the late Om the world snooker champ loved markers like Ashraf at Dadar Club and Sakharam at the CRMI where he has been serving for over 30 years.

Islam Gymkhana's cricket secretary  Arman Mallick said Khakhu had put them to shame by organizing successful snooker events thrice a year.

 Results: Liladhar Mhatre bt Bernard James 5-4 (0-34, 18-42, 62-1,57-28,41-17,51-9,25-33,20-32,37-36.

ALL RESULTS
 

Mumbai - Friday 24 October 2008