Joshi, Sitwala
miss out on History
Cue sports history just missed being
made on Sunday. Of two players entering the finals of both
billiards and snooker. The players are both close friends and
sparring partners Devendra Joshi and Dhruv Sitwala. They had
contested the national billiards final a couple of years ago which
Joshi won.
On Monday they may have played both the finals of the Rosy Blue
Hindu Gymkhana-Wilson Jones All India Open handicap
billiards/snooker championships. But for Dhruv losing the snooker
semi-final on the black ball decider against Manish Adnani Devendra,
had breaks of 140, 183 and 69 while beating Nikhil Ootam 250-204 in
billiards and blanked Rohan Mirchandani in snooker.
Joshi said: "The handicap was a little
generous to me just minus 130. I got that raised to minus 275 yet I
won. I am happy that I beat Yasin Merchant in snooker." Joshi was
not to play this event as it clashed with a Pune event. But he got
Geet Sethi to play in his place and kept his date with a tournament
which commemorates his mentor, the late Wilson Jones.
Dhruv, another Jones, protege, got past the in-form Arun Agrawal
250-68 margin. In the snooker semi-final he was down 2-0 but made
it 2-all only to lose on the black.
Pradeep
Vijayakar @ Mumbai
Sunday 21
December 2008
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