Khar Gym wins the prestigious Bombay Gym Premier League

Khar Gymkhana Challengers (KGC) emerge supreme in the Bombay Gymkhana Premier League Billiards and Snooker Tournament thrashing ECC Baize Blasters 3-0 in the final been played at Bombay Gym.

Challengers, who dropped just five frames in the league phase of the competition, romped to a comfortable victory in the final, as Arjun Tejwani gave them a good start by winning the opening snooker tie, followed by Faisal Khan and Amandeep Kohli’s doubles win over Mahesh Jagdale and Sunil Jain, and Deepak Khubchandani’s win over Farhad Tengra in the third 100-up billiards tie.

ECC paid the price when Jagdale missed a simple black pot in the doubles with a significant break in the offing, and Tengra missed sitters including two red pots and in-offs while also enduring a few flukes by Khubchandani.

"The complexion of the contest would have probably changed had Jagdale not missed that simple black in the doubles," explained Khubchandani. "ECC are a formidable side having reached the final with a few upset wins. We could not afford to be complacent against them."

ECC captaion Cyprus Mistry admitted "We buckled under pressure," further he added "We got off to a losing start and never recovered from there."

"The competition was innovative" said Khar Gymkhana captain Prakash Rajani. "It brought nearly 300 players together and kept alive the games of snooker, billiards, 6-Red snooker and doubles (snooker). I feel, though, the competition stretched too long and should have ended within a month-and-a-half."

"I believe the two-and-a-half month competition kept the players busy for a good period of time. Had it been scheduled only for a month players would have remained idle for almost two months without playing a tournament," reasoned Mistry.

"The tournament had four groups with eight teams each. Instead, it would have been better if there were eight groups with four teams each with the top two qualifying for the knock out from each group. This way each team would only have to play three matches in the league phase instead of (the long-drawn) seven," suggested Khubchandani.

FINAL Results:

Khar Gym Challengers bt ECC Baize Blasters 3-0

Snooker: Arjun Tejwani bt Siddharth Shah 108-61;

Snooker doubles: Faisal Khan/Amandeep Singh Kohli bt Mahesh Jagdale/Sunil Jain 83-54;

Billiards [100-up]: Deepak Khubchandani bt Farhad Tengra 100-47)

Mumbai :: 23 March 2014