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National Billiards & Snooker Championship
The Kotla Vijaya Bhaskar Reddy Indoor Stadium
Yousuf Guda - Hyderabad
:: Report - 08.12.2007 ::
by CSI Correspondent
Isthmit Singh Malik
Hyderabad, 8th December, 2007: Petite, younger of the sisters, the Petroleum Sports Promotion Board, lady Anuja Thakur nee Chandra lifted the Ladies billiards title of the 2007 National billiards & snooker championships being played here at the Vijaya Bhaskar Reddy Indoor Stadium converted billiards gymnasium in Hyderabad on Saturday evening wresting the top honours from her elder sister, defending champion, Meenal Thakur of Maharashtra by 3-1 games in the final.
Anuja won the best of 5 games match in just over 90 minutes of play by 76-73, 41-75, 77-30 and 76-22 points. Meenal who had been playing steady billiards till this match seemed a bit tired once she had lost the third game after levelling up at 1-1 by pocketing the second. Anuja on her part was cool, composed and assured in her touch as she took the fourth game to win the tie and title with a flourish in the end.
Earlier in the semis, Anuja had to fight hard to get past the Karnatka Veteran lady, Uma Devi winning the closely contested battle by 33-76, 76-73, 76-11 and 75-68 points in a match which looked set to go down the wire before Anuja made the most of her chance to snatch the fourth game and match. On the other hand, Meenal outplayed atentative World Ladies Billiards champion from Karnatka, Chitra Maghimairaj in four games at 76-67, 76-50, 50-76 and 76-05 points. Strangely, Chitra seems to lose her edge when she plays in India considering that she is a two times running World champ a lot more is expected of her but she continues to disappoint somewhat.
In the quarter finals which preceded these matches, Anuja beat Renu Barkatiya of MP in straight two games, Meenal beat Kamala Chandra Babu of TN, Chitra beat Vidya PIllai of TN, Uma Devi beating HeenaKhandelwal of Maharashtra all in straight games and then Uma Devi downing Chitra in straight games to decide the third and fourth places.
In the Sub Juniors boys billiards, D. Kothari beat Amit Bhushan in a cliff hanger by 168-164 points in a one hour match while favourite, Raunaq Vazirani beat Dwaj Haria in another close tie by 220- 206 points. But it wasthe Seniors billiardsevent which attracted the maximum attention of the keen billiards lover.
World champion from Karnatka, the wonder boy of the three balls game, Pankaj Advani was in good touch although seemingly not straining much for his initial round match. All the same he gave glimpses of his class while recordind a 615-286 pointsvictory over Sandeep Gulati of Delhi following it up with another fine victory, this time over S. Shanker Rao by 603-260 points.
Legendary, Geet Sethi was in his usual rytmic font as he crushed Chetan Chabra by 628-199 points and then outpointed Arif Akhtar of Chandigarh by 683-196 points. Rupesh Shah , the newly crowned points format World Billiardschampion from Gujarat, was on song cueing fluently and scoring consistently to drub the Delhi youngster, Pushpender Singh by 660-125 points.
Another champion player, Ashok Shandilya from the Railways, was also in good form whiledefeating I.V. Rajiv by 636-121 points in another match of the Seniors billiards league. Kamal Chawla of the Railways and the UP champion , Raghoo Sinha were the other creditable performers winning their matches against Shankar Rao by 514-312 points and 514-231 points over B.L. Somayajulu respectively. In a close match Prem Prakash of TN got the better of K. Venkatesham of the Railways by 477-366 points. Former Asian champion , Devendra Joshi of PSPB played well below his level but was enough for Girish of TN whom he beat by 540-265 points in the 90 minutes league match while his Junior mate, Saurav Kothari was too good for Aman Goyal coming out on top by 527-156 points in another tie of note.