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National Billiards & Snooker Championship
The Kotla Vijaya Bhaskar Reddy Indoor Stadium
Yousuf Guda - Hyderabad
:: Report - 16.12.2007 ::
by CSI Correspondent
Isthmit Singh Malik
Hyderabad: 16.12.2007 - It was once again the young cueist from Kolkata freshly employed with the Petroleum Sports Control Board, Shahbaz Adil Khan who gave a fine account of his cueing skils in the Juniors billiards section of the 2007 National billiards & snooker championship being played here at the Kotla Vijaya Bhaskar Redy Indoor Stadium on Sunday evening.
Shahbaz outplayed Pushpender Singh of Delhi by 667-389 points playing in a brilliant fashion to enter the semifinals. Joining him was Kunal Agarwal who beat back the fight of Ameer Husain by 460-371 points.
Earlier, Aditya Agarwal of Maharashtra drubbed Himanshu Jain by 529-292 points to enter the last eight stage. Shravan Mohta easily beat Aaush Kumar of Punjab in a one sided contest which saw the Maharashtra player from Pune win by 434-272 points to make the last eight grade. M.Sujit also made the last eight stage by putting it across Amit Bhushan by 450-311 points while Manish Jain beat Harshindu Giri in another one way traffic by 450-242 points to complete the line up.
In the Qualifying rounds of the Seniors snooker, Vivek Chopra edged out Muzaffar Kamal of Andhra in a pulsating five frame thriller by 52-62, 16-61, 40-57, 66-33 and 50-41 points on the black decider. Vaibhav MEHTA BEAT gOVARDHAN IN ANOTHER FIVE FRAMES ENGROSSER BY 50-63, 11-62, 60-56, 58-51 AND 55-35 POINTS.
Veteran, former National snooker champion from Railways, Shyam Jagtiani had to put all his experience to the fore before overcoming the stif resistance of Delhi's Harpreet Singh in five frames by 65-79, 49-08, 81-46, 57-65 and 75-25 points. Leading by 2-1 frames Jagtiani lost the fourth to be level at 2-2 in the decider. However, the victor was a shade superior to the loser as he unleashed some classic shots on way to his victory.
Ashok Shandilya , the top seeded player from the Railways had no trouble in beating Jatin Bhatia in straight frames by 82-20, 68-03 and 95-09 points. Tamil Nadu star, S. A. Salem was a notch too god for Satish Kumar of Karnatka ousting him in straight frames by 62-60, 69-16 and 61-34 points. Satish once he lost out in the first frame was no match for Saleem in the next two caving in rather tamely.
K. Someshwar Rao of Andhra was in good form as he plundered the balls into the pocket with rare precision on his way to a straight bframes victory over Delhi's Varun Madan by 68-01, 75-42 and 64-31 points. Shravan Mohta in addition to his good show in the Juniors billiards also gave a sterling display in snooker while outclassing an erant, Dorai Raj of Andhra by 62-26, 96-32 and 69-10 points.
Nevertheles it was the Debonair cueist from Chennai, M. C. Manoj who cockled the hearts of the cynosures with his impeccable manner, sure touch potting, clarity of thought and immaculate ball positioning in the process of a straight frames win over Rahul Berlia of West Bengal giving a lesson in snooker play to win by 72-36, 66-33 and 62-18 points. It was indeed a delight to watch his exhibition of stylish demanour.