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National Billiards & Snooker Championship 2008 - Indore
Yeshwant Club
Race Course Road - Indore - 452 003 - Madhya Pradesh
23 November 2008
Aranxta Sanchis - the Indian
Billiards Princess
By I.S. Malik
Small and petite, 18 year
old, Aranxta Sanchis, a second year student of the four year degree course in
Information Technology at the St. Francis Institute of Technology, Mumbai lifted
both the inaugural Sub-Juniors and the Juniors billiards title in the Ladies
section of the 2008 National billiards & snooker championship here at the
Yeshwant Club, Indore even as the 23days competition entered its 15th
day on Sunday evening.
Playing with the grace and style of a true champion
this frail looking dynamite is a bagful of potential as she cued away to glory
at the expense of another very talented girl from Bhuveneshwar, Priyanka Agarwal
in the finals of both the Sub-Juniors and the Juniors section of the Ladies
event which commenced today. The ladies proved
that as in other fields, they are very much stronger in cue sports too. Hardly
an half hour separated the finals of the two sections and yet both the finalists
never showed even an iota of tiredness after being played 8 matches in row by
both of them in a day. A commendable attribute under any circumstances.
Displaying a confident array of strokes, be it the
spot potting of the red from the red spot, a long losing hazard (long in-off’s)
drop cannons or even the wily application of tactics whenever she chose to play
a safe shot, truly she was the master of every situation. Priyanka did put up a
fight but on this day she was always up against a wall as Aranxta played with a
fluency of cue-delivery, a rhythm to match and the selection of shots too was
precise and positive. Winning the Juniors ladies title by 199 -81, the little
princess also chalked up a splendid unfinished break of 31 in the process.
Earlier in the semifinals, Priyanka had downed
Akansha Singh of Andhra Pradesh while the same state’s Esther Buela who had
easily beaten by Priyanka in the Sub-juniors section ran into the rampaging
marauder in the shape of Aranxta Sanchez. Priyanka won her match with Akansha by
142-68 points whereas Aranxta won against Keerat Bhandal of Delhi by 131-92
points in the semifinals in the Juniors section. In the Sub- juniors section
Aranxta had won the semifinals against Sania Arif of Chandigarh while Priyanka
had got the better of Esther Buela of Andhra Pradesh.
The noteworthy thing about today's ladies matches were that they relegated the Mens snooker section to the background not only with their fine display but the fact that the girls showed more pluck, grit and determination. Not without reason the female form is worshipped as Kali, Shakti, Laxmi and Saraswati for they are the true embodiments of grace, poise and a sense of camaderie much more than their male counterparts for sure.