National 8Ball & 9Ball Pool Championship 2008

Kolkata - West Bengal

16-26 May 2008

2nd 8Ball Pool Title for Manan

In a final of high standard rack-outs, Manan Chandra of PSPB nosed out Kamal Chawla of Railways 9-7 to win the ONGC-Spring Club National 8Ball Pool Championship, played at the Spring Club, Kolkata on Wednesday. It was a match between immaculate potters, with whoever getting in first whether on a successful break or immediately after an abortive one, racking-out.

However, Manan was careful to strike an early lead of 4-2. At best Chawla made it 4-4 but Manan surged ahead again to 7-4 and thereafter tightly maintained it till the end. It is not uncommon for a player to clear all his group balls and then lose position or break-down on the 8Ball. Then the other player clears all his group balls and pinches the rack on an easy black.

This happened many times but Kamal failed to capitalize fully on easy openings. On the other hand, Manan held his nerve to rack-out for the last time right upto the black in the sixteenth rack and win his second 8Ball title out of the three played so far.

With five 9Ball titles under his belt, out of the six played so far, it appears that he has something in him, which attracts pool titles around! Presently his wife Anuja has just won the 9Ball women’s title and his sister-in-law, the 8Ball title. He is now in line for his second pool double with the most popular 9Ball event having just started.

It is strange why he has not been able to make a mark on the International pool circuit. It is probably due to the thinner tip and lighter snooker cue he still uses to play pool games which have heavier and bigger balls, according to National Coach, S. Jairaj.