National 8Ball & 9Ball Pool Championship 2008

Kolkata - West Bengal

16-26 May 2008

Joshi survives Poddar

In an otherwise normal day of sedate proceedings, second seeded Dharminder Lilly of Punjab and former National Champion Alok Kumar of PSPB where upstaged in the early rounds of the ONGC-Spring Club National 9Ball Pool Championship being played at the Spring Club in Kolkata.

While upcoming Chetan Chhabra of Haryana overcame performance anxiety to beat Lilly closely at 7-5 to record the best victory of life, Magesh of Tamil Nadu reeled out rack after rack in immaculate fashion to outclass former champion and strong contender Alok Kumar 7-4.

Third-seeded Devendra Joshi was, however, lucky to scrape past local veteran Anil Poddar 7-6 in a close match which went to the last ball and saw the former Bengal Snooker champion show some glimpses of his famed potting prowess.

But thanks to the double elimination process in operation, all these losers still have a second chance to move up.