National 8Ball & 9Ball Pool Championship 2008

Kolkata - West Bengal

16-26 May 2008

Chetan ousts Lilly

On a day of the underdog, D. Lilly, D.Joshi and Kolkata’s best bet Md. Asim, lost to unfancied players in the last qualifying stages for the knock-out draw of the ONGC-Spring Club National 9Ball Pool Championship being played at the Spring Club in Kolkata.

D.Lilly of Punjab, the 2^nd seed and the leading Pool specialist in the country, lost twice to Chetan Chhabra of Haryana 5-7, 4-7, to be double eliminated as one of the favourites to win the National title. Chetan sniped a cheeky 3-ball combination shot to sink the 9ball in the 11^th rack to seal Lily’s fate and confirm his berth in the last 32 knock-out draw.

D.Joshi of PSPB, also coming from the losers’ line, failed to fire his guns and lost 7-3 to D.Rajkumar of Karnataka.

Md. Asim, Kolkata’s only Pool International in the fray, lost a clincher to Kamaljeet Singh of Delhi. Leading 6-2, Asim couldn’t hold back a landslide of breaking racks from Kamaljeet and lost on the 9ball which Asim sold him by giving in-off.

However, local lad Rajesh Tulshan, a former State Snooker Champion, pulled off a series of unexpected wins and brushed aside the hopes of Varun Kumar, an effortless potter from Chennai 7-4, to qualify as No.1 from his group.

Sourav Kothari, more known for his exploits in Billiards & snooker, applied all his cuemanship to sail through as No.1 seed in the new fixture, and keep the city’s flag flying.