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Shyam Shroff Memorial - Khar Gymkhana Snooker Tournament
Khar Gymkhana - 15 Linking Road
Khar - Mumbai
Qualifying :: 26 February - 02 March 2008
Main Round :: 04 - 09 March 2008
Pankaj leads elite field in Khar Gym Snooker main draw
Report by :: Don Monteiro
National champion Pankaj Advani will lead an elite field of cueists who will feature in the main draw of the Khar Gymkhana-Shyam Shroff Memorial Open Invitation Snooker Tournament that gets under way at the Khar Gymkhana from Tuesday. Apart from Advani, the main draw will include Aditya Mehta, Manan Chandra, Sourav Kothari, Alok Kumar, Yasin Merchant and Rupesh Shah, who finished in that order in the national championships, and junior national champion Shravan Mohta. This elite group of eight will be joined by four wild cards Devendra Joshi, Ashok Shandilya, Sarang Shroff and Rafath Habib of Railways apart from eight qualifiers.
The qualifiers who have made it to the main draw include Mumbai's Marzdi Kalyaniwala, Lucky Vatnani of Hyderabad, Neeraj Kumar of Bihar, state junior champion Rishabh Pandya, state No. 2 Hasan Badami, Nikhil Ootam, Faizal Khan and Kamal Chawla, both of Railways. The field of 20 in the main draw, which will be held from March 4 to 9, will include four groups of five players each with the top two players in each group qualifying for the quarter-finals.
The quarter-finals and semi-finals will be held on March 8 and the final on March 9. The winner will receive Rs.60,000, while the runner-up will earn Rs.30,000. In addition, the cash prize for the highest break is Rs.5,000. The tournament is being held in memory of one of India's greatest exponents of cue sport who virtually died an unsung hero at a premature age of 60 plus.
The soft spoken and affable Shyam Shroff, who was a good track & field athlete and specialised in the 100m during his school days, was fascinated by the geometry of billiards & snooker when he visited the Park Club at Shivaji Park, Dadar while living at Warden Road. The sport caught his imagination as he was determined to master it and challenge the likes of the legendary Wilson Jones and Michael Ferreira, both world amateur billiards champions. Originally a billiards player, Shroff chose to make the transition to snooker as Jones and Ferreira dominated billiards. Shroff's determination and sheer love of the game led him to a remarkable seven National titles, and the rest they say, was history. After shifting to Khar from Warden Road, it was Khar Gymkhana's gain as Shyam Shroff inspired a legion of cue sport aficionados including Yasin Merchant who went on to win an impressive two Asian snooker championship titles. Like Arvind 'Fats' Savur, Shroff was a swift player and a delight to watch while constructing those big breaks in rapid-fire mode.
Results: Final Qualifying Rd:
Results (Qualifiers):
Final Qualifiers:
Marzdi Kalyaniwala bt Amit Saboo 60-42, 46-76, 57-63, 49-24, 69-20, 47-16
Lucky Vatnani (Hyderabad) bt Arun Agrawal 91(46)-7, 73(48)-13, 79-32, 71(50)-0
Neeraj Kumar (Bihar) bt Shakeel Ahmed (Rlys) 63-40, 22-45, 58-20, 67-44, 55-41
Rishabh Pandya bt Dhruv Sitwala (PSPB) 16-97, 67-5, 35-83, 74-8, 70-6, 63-35.
Hasan Badami bt Rovin D'Souza 72-50, 34-58, 68-25, 60-27, 39-59, 58-39
Faizal Khan (Rlys) bt Varun Taneja 64-51, 59-48, 46-79, 62-25, 59-10
Nikhil Ootam bt Divya Sharma 36-74, 100-13, 26-54, 65-8, 68-52, 63-25
Kamal Chawla (Rlys) bt Chandresh Shah 71(60)-23, 69-37, 72-67, 68-1.