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

Advani praises Mohta

Report by :: Pradeep Vijayakar

Mumbai: Pankaj Advani came back from 0-2 down to beat Shravan Mohta and praised his potting. "He is a good potter," said Pankaj whose guard was up in the decider when he made a break of 31 and snookered Shravan on the last red. Mohta was forced to sell the yellow and with it the match. Khar Gymkhana’s older members are watching the matches and are happy over the standards of the players. I explained to one of them: "Snooker is greater than shooting or archery , parallel target sports because you are shooting  at two bulls-eyes. One bulls-eye is the spot where the cue contacts the ball and other bulls-eye in the spot where the ball hit had to hit the other (object) ball. So tw bulls-eyes in one. That’s the great precision required in snooker which people don’t required."

When Aditya Mehta hit a ball near his handball into the far pocket  everyone sighed in delight. That was a sign of a man in form and Aditya, who was 40 paisa for the match against Ashok Shandilya  won 3-1 against a player feared on the circuit who was 1.40. Pankaj Advani and Yasin Merchant  were the only ones who were sure of last eight places on the penultimate day of the league stage.

Yasin Merchant had a 3-2 win over  another promising  lad Lucky Vatnani  who had earlier given India No. 3 Manan Chandra a scare. He  rallied from a 1-2 deficit to force the decider against Chandra before going down 40-63, 70-5, 95(61)-0, 16-100, 68-39.

Faizal Khan did well to beat Ashok Shandilya who  was instrumental in picking him for the Railways. Shandilya who lost 1-3, lost by the same margin to Aditya Mehta. Sourav Kothari of PSPB fashioned his second win in as many ties as he struggled past Rishabh Pandya of Mumbai 61-28, 21-61, 69-52, 59(41)-62(50unf), 62(48)-30 in a Group 'D' thriller.