The Hindu : Advani retains junior billiards title

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Feb 04, 2004

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Sport - Billiards & Snooker

Advani retains junior billiards title

By Kirti Patil

Karnataka's Pankaj Advani, who potted his third straight junior billiards title on Tuesday. - Photo: Sandeep Saxena

GWALIOR, FEB. 3. Pankaj Advani beat Rishabh Thakkar 1029-670 to win the title for the third straight time in the 28th Junior National billiards championship at the Jiwaji University here on Tuesday.

Though Advani came through unscathed, Rishabh made it a contest that all thought would go down to the wire when he erased a lead of 150-odd points with his only century break. Advani demonstrated a copybook example of top-table play in compiling breaks of 197 and 155 to summarily take a crucial and decisive lead.

The three-hour final league match between the two cueists drew much applause as they displayed a deep understanding of the green baize. Advani collected a break of 170, with top-table domination, on his seventh visit. A few single-digit visits allowed Rishabh to crawl up and his 151, on the 23rd visit, allowed him to take a wafer-thin lead in the match. At 423-424, Advani hit back with a 132 to unsettle Rishabh.

In fact Advani eased out a century in just five to seven minutes, while Thakkar, who read the line of the balls after every shot, took a long time for his lone century.

Nine visits later Advani posted 197, missing the double century while attempting to cross the baulk-line. Advani scored 155 in the 39th visit and with time fast running out, there hardly remained any contest as Rishabh also gave up.

Sourav Kothari prevailed over Aditya Mehta 764-744 in an evenly balanced tie to take the third position. Sourav's series of 57, 84, 54, 54 and 52 helped him to rally after Mehta had taken an early lead.

In the senior billiards event, Railways' Siddharth Parikh and Vishal Madan sneaked into the main draw despite their not-so-convincing performances.

Parikh, a semifinalist last year, was no image of his usual self. There was no reason for him to get caught in the safety-trap set by P.G. Benny as he managed to stay afloat with a 485-417 win in the final round of the qualifying tournament.

A maximum break of 48 in a two-hour match was no advertisement for Parikh's abilities. His opponent was no better and his highest break was 47 in the 37th visit, soon after Parikh's 48. With neither of them taking too many chances, Parikh was lucky to have taken minor but crucial lead.

In the other match, Madan defeated Antim Singhi 551-397 thanks to his three 90s — 96, 95 and 95.

Singhi was in no better form. His highest was an 81 as he struggled to find the touch that he was in during the 2002 Ahmedabad Nationals. His decision to skip the Jammu Nationals has clearly put him out of shape.

Meanwhile, the senior men's snooker qualifying commenced with Sunil Sharma and Aswarya Arya registering early victories. Arya, who won his first round match without much trouble, next faces Geet Sethi.

Sethi, a former World billiards champion, who failed to qualify from Gujarat, is aiming to get into the main draw as a semifinal place would mean a possible berth in the World championship scheduled to be held in Hyderabad later this year.

The results:

Junior billiards final (league): Pankaj Advani (Kar) bt Rishabh Thakkar (Mah) 1029-670; Sourav Kothari (Ben) bt Aditya Mehta (Mah) 764-744.

Senior billiards qualifying (final round): Siddharth Parikh (Rly) bt P. G. Benny (Rly) 485-417; Vishal Madan (Rly) bt Antim Singhi (Rly) 551-397.

Senior snooker qualifying (first round): Aswarya Arya (MP) bt Naveen (TN) 74-38, 63-42, 55-54; Shakil Ahmed (Rly) bt Abhinay Reddy (AP) 64-55, 52-66, 66-28, 81-40; Antim Singhi (Rly) bt Mrinal Modak (Mah) 65-49, 69-20, 18-57, 26-10; Sunil Sharma (Kar) bt Manoj Verma (Bih) 71-39, 70-9, 49-19; Mohammed Asim (Rly) bt J. Varun Kumar (TN) 55-62, 88-61, 84-1, 63-43.

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