The Hindu : Sport / Billiards & Snooker : Vidya dethrones Meenal

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, Jan 14, 2005

Sport

Sport - Billiards & Snooker

Vidya dethrones Meenal

By G. Viswanath

MUMBAI, JAN. 13. Vidya Pillai claimed the National women's snooker title with a last-gasp win over Meenal Thakur at the Goregaon Sports Club here on Thursday.

Defending champion Meenal and the steadfast Vidya competed fiercely for the crown for nearly four hours, before the 2002 champion pocketed the big points in the fifth frame to take the title.

On Wednesday night, in a semifinal skirmish that lasted four hours and fifteen minutes, Meenal staged a remarkable comeback against Ashwini Puranik, taking the fourth frame on the black ball and running away with the fifth to reach the final.

Meenal was up against a determined Vidya who made a bigger claim to the title after drubbing Anuja 3-0 in the semifinals. Vidya won the opening frame by a slender margin and the crucial fifth to clinch the title by sinking the blue.

That was all she needed to do after enjoying a good lead and the reds had been wiped off in this frame.

Pankaj in good nick

The defending champion in both billiards and snooker, Pankaj Advani secured a place in the semifinal round-robin league in junior billiards.

He had looked the part in the two matches leading to the quarterfinals and on Thursday he proved that he was in fine nick with an impressive aggregate of 1001. Everything went right for him as he interspersed three century breaks with seven fifty plus scores.

It was also a day when West Bengal's Sourav Kothari and Maharashtra's Rishab Thakkar sharpened their games in the pre-quarterfinal round.

Thanks to a weighty break of 189, Thakkar got the better of Gujarat's Hem Shroff, while Kothari had to dig in deep to brush aside the challenge of local boy Shravan Mohta.

The results:

Women's snooker (final): Vidya Pillai (TN) bt Meenal Thakur (Mah) 52-51, 47-70, 70-58, 27-58, 64-36.

Junior men billiards: Quarterfinals: Pankaj Advani (PSPB) 1001 bt Rishad Pandya (Mah) 129, Aditya Mehta (Mah) 462 bt Lucky Vatlani (AP) 330, Saurav Kothari (WB) 724 bt Shravan Mohta (Mah) 188, Rishab Thakkar (Mah) 708 bt Hem Shroff (Guj) 304.

Pre-quarterfinals: Shravan Mohta (Mah) 315 bt Prateek Mehta (Mah) 278, Saurav Kothari (WB) 553 bt Ajay Bhushan (Knt) 205, Hem Shroff (Guj) 359 bt Chintan Sampat (Mah) 266, Rishab Thakkar (Mah) 496 bt Sandeep Samuel (TN) 228.

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