The Hindu : Sport : Rishabh falls to Viresh; Thukral runs out of luck

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Jan 25, 2005

Sport

Sport

Rishabh falls to Viresh; Thukral runs out of luck

By G. Viswanath

MUMBAI, JAN. 24. The half a dozen red polka dots on the cue ball used in the National snooker championship have not really gone down well with the players taking part in it. Pankaj Advani and a few others felt it was a definite distraction. Aramith which makes the shining Belgian Billiards Balls and has supplied balls, gratis, for the ongoing competition sent the spotted lot along with the plain white ball used for billiards.

The Chief referee Ajay Rastogi lamented that the players have not been able to adjust to the designer handball. Players were unhappy with the change, found the red dots an eyesore and hence would like the nationals to revert to the traditional plain white ball.

The World Snooker Association (WSA) has decided to break away from the time-honoured tradition and will be using the spotted ball for the Embassy World championship and other major competitions. According to Derek Sippy, Hon. Secretary, Billiards and Snooker Association of Maharashtra, the International Billiards and Snooker Federation (IBSF) that is an amateur body is yet to follow suit.

Once the players conveyed their problem, the Billiards and Snooker Association of Maharashtra ascertained from the Asian Confederation of Billiards and Snooker (ACBS) that the designer ball would not be used for the Asian snooker championship to be held in Mumbai in June.

India No. 3 Rishabh Thukral ran out of luck against a club player from Mumbai Viresh Prabhu. Down by the opening frame, the Delhi cueist recovered superbly to win the second and third frames, but saw the plucky Prabhu fighting back hard and fast to take the fourth and fifth frames and clinch the match.

The results: (round robin — best of 5 frames): Group A: Sumeet Talwar (Chand) bt Imran Khan (UP) 42-74, 58-18, 73-33, 69-61, bt J. Dawar (Mah) 17-68, 54-10, 73-32, 24-65,68-7, Alok Kumar (PSPB) bt Imran Khan (UP) 95-16, 79-15, 81-6. Group B: Harish Gandhi (MP) bt Aishwarya Arya (MP) 45-57, 87-39, 30-64, 68-29, 91-27. Group C: S. Praveen Kumar (AP) bt D. Rajkumar (Knt) 69-15, 0-88, 63-31, 83-29, Viresh Prabhu (Mah) bt Rishabh Thukral (Del) 62-37, 1-82, 17-60, 68-39, 50-40. Group D: Rafat Habib (Rlys) bt Nishit Prakash (UP) 63-16, 103-4,93-6, Antim Singhi (TN) bt Kamal Chawla (Rlys) 71-38,71-29,51-9. Group E: Manan Chandra (PSPB) bt Harpreet Singh (HP) 50-53, 91-30, 42-55,85-16,65-10, Kamal Rohmitra (J & K) bt Mrinal Modak (Mah) 67-43, 54-4,48-61,47-30. Group F: Nikhil Ootam (Mah) bt Jaswinder Singh (Raj) 69-63,59-51,9-66,57-8, B. V. S. Murthy (Knt) bt Jaideep Manocha (J & K) 50-34, 38-72,67-7,77-45. Group I: Geet Sethi (Guj) bt S. Das (Orissa) 61-12, 49-20,70-28, Devendra Joshi (PSPB) bt Pradeep Kinger (Har) 63-2, 48-32 (Kinger reported late for the third frame). Group J: Marzdi Kalyaniwala (Mah) bt Farhat Tengra (Mah) 70-33,75-35,9-61, 73-26, Dharminder Lilly (Pnb) bt Manoj Verma (Bihar) 73-29, 59-41, 84-10. Group K: Chirag Ramakrishnan (Mah) bt Neeraj Kumar (Bihar) 73-34, 19-70,59-21, 49-64, 79-37, Ashok Shandilya (Rlys) bt Arun Madhu (Raj) 33-61, 75-41, 72-2, 71-34. Group L: Dhruv Sitwala (PSPB) bt K. Deepak (Har) 90-10,87-6, 52-43, Shyam Jagtiani (Rlys) bt Modit Poddar (WB) 48-71, 66-30, 61-29, 54-4. Group M: Rupesh Shah (Guj) bt Kamaldeep Dingh (Del) 67-28,63-23, 81-5, Omar Balsara (Mah) bt Jon Bosco (AP) 54-47, 43-72, 55-23, 55-77, 70-37. Group N: Sourav Kothari (WB) bt Sarad Pradhan (Megh) 78-34, 78-11, 61-11, Varun Taneja ((Rlys) bt C. Ravindranath (Knt) 79-5, 13-58, 30-38, 64-26, 72-56. Group O: Siddharth Anand (Del) bt Siddharth Sen (Ori) 67-8, 65-10, 40-66, 61-23, Sarang Shroff (Mah) bt Siddharth Parikh (Rlys) 29-65, 76-18, 17-91, 61-34,54-50. Group P: Prem Prakash (TN) bt Amarnath Sharma (Megh) 79-3, 66-17, 93-8,Aditya Mehta (Mah) bt Neel Vitlani (Mah) 63-72, 74-17, 51-75, 72-39, 56-10, bt Amarnath Sharma (Megh) 68-30, 78-36, 90-13, Neel Vitlani (Mah) bt Prem Prakash (TN) 19-62, 52-13, 55-37, 54-28.