The Hindu : Sport / Billiards & Snooker : Alok Kumar pockets title

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Monday, Jan 31, 2005

Sport

Sport - Billiards & Snooker

Alok Kumar pockets title

By G. Viswanath

Alok Kumar who won the National snooker championship in Mumbai on Sunday.

MUMBAI, JAN. 30. Alok Kumar, notwithstanding the psychological jabs aimed at him by his peers, won the national snooker title on Sunday. At the start Alok appeared to be heading for a hands down victory but the final set provided a twist thanks to some sparkling display by Devendra Joshi. Eventually, Alok Kumar pocketed the title in the national billiards and snooker championship with a 6-3 win.

Alok, an employee with ONGC, is obviously not a typical sportsman, but if sporting contests are all about winning, then he's not short on the means to achieve the goal. He has a trained craft, resolve and a remarkable individual drive to excel. He obviously doesn't care for the prejudiced views of several losers.

The prospects of the title-deciding match moving forward by long-drawn frames was evident straightaway as Alok began with a series of safety shots and earned 12 points. An off-balance Joshi had flunked a long red and met with disaster fixed on `snookers' by his unyielding opponent. Alok played to his strength and was efficient. He took the first frame, sinking the brown that gave him a four-point cushion because Joshi needed a snooker and the pink and black to snatch it. It was much the same in the second with the colours with lower values securing Alok a 2-0 lead.

Time consuming

The opening two frames were time consuming affairs. The best that Joshi could do was take a sweeping look at the green-top, try to spot the balls, and stand nonplussed.

Alok was up to his tricks again rolling the handball with pinpoint precision behind the black and forcing an error from the former national champion. For once Joshi appeared a `snooker', the nickname for the lowest cadet in the Royal Military Academy in Woolwich seven decades ago and soon adopted as the official name of the game.

The onus was on Joshi, fully acquainted with the way Alok was likely to deal with the circumstances, to make a match of it. Alok is far from spectacular, the main reason why the final did not witness more than two 50 plus breaks. And it was the vanquished Joshi who recorded the highest break of 88.

Joshi, who works for BPCL, drew cheers from the crowd, by winning the fifth, seventh and eighth frames and quite clearly the crowd was favouring local talent. As a final, the Alok Kumar-Joshi match was not really a spectacle for the viewers. "Well, it's certainly not a pleasing sight to see a snooker match with small breaks,'' said Manoj Kothari, a former world amateur billiards champion.

Pankaj Advani beat Aditya Mehta to take the third position.

The winner took home Rs. 20,000 while the runner-up got Rs. 14,000.

The result (final): Alok Kumar (PSPB) bt Devendra Joshi (PSPB) 59-39, 72-41, 54-39, 67-48, 39-59, 71-40, 7-97 (88), 61-68, 58-16.

Other placings: 3. Pankaj Advani, 4. Aditya Mehta 5. Yasin Merchant 6. Niraj Kumar 7. Manan Chandra 8. Rupesh Shah.

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