Young brigade shines at Manisha Billiards, Snooker Championship

Abhishek Manroa January 24, 2012 0

Young brigade shines at Manisha Billiards, Snooker Championship

PUNE: Defending champion Pankaj Advani and his contemporary cueists Sourav Kothari and Brijesh Damani held aloft the flag for young brigade as the three stormed into the pre-quarterfinals with an all-win record in the Group league stage in the Manisha-National Billiards and Snooker Championship at the PYC Hindu Gymkhana indoor hall on Tuesday.

The event is being organised by Billiards and Snooker Association of Maharashtra (BSAM) and the PYC Hindu Gymkhana.

Petroleum Sports Promotion Board’s (PSPB) Advani has been in flawless form since arriving here and on Tuesday he blanked Sundeep Gulati in three straight frames needing just 28 minutes to send the Delhi cueist packing.

Advani, who won 102-36, 100-54, 100 (64)-56, has so far lost just one frame—to D Bhuveneshwaran of Tamil Nadu—while winning his four league matches. He was set to meet Sarang Shroff of Maharashtra in the final league tie, but any which way, the Bangalore cueist will finish at the top of Group A.

Brijesh Damani, who registered a shock win over eight-time world champion Geet Sethi on Monday, continued his silken touch by beating Shekhar Surve of Maharashtra 3-1, winning 101 (76)-66, 101-11, 37-100, 101-14.

This was Bengal cueist Damani’s fourth win in as many matches that assured him a place in the last 16, and since Sethi has withdrawn from the championship, the fight for second qualifier from the group has become interesting with Maharashtra’s V Subramanian having a better chance than Andhra Pradesh’s IV Rajeev to move ahead.

In Group E, Sourav Kothari was in an impeccable form scoring 3-0 win over Farhad Tengra of Maharashtra, and 3-2 over Railways’ Manish Jain.

Accumulating breaks of 60, 63, 58 and 48, Kothari fought valiantly after being 0-2 down against Manish Jain to win 87-100, 63 (60)-100 (60), 102 (63)-50 (50), 100 (58)-78, 100 (48)-2.

Now in the fight for second qualifier from the group, former point format world champion Ashok Shandilya will have to win against Kothari in his last league match, while Manish Jain has comparatively easy opponent in Tengra.

Former champion Alok Kumar, playing in Group H, was fighting for second berth from the group after K Venkatesham Railways nudged ahead with an all-win record. Vishal Madan and Parthiv Zaveri were the others who have mathematical chance of toppling Alok if he loses in his last league match.

Results: Men’s Billards:

Group A: Sarang Shroff (Mah) bt Kankan Shamshi (UP) 3-0 (100-78, 102 (51)-51, 100 (43)-6); Pankaj Advani (PSPB) beat Sundeep Gulati (Del) 3-0 (102-36, 100-54, 100 (64)-56); Bhuwaneshwaran D (TN) bt Durga Prasad (Rlys) 3-1 (102-85 (65), 100 (61)-65, 40-100 (55), 102 (54)-46).

Group B: Dhvaj Haria (Guj) bt Anupam Jha (Bih) 3-0 (102-30, 103-44, 100-37); B Bhaskar (Kar) bt Nittin Kohli (UP) 3-1 (102-33, 26-100 (68), 100 (43, 47)-11, 101 (77)-19).

Group C: V Subramanian (Mah) bt Shekhar Surve (Mah) 3-1 (100-42, 100 (91)-15, 94 (43)-101 (61), 101 (57)-21); IV Rajeev (AP) bt Anmoldeep Singh (Pun) 3-1 (100-80, 100-62, 62-101, 101-59); Brijesh Damani (Ben) bt Shekhar Surve (Mah) 3-1 (101 (76)-66, 101-11, 37-100, 101-14).

Group D: Arun Agarwal (Mah) bt Subrat Das (Ori) 3-0 (104 (104)-00, 100-36, 100 (59)-12); Prem Prakash (TN) bt MS Reddy (Rlys) 3-0 (100 (52)-45, 101 (67)-43, 102 (100)-3); D Raj Kumar (Kar) bt Dhruv Sitwala (PSPB) 3-1 (100-82 (50), 101 (55)-6, 69-100, 101 (39)-88); Dhruv Sitwala (PSPB) bt Subrat Das (Ori) 3-0 (100-16, 100 (88)-42, 101 (60)-23); MS Reddy (Rlys) bt D Raj Kumar (Kar) 3-1 (100 (53)-46, 101-62, 33-101, 102-93 (55)); Prem Prakash (TN) bt Arun Agarwal (Mah) 3-2 (100 (70)-51, 101-85, 92-101, 56-100, 100-91).

Group E: Sourav Kothari (PSPB) bt Farhad Tengra (Mah) 3-0 (101 (51)-81, 101 (78)-71, 103 (103)-10); Ashok Shandilya (Rlys) bt Rajath Khaneja (Chd) 3-0 (102-67, 101 (50)-39, 100 (47)-74); Manish Jain (Rlys) bt Ahsan Ul-Haq (Ori) 3-0 (100 (42)-61, 100-96 (43), 100 (51)-30); Farhad Tengra (Mah) bt Rajat Khaneja (Chd) 3-0 (102-87, 102 (36)-72, 100-79); Ashok Shandilya (Rlys) bt Ahsan Ul-Haq (Ori) 3-0 (102 (53)-92, 101 (87)-2, 101 (50)-88); Sourav Kothari (PSPB) bt Manish Jain (Ben) 3-2 (87-100, 63 (60)-100 (60), 102 (63)-50 (50), 100 (58)-78, 100 (48)-2).

Group F: Siddharth Parikh (Rlys) bt Sasha Sambi (Kar) 3-0 (100-56, 100-60, 104 (74)-8); Shivam Arora (Bih) bt Malkeet Singh (UP) 3-2 (22-101 (57), 100-63, 97-101, 100-80, 101 (101)-9); Siddharth Parikh (Rlys) bt Malkeet Singh (UP) 3-0 (102 (98)-4, 102-32, 101 (101)-11); Rupesh Shah (PSPB) bt Shivam Arora (Bih) 3-0 (101 (50)-26, 101 (44)-78, 100 (88)-10).

Group G: Shyam Jagtiani (Ben) bt Mridul Das (Asm) 3-0 (102 (75)-4, 102 (58)-16, 101 (101)-5); Shakeel Ahmed (Ben) bt Rajesh Sharma (Del) 3-1 (66-100, 102-50, 100-15, 101-20); Devendra Joshi (PSPB) bt Rajesh Sharma (Del) 3-1 (101 (101)-63 (63), 101-35, 57-100, 100-19).

Group H: Parthiv Jhaveri (Guj) bt Vishal Madan (Mah) 3-0 (100-40, 100-85, 101-64); Vishal Madan (Mah) bt Rafath Habib (Rlys) 3-0 (102-16, 101-60, 100-36); Alok Kumar (PSPB) bt Parthiv Jhaveri (Guj) 3-0 (102 (83)-13, 102 (47)-58 (42), 100-42); K Venkatesham (Rlys) bt Himanshu Jain (AP) 3-0 (100 (47)-69, 100 (45, 48)-78, 102-59); Alok Kumar (PSPB) bt Rafath Habib (Rlys) 3-1 (100-25, 50-101, 101 (52)-15, 100 (44)-23); Parthiv Jhaveri (Guj) bt Himanshu Jain (AP) 3-0 (100 (75)-53, 100-56, 101-76).

Billiards: Women’s Pre-quarterfinals:

R Umadevi (Kar) bt Gayathri S (TN) 2-0 (51-10, 51-15); Meenal Thakur (Mah) bt Shilpa Shanthappa (Kar) 2-0 (51-09, 50-25); Keerath Bhandaal (Del) bt Jagruti Patel (Mah) 2-0 (50-04, 51-13); Varsha Sanjeev (Kar) bt Renu Barkatiya (MP) 2-0 (51-24, 50-14).

Preliminary round:

Indira Gowda (Kar) bt Soumini Srinivas (TN) 2-1 (37-52, 51-30, 50-37); Judy Walia (Kar) bt Asha (TN) 2-1 (36-52, 52-31, 51-43); Ashwini Puranik (MP) bt Aradhana Naik (Kar) 2-0 (50-18, 51-39); Varsha Sanjeev (Kar) bt Suniti Damani (Ben) 2-0 (51-32, 50-12).