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National Billiards & Snooker Championship 2008 - Indore
Yeshwant Club
Race Course Road - Indore - 452 003 - Madhya Pradesh
Manan
casts a century spell
By I.S. Malik
Pankaj repeats win over Aditya
By Pradeep Vijayakar
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Manan casts
a century spell
By I.S. Malik
Delhi based Petroleum Sports Promotion Board debonair cueist, Manan Chandra was the toast of the appreciative audience at the Yeshwant Club here on Friday evening on the 21st day of the 2008 Indian National billiards & snooker championship being held at the Yeshwant Club, Indore.
Starting off well with a 54 in his first frame, Manan suddenly lapsed into errors to lose the second frame but then he was in a trance. Timing his Cue-delivery perfectly well, he suddenly exploded into his own, recording a break of a 100 in the third and then in a incredible manner just took to the winds to make another century break of 104 on the way to subjugate Kamal Chawla of Railways by 69-08, 08-84, 100-00, 113-15, 72-63 and 64-30 points. Manan was simply flowing, potting neatly and with precision to dominate the match.
Pankaj Advani the reigning champion and Manan's mate in PSPB, playing with another top cueist also of PSPB, Aditya Mehta was also in cracking form to get the better of another team mate, Aditya Mehta by 88-41, 42-69, 45-56, 58-56, 119-14, 58-25 and 81-53 points to move upto the semis alongwith Manan. Although the two cueists were evenly matched it was the ability to finish the match and the better safety play of Pankaj which fetched him the match on this day.
However the performance of two Kolkata players was the talking point at the venue. Kolkata based PSPB player, Sourav Kothari and Brijesh Damani were the players who entered the semis alongwith Pankaj and Manan.
Sourav withstood the tactical ploy of fellow PSPB cueist from Mandi Gobindgarh in Punjab, Alok Kumar to wear him down by 44-75, 57-21, 80-50, 62-52, 48-52 and 65-09 points in a grueling match while Damani came out tops in his clash with fellow Kolkata player of PSPB, Shahbaz Khan by 82-38, 33-75, 88-21, 111-12, 54-67, 55-44, 28-70 and 78-37 points to make the last four.
In the Ladies section Neeta Sanghvi of Maharashtra, just managed to override an unlucky Suniti Damani of West Bengal in straight frames by 65-18 and 50-43 points while Anuja Thakur was too good for the young 13 year old, Keerat Bhandaal of Delhi by 67-19 and 68-28 points. Neeta Sanghvi later put it across Karnataka's Indira Hegde in three frames to enter the last 16 stage. Neeta won by 53-12, 48-57 and 56-25 points while in another hard fought three frames match Sangeeta Hemchand of Maharashtra defeated with a struggle Ashwini Puranik of the hosts, Madhya Pradesh by 48-38, 59-69 and 57-36 points.
Earlier in the afternoon Geet Sethi almost upset the reigning champion, Pankaj Advani in the Seniors snooker when he led by 3-2 frames match in the best of 7 quarter finals but a superb late surge by Pankaj chalking up a break of 72 in the seventh and last frame helped him in warding off the great challenge of Geet. Pankaj also recorded a fine break of 109 in the third frame on way to victory.
Pankaj repeats win over Aditya
By Pradeep
Vijayakar
Defending champion Pankaj Advani successfully tackled the challenge of professional Aditya Mehta beating him by 5-3 to enter the snooker semi-finals of the 75th National Billiards and Snooker Championship being held at Yeshwant Club here. It was a repeat of last year's final.
Advani's safety was of a high order. Aditya's was not. Every time he tried to
play safe he found the ball ending up on the mouth of the pocket. The end of the
mouth-watering clash between a former world champ and India's only professional,
was symptomatic of the trend. After Pankaj missed a simple brown with the score
53-66, Aditya in trying to lay a snooker left the colour on the centre pocket
fringe for Pankaj to finish.
From the other half Manan Chandra marched into the last four with an impressive
5-1 win over Railways' Kamal Chawla who had put out former champ Rupesh Shah in
the last 16. Manan, who had back to back centuries in the second and third
frames had routed Yasin Merchant 4-0 earlier. There were six players from
Petroleum Sports Promotion Board in the last eight.
Said Aditya: "The roll of the balls was not so good. Whenever I tried safety,
something else happened." Pankaj said: "Both had equal chances. My winning the
two frames after being 1-2 down was crucial." He agreed that the close match
against Geet Sethi earlier helped condition him for this big clash. The round of
16 saw maestros Yasin Merchant and Geet Sethi crashing out in contrasting
manner.
Recent World Masters snooker finalist Sethi had a 3-2 lead against Pankaj Advani
but paid the price for indecision which allowed Advani to get away. Yasin struck
his worst-ever nationals form being blanked 4-0 by Manan Chandra. After five
days we had the first century of the event, by Aditya Mehta, a 105, which was
marked by a fluked green when he was 27.Pankaj Advani when hit an unfinished
109. Manan Chandra then hit his two back-to-back centuries.
Geet Sethi made Friday memorable when he doubled the pink into the pocket for
a black-ball win in the fifth frame. Said Advani about his match with Geet:
"Maybe we took too long a break. He's only beaten me once in snooker, in an
invitational tournament."
Said Yasin: "I had my chances in every frame but
didn't take them. It was as if my job was cut to pick up the balls and hand to
Manan," said Yasin for whom this was a dubious first--losing at the
pre-quarter-final stage for the first time in his career. Did Manan remember
winning so easily? "I think I once beat him 3-0."
Double junior champ Shahbaaz Khan, of BPCL, carried his form into the seniors beating Lucky Vatnani 4-3 in the second-most thriller of the pre-quarter-finals. "He is a natural player and his success rate of potting was better," said Indian team coach Manoj Kothari from Shahbaaz's state of West Bengal, whose son Sourav also made it as well as state mate Brijesh Damani.
Mumbai had four women making it to the last 16 of senior snooker including the
CCI mother-daughter duo of Neeta and Neha Sanghavi. Neeta topped her group with
a black-ball tie win over Suniti Damani. Willingdon's Sangeeta Hemchand also
topped her group after a long-drawn three-and-a half hour battle against Ashwini
Puranik. Meenal Thakur was the fourth qualifier topping her group.
Title holder Vidya Pillai and Anuja Chandra are the favourites of the title. The
last women's 16 line-up: Meenal Thakur vs Neha Sanghavi; Ashwini Puranik vs
Vidya Pillai; Anuja Thakur vs Neeta Kothari; Sunita Damani vs Arantxa Sanchis
Chitra Magimairaj vs Indira Gowda; Keerat Bhandal vs Neeta Sanghavi; Sangeeta
Hemchand; Neena Parvin vs Uma Devi
Earlier in the morning, Maharashtra's youngster, Rishab Pandya had frustrated the Delhi snooker player, Sandeep Gulati in six frames by 67-20, 43-55, 18-55, 85-39. 63-40 and 76-27 points. Actually, Gulati was the one who led by 2-1 at the half way stage of the match but Pandya potting with flair took the next three frames in a row to put the issue beyond doubt. All winners of the day now enter the more exacting round of 16.