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National Billiards & Snooker Championship 2008 - Indore
Yeshwant Club
Race Course Road - Indore - 452 003 - Madhya Pradesh
30 November 2008
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Pankaj Advani with 'Double Crown' again
following the footmark of
Maestro Geet Sethi
By
I.S. Malik
The Billiards Maestro Geet Sethi, became the only player in Indian Nationals to pocket 'National Double Crown' of Billiards & Snooker four times in a row from 1985 to 1988. Now after 20 years, the wonder boy, Pankaj Advani seems to be following the same tradition, and has successfully pocketed second time the Double Crown here at the Yeshwant Club, Indore when he beat Geet Sethi (in Billiards on 20 December) and Manan Chandra (in snooker today)
It was a grand double of double's by the ace cueist of the country. Pankaj had recorded a double of the National billiards as well as the snooker titles in the last championship held in Hyderabad last year and he repeated the act here for the second successive time. Vidya Pillai of Tamil Nadu also repeated her act of retaining the Ladies snooker title last won in the 2007 Nationals in Hyderabad by beating Chitra Magimairaj of Karnataka in the final.
Pankaj began his defence of the title with a solid break of 60 in the first frame of the best of 11 match neutralizing the 54 made by Manan in the same frame. The loss of this frame gave the psychological edge to Pankaj who never looked back.
Playing a game of tight safety play, not taking any wild chances he upset the rhythm of the flowing strokes which hitherto Manan was displaying.
Potting with absolute precision, Pankaj dominated the show which saw Manan in a rare subdued mood. His normally effortless style of play stiffled. The positive manner was missing as the champion strode his success associated with the achievers.
Pankaj leading by 4-0 relaxed his grip only a trifle in the fifth which Manan won but that was about all as Pankaj was back with a well compiled 52 in the sixth completing the formality of winning by following it up with an easily pocketed seventh frame.
Once again Pankaj has demonstrated that whenever the need to raise his game arises he is not found wanting. He is truly blessed by the divine for sure because winning relentlessly and more importantly keeping your head still firmly fixed squarely on your shoulders is a rare trait. The country and all sportsmen particularly those associated with cuesports must revel in the joy and humility which he brings along with his continued success on the "green baize". Pankaj won by 74-63, 55-12, 62-23, 61-31, 37-64, 73-00 and 70-16 points.
The Ladies snooker title fight between Vidya and Chitra was in stark contrast. With both the ladies unwilling to take any chances the match was so defensively played that at the end of the grueling five frames the referee was congratulated more for his patient and efficient handling of the tense moments rather than the champion.
However, the tie did have some interesting and keen snooker tactical play by the top 2 lady cueists of the country. The first four frames went in a ding dong manner. Vidya winning the first and the third while Chitra leveled scores at 2-2 by taking the second and fourth frames. The fifth and deciding frame saw both the players very nervous missing sitters. Eventually Vidya was the luckier of the two. Chitra had to remain content with the role of the bridesmaid rather than the bride.
It may be recalled that last week Chitra had lost the fight for the billiards title to her state mate, Uma Devi. She will have to do some soul searching before being able to break this jinx which is now becoming very pronounced. Vidya won in the end by 71-07, 43-44, 66-36, 37-72 and 59-47 points.
The prize distribution was done by the newly elected President of the MP Billiards & Snooker Association, Her Highness, Yashodhara Raje Scindia, Member of Parliament in the presence of the President, BSFI, Capt. PVK Mohan.