Uttar Pradesh State Ranking Billiards & Snooker Tournament 2008

22 August 2008 - Meerut

by I.S. Malik - Media Coordinator

Defending Uttar Pradesh State billiards champion, Raghoo Sinha of Allahabad won the billiards title of the State ranking B.L. Arora Memorial billiards & snooker tournament being played under the auspices of the UP Billiards & Snooker Association  here at the Alexander Club when in a one sided billiards final Raghoo beat the young challenger from Lucknow, Anuj Bhargava by 620-379 points in a two hour match which saw Anuj the promising youngster giving off his best to offer resistance to the Veteran Maestro of the State but obviously even his best fell short to even contain Raghoo let alone a proper fight.

As if responding to this performance of Raghoo he has been invited by the Karnataka State Billiards Association as a probable for the forthcoming World billiards championship being played in India in Bangalore from the 1to 10th September at the KSBA Air Conditioned Hall. Raghoo is to report to the hosts by 28th August as the selection trials for the Points format championship takes place on the 29th and for the time format on the 30th August, 2008 which is a matter of great pride as he is the first cueist of Uttar Pradesh to be invited for world billiards trials ever.

On Friday morning meanwhile the snooker event of the state rankings also got under way. In the most exciting match of the afternoon, young Malkeet Singh of Lucknow, the State Sub-Junior champion of the state quelled the strong challenge of  Aligarh snooker champion, Imran Khan in three frames which had the spectators on the edge of their seats till the last.

Malkeet won the first and when he led by 63-05 in the second it seemed the match was all over but Imran had other ideas. Striking a purple patch he chalked up a clearance break of 63 potting 6 reds with colours and then one by one pocketing all colours from yellow to black snatching the frame to restore the score parity at 1-1in a superb display of sound potting and excellent cue-ball control.

However , in a great show of good nerves, Malkeet tied at 51-51 on the blue stage of the colours cleared the blue, pink and black balls in a trance to pip his more experienced rival to breast the tape in a photo finish  by 69-38, 63-68 and 69-51 points. Dashing Saurabh Chaudhary of the hosts gave a shock to the state snooker champion from Lucknow in three frames in another close tie by 67-32, 37-61 and 57 -48 winning on the deciding last ball, the black, in a real cliff-hanger.

Moradabad star, Abhishek Raj had to fight hard to put it across Shaizad Nambardar in three frames finally winning by 46-35, 41-71 and 73-24 points while the Agra boy Adarsh made a strong debut when he edged out Aligarh's Abdul Rehman in three frames by 54-47, 26-51 and 50-44 points.

In other one sided matches which were decided in straight frames, UP No.1 snooker player of the hosts, Nishit Prakash beat the Veteran from Allahabad, Raghoo Sinha by 76-55 and 72-45 points whereas in another tie Rahul Arora the State No 3 player from Moradabad drubbed Lucknow's debutante, Vinish Roberts by 64-27 and 60-11 aided by a break of 30 which sealed the fate of a rather explosive Roberts.

Vinayak Agarwal the snooker star of Allahabad was in good form even though he had to bring out his best to thwart the determined Daanish Azeem of Moradabad before he fashioned a 24-59, 64-34 and 71-09 points victory. In fact it was the crucial break of 30 which helped Vinayak take the second frame and then follow it up with a clinical performance in the deciding third frame to down Daanish eventually.