Uttar Pradesh State Ranking Billiards & Snooker Tournament 2008

24 September 2008 - Allahabad

I.S. Malik - CSI Correspondent

Fifty seven year old Veteran cueist of Allahabad, Raghoo Sinha  retained his Uttar Pradesh State billiards title for a record fourth time in a row here at the "SARAS" situated billiards hall on Wednesday evening when he outclassed promising cueist of Lucknow, Anuj Bhargava in the billiards final of the 39^th UP State billiards & snooker championship being played under the auspices of the UP Billiards & Snooker Association here by 731-346 points in a  two hour match.

On the third day of the seven day competition on the "green baize" sponsored by Kirti Trust and the Bishop George School & College, Raghoo virtually ran away with the match, which was a repeat of the State ranking billiards meet held in Meerut last month where also Raghoo beat Anuj for the title.

On this day once Raghoo had struck an early break of 60 within the first twenty minutes of play he was in no trouble whatsoever. Anuj played quite well within his limititations but obviously the effort was not enough to make any impression on the outcome of the match which was a cake – walk for the defending champion. Raghoo will now represent the State in the forthcoming Indore Nationals which will be an eighteenth appearance for the Psychology Professor from Allahabad University.

For Anuj who was beaten fair and square however, it is indeed a great achievement to become the State No. 2 billiards player of the state as he has just started playing billiards seriously since last year and to be in the reckoning for the Nationals from the state is in itself a rare feat.

In one of the billiards semifinals, Anuj outplayed Aligarh champion, Manish Behl by 391-264 points in a 90 minutes tie which saw the winner in full cry and in complete command of the situation even if Manish did fight valiantly. The other semifinal between Raghoo Sinha and Rahul Arora of Moradabad was a good match where Rahul hung on stoically till the last offering a strong challenge to the champion but in the end Raghoo was in no trouble as he won with a degree of comfort.

Earlier in a quarter final,  Manish beat Meerut’s Prateek Gopal Sharma by 359-261 points, a tie in which Prateek was found wanting. Manish won with aplomb.

In another last eight match between Moradabad cueists, Rahul Arora won over Rahul Kapoor in a close contest winning by 330-279 points to enter the semifinal and have the pleasure of facing the champion while Manish set up a clash with Anuj.

Meanwhile the snooker event also began today with Lucknow’s Vinish Roberts giving a good potting display to down the Aligarh player, Manish Behl in 3 frames by 40-50, 50-31 and 70-39 points while in another match between Moradabad Cueists, Rahul Arora defeated his mate, Rahul Kapoor in straight frames by 59-26 and 64-29 points. The feature of Arora’s victory was a superb break of 48 in the second frame on way to his fine victory.