Uttar Pradesh State Ranking Billiards & Snooker Tournament 2008

26 September 2008 - Allahabad

I.S. Malik - CSI Correspondent

Stylish cueist from Moradabad, Abhishek Raj who finished as the Runner-up in the Meerut State ranking snooker event last month again gave a sterling performance on Friday at the " SARAS " situated air conditioned billiards hall here on the fifth day of the 39th Uttar Pradesh billiards & snooker state championship being played under the auspices of the UP Billiards & Snooker Association.

Abhishek beat the suave Meerut cueist Shaurab Chaudhary in three well contested frames by 36-63, 59-21 and 80-08 points in the snooker event of the Kirti Trust & Bishop George School & College, Allahabad competition rallying back from a first frame deficit by bagging the second frame to make it 1-1 and then raising his game a notch further to chalk up a well constructed break of 48 points to win the frame and match topping his group in the process.

In another important tie between two leading players, UP snooker No 1 cueist from Meerut, Nishit Prakash kept his nerve to withstand the strong challenge of local hope Vinayak Agarwal in three frames by 58-12, 01-98 and 63-29 points to top his group. With Nishit taking the first frame for a 1-0 lead, Vinayak suddenly struck a purple patch to strike breaks of 54 and 34 to pocket the second,  restoring parity with the frame tied at 1-1 but Nishit held his cool and playing in a determined manner prevailed over Vinayak in the third to win the match which saw Vinayak a spent out performer in the decider.

State billiards champion, Raghoo Sinha beat Shaizad Nambardar of Meerut in straight frames to record an impressive 49-19 and 58-03 points victory while Rahul Kapoor of Moradabad scored a facile straight frames victory over Vivek Nichwani of Agra by 68-33 and 49-41 points to top his group as he had earlier on beat Aligarh's Imran Khan by 43-57, 64-50 and 70-48 in a fiercely contested match which saw Imran coming unstuck at vital stages of the tie and Kapoor capitalized well to snatch victory.

Shaizad Nambardar of Meerut had the satisfaction of qualifying from his group when he drubbed the Lucknow cueist, Vinish Roberts in straight frames by 86-06 and 54-42 points Abdul Rehman of Aligarh was at the receiving end on this day losing first to Vinayak Agarwal who won in straight frames by 86-22 and 55-43 points while in another match Malkeet Singh beat Abdul Rehman in three frames by 54-41, 63-65 and 49-39 points in a match which actually should have been wrapped up by Malkeet in straight frames but for a crucial lapse on the black ball in the second frame which allowed Abdul to wrest the second frame.