Uttar Pradesh State Ranking Billiards & Snooker Tournament 2008

27 September 2008 - Allahabad

I.S. Malik - CSI Correspondent

Local star cueist and winner of the Meerut snooker state ranking tournament last month, Vinayak Agarwal  stole the limelight here on Saturday at the " Saras " airconditioned hall when on the 6th day of the 39th Uttar Pradesh billiards & snooker championship being sponsored by Kirti Trust and Bishop George school & college Allahabad, giving a polished display Vinayak entered the final of the snooker event being played under the auspices of the UP Billiards & Snooker Association.

Vinayak beat back the challenge of the young Moradabad cueist , Rahul Kapoor and more as he fashioned a three frames to one victory by 60-47, 72-44, 33-51 and 82-15 points with a good break of 41 in the fourth frame. Earlier in the last eight round, Vinayak had to fight tooth and nail to get the better of his " mentor " the Veteran Allahabad cueist, Raghoo Sinha in five fully extended frames. Raghoo won the first two frames but Vinayak brilliantly rallied back to pocket the third and fourth frames to draw level at 2-2. The deciding frame saw a ding dong battle with Vinayak finally managing to win the frame on the decisive black ball to win by 36-51, 37-67, 69-15, 96-01 and 60-47 points. The high point of this match was a superb break of 60 by Vinayak in the fourth frame.

Rahul Kapoor meanwhile shocked his much fancied team mate from Moradabad, Abhishek Raj in three straight frames by 62-31, 58-56 and 60-23 points. In fact once Abhishek had lost the second frame the writing was on the wall.  UP No.1 snooker player from Meerut , Nishit Prakash also had to struggle hard before getting past his compatriot, Shaizad Nambardar in five frames by 71-30, 50-23, 27-65, 28-68 and 70-49 points to enter the semifinals.

Anuj Bhargava, the state snooker champion and the UP No.2 player from Lucknow became the other cueist to qualify for the semifinals where he takes on Nishit Prakash for the right to clash with Vinayak Agarwal in the snooker final slated for Sunday afternoon. Anuj beat Rahul Arora of Moradabad in four frames by 54-28, 66-57, 18-92 and 56-53 points to emerge a winner.