Prakash Rajani was a pleased man on Thursday. The main draw matches of the HSBC Premier Shyam Shroff memorial snooker tournament began at the sixth floor hall of the gymkhana. It was the first function at the swank hall.

Prakash, who heads the cue sports dept has been one of Mumbai's best billiards players belonging to the Wilson Jones era. The 71-year-old Prakash who once won the Bhogilal Shah Challenge Cup at PJ Hindu Gymkhana, said, "I saw Shyam from the first day when he played at the club in the 50s. I had known him from PJ Hindu Gymkhana where I played. He also played at Park Club."

Rajani added, "Shyam was among the finest cue players I have seen. He switched from billiards to snooker because of the presence of Wilson Jones and Mike Ferreira. He won seven national titles in era when there were stars like Tony Monteiro, Girish Parikh, Babu Komti and Arvind Savur. He then coached several juniors, giving a lot back to the game."

Khar has had a great tradition for cue sports. I remember my father Khanderao talking about Vasoo Jayakar who was an allrounder and played billiards well. He had a table at his home. Prakash Rajani remembered watching Vasoo as a youngster Ram, Santosh,Prakash and Nanu were the four brothers who played cricket and cue sports for Khar Gymkhana. Other players of their era were Jaya Chaubal, Diwanji. In later years came  the likes of Santosh Gulwadi, Raju Samtani, Raju Mehta, the current secretary, Sandeep Mehta, Yasin Merchant, Subhash Deora, Rishab Thakkar.

Yasin  Merchant had beaten UK Pro David Taylor in a Shroff benefit tournament held by Khar in the 90s. Said Merchant, "Shroff's mantra was play more talk less and I benefited from that. He was more of a guide for me than a coach" Yasin, who is in charge of the running of the event, played the first match of the main draw under tube lights. He could barely see the sweet spot as the reflection of about 15 lights was there on the ball. "Only by experience did I strike the ball," said Yasin who beat Khar player  Damania. The halogen lights were out on later.

Aditya Mehta was up against Aman Kohli the second best after Yasin at Khar. He played good snooker led Mehta till he had a foul and miss and a free ball was grabbed by Aditya to win. In the second also Aman came out of snooker and sold the  red and Aditya finished.

Ashok Shandilya was a lucky loser as he got a chance in the main draw when Brijesh Damania dropped owing to family reasons. Four from the qualifiers made it and Ashok had lost in the final qualifying but made it when lots favoured him.

The HSBC Bank are using the event for their promotion and as the stars begin shining the event will give plenty back to them.