Sport
-
Billiards & Snooker
Anuja's brilliance to the fore
By Kirti Patil
Shereen Bano of AP who beat Cynthia Mukherjee of Bengal is a picture of concentration, in the 10th Women's National billiards championship at Ahmedabad on Saturday. -- Photo: Paras Shah
AHMEDABAD, JAN. 5. Anuja Thakur has made scoring off cannons a habit. She demonstrated that skill in the first match of the day, and announced her intentions of retaining the title she won at Chennai last year.
Opening with a break of 27 points, the Maharashtra cueist warmed herself up with a 50-30, 50-25 win against Soumini S. of Tamil Nadu, in a Group `A' preliminary league match of the 10th Women's National billiards championship here on Saturday.
The 19-year-old Anuja faced no great opposition from Soumini, who won her first point only on the sixth visit. Potting red with remarkable ease, Anuja showed that she was by far the best among the women players.
The 27-day green baize championship opened at the Ellis Bridge Gymkhana with 17 women competing for the billiards trophy. The runner-up of the Chennai edition, Pooja Galundia of Rajasthan, was a notable absentee.
As Pooja gave a skip to the championship, Jagruti Patel of Maharashtra was drafted in at the eleventh hour. Though Jagruti prefers snooker, she decided to try her hand with the three-ball sport.
Pitched against her Statemate Neeta Sanghvi in the first preliminary round, Jagruti played well in the Group `B'. The first game was a close affair with Jagruti leading 41-37 after 20 visits by each player. With the scores tantalisingly close, Neeta came up with a winning break of 13 to close the first game.
Using her snooker skills to the optimum, Jagruti, wife of billiards pro Nalin Patel, won the second to take the fight into the third game. In the decider, both had their chances, but Neeta was helped by her slender lead before she eventually won 51-48.
But, on day one, it was Sri Devi of Karnataka who led Group `B' with two wins from as many matches. She first defeated Renu Barkhatiya of Madhya Pradesh 50-22, 52-24 and then had a 51-15, 51-48 victory over Kamala C. Babu of Tamil Nadu.
Meenal Thakur of Maharashtra and Lavanya of Tamil Nadu, qualified for the quarterfinals with ease when three players from Group `D' failed to report.
The results:
Group `A': Anuja Thakur (Mah) bt Soumini S. (TN) 50-30, 50-25; Shereen Bano (AP) bt Cynthia Mukherjee (Ben) 50-26, 50-33; Chitra M. (Kar) bt Cynthia Mukherjee (Ben) 50-13, 51-16; Chitra M. (Kar) bt Shereen Bano (AP) 51-21, 52-30.
Group `B': Neeta Sanghvi (Mah) bt Jagruti Patel (Mah) 50-41, 36-51, 51-48; Sri Devi T.V. (Kar) bt Renu Bharkatiya (MP) 50-22, 52-24; Sri Devi (Kar) bt Kamala C. Babu (TN) 51-15, 51-48, Renu Bharkatiya (MP) bt Kamala C. Babu (TN) 50-48, 44-51, 51-40.
Group `C': Mehjabeen Raza (AP) bt Saranya (TN) 50-45, 44-51, 58-28; Uma Devi R. (Kar) bt Ashwini Puranik (MP) 52-26, 37-50, 51-29, Heena Khandelwal (Mah) bt Mehjabeen Raza (AP) 41-51, 51-24, 50-25.
Group `D': Meenal Thakur w/o Lakshmi S. (Kar); Lavanya (TN) w/o Lakshmi S. (Kar).
Send this article to Friends by
E-Mail
Sport
|
