Sport - Billiards & Snooker   

Double delight for Pankaj Advani

By Our Sports Reporter

Pankaj Advani proudly displays the billiards shield which he won on Sunday and the snooker trophy that he added to his collection on Monday in Jammu in the junior National championship.

JAMMU DEC. 30. Pankaj Advani is on a roll. Pankaj captures his space on the green baize table with authority and peerless performance.

On Monday, Pankaj defended his junior National snooker title at the Hari Niwas Palace here, and on the way set aside a seemingly difficult record.

Earlier in the day, Bengal cueist Sourav Kothari had crafted a table-clearing break of 133. In a kind of scenario where Pankaj was accumulating all the trophies, Sourav seemed to have confirmed at least one accolade for himself. But, it was not to be.

On his first visit to the table after Rishab Thakkar broke the bunch, Pankaj chose the pink first and then arrayed a mix of nine blacks, three blues, a brown and another pink before clearing the table.

A massive unfinished break of 136 left the motley audience spellbound.

Pankaj's face was glowing. Naturally, Pankaj had achieved what he had dreamt of. His 136 is only third best by an Indian at the National championship. Geet Sethi had 147 at the 1988 Guntur Nationals and Sonic Multani had 140 at Indore 1993.

In the last league match, Pankaj found a whipping boy in Rishab. Sourav had made 133 against Rishab and Pankaj chose the same player to stamp his authority. Not that Rishab is a weak player, but it was just that day when nothing seemed to work in his favour.

However, Sourav defeated fancied Aditya Mehta 57-29, 57-56, 11-62, 74-14, 16-60, 65-20 and took the runner-up position. Aditya finished third while winless Rishab was fourth.

Meanwhile, Railways' Siddharth Parekh and Varun Taneja, Anuj Uppal of Delhi and Sourav Kothari made it to the main draw of senior National snooker tournament, which commences on Tuesday.

Forty-two players are in the fray, including the defending champion, Alok Kumar and former Asian champion Yasin Merchant.

The results:

Final league: Sourav Kothari (Ben) bt Rishab Thakkar (Mah) 79-9, 97-7, 60-9, 133-0; Pankaj Advani (Kar) bt Aditya Mehta (Mah) 48-60, 46-85, 65-19, 101-4, 65-9, 38-58, 75-10; Pankaj Advani bt Rishab Thakkar 67-8, 72-20, 42-68, 136-0, 93-7; Sourav Kothari bt Aditya Mehta 57-29, 57-56, 11-62, 74-14, 19-60, 65-20.

Senior snooker qualifying:

Semifinals: Siddharth Parekh (Rly) bt Munish Kukreja (MP) 78-45, 61-39, 71-31; Varun Taneja (Rly) bt Aditya Mehta 55-38, 52-40, 58-17; Anuj Uppal (Del) bt Mukesh Rehani (Del) 60-41, 87-12, 52-71, 50-33; Sourav Kothari bt Wasim Ahmed (TN) 69-47, 76-59, 11-60, 36-68, 68-2.

Quarterfinals: Siddharth Parekh bt Rishab Thakkar 73-22, 62-69, 56-67, 62-47, 57-47; Anuj Uppal bt Ramesh Tiwary (Ben) 87-13, 62-44, 65-41; Munish Kukreja bt Umar Himayun (J & K) 56-30, 82-27, 67-38; Varun Taneja bt M. Senthil (TN) 76-4, 67-56, 52-7; Aditya Mehta bt Jaideep Manocha (J & K) 70-41, 45-55, 61-31, 65-51; Mukesh Rehani bt Karan Sharda (Mah) 74-47, 48-68, 77-16, 68-48.

Second round: Mukesh Rehani bt J. Varun (TN) 70-23, 95-0, 109-32; Wasim Ahmed bt Jose Mon (Pun) 28-58, 65-39, 78-44, 58-24.

Senior National Snooker:

The groupings:

Group `A': Alok Kumar (Pun), Parthiv Jhaveri (Guj), K. Jhanjharya (MP), Manish Behl (UP), Abhijoy Ghose (HP), Abhimanyu Arora (J & K).

Group `B': Dharminder Lilly (Pun), Pankaj Advani (Kar), R. Loganathan (TN), Jeet Das (Ori), Deepak Goel (Har), Jaswinder Singh (Raj).

Group `C': Yasin Merchant (Mah), Kamal Rohmetra (J & K), Farooq Ibrahim (AP), Shivam Arora (Bih), Harpreet (HP).

Group `D': Rishabh Thukral (Del), Brijesh Damani (Ben), Deepak Kamra (UP), Manav Dhawan (Chd), Aman Bhasin (Har).

Group `E': Rafath Habib (Rly), Lucky Vatnani (AP), S. T. Bhutia (Ben), Atul Chomal (Raj), Qualifier.

Group `F': Shyam Jagtiani (Rly), Ashish Dhanda (Pun), Vishal Abrol (J and K), Vinay Katrela (Kar), Qualifier.

Group `G': Rupesh Shah (Guj), Sandeep Duggal (Chd), Kamal Chawla (MP), Neeraj Kumar (Bih), Qualifier.

Group `H': Devendra Joshi (Mah), A. Haque (Ori), Jai Ganesh (TN), Rajat Taneja (Del), Qualifier.

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