Sport - Billiards & Snooker   

Alok still means business

By Kirti Patil

Alok Kumar in action against Rishabh Thakkar in the senior National billiards championship in Jammu on Saturday. — Photo: Sandeep Saxena

JAMMU JAN. 11. A fluke setback in the snooker Nationals has not deterred the versatile Alok Kumar. In a much-hyped group league match against Rishabh Thakkar, Alok countered the challenge, with a solid demonstration of ball control, to prevail 780-447.

Jai Ganesh was involved in a tantalisingly close match with Railways' Siddharth Parikh, which he lost by mere two points. Nonetheless, both the players qualified for the pre-quarterfinals from Group `F'.

With just a day remaining in the league matches, a few group positions got clear. Alok and Rishabh qualified from Group `B' while Devendra Joshi and Nitin Kohli made it from Group `C'.

Seasoned Shyam Jagtiani surprised the seventh seeded Dharminder Lilly in Group `G' to make it to the pre-quarterfinals.

Elsewhere, title contender Dhruv Sitwala continued with his marauding form to finish as Group `H' topper. Playing against Orissa junior Subrat Das, Sitwala had breaks of 63, 100, 122, 50, 96 and 117 as he won 867-126.

In Group `C', Pankaj Advani maintained his winning form despite some gimmicks used by `friends' of his opponent, Vishal Madan of Railways.

The results:

Group A: Jaswinder Singh (Raj) bt Ami Lal (Del) 496-360; Ashok Shandilya (Rly) w/o Parthiv Jhaveri (Guj).

Group B: Ajay Rehani (Del) bt S.T. Bhutia (Ben) 489-430; Bhutia (Ben) bt Gautam Lakra (J & K) 547-463; Alok Kumar (Pun) bt Rishabh Thakkar (Mah) 780-447.

Group C: S. Mumtaz Ali (Bih) bt Kamal Rohmetra (J & K) 556-413; Kamal Rohmetra w/o Lucky Vatnani (A.P.).

Group D: Pankaj Advani (Kar) bt Vishal Madan (Rly) 522-450; Amit Gulati (Har) bt Ganeshi Lal (HP) 512-231; Ganeshi Lal w/o Rajesh Parwani (Raj).

Group E: Rafath Habib (Rly) bt A. Haque (Ori) 602-423; Gagandeep Singh (Har) w/o Rupesh Shah (Guj); A. Haque w/o Farooq Ibrahim (A.P.); Gagandeep Singh w/o Farooq Ibrahim; Rupesh Shah w/o D. Bhuvneshwaran (TN).

Group F: Siddharth Parikh (Rly) bt Manoj Kothari (Ben) 684-433; Siddharth Parikh bt Jai Ganesh (TN) 503-501; Manoj Kothari w/o Achint Verma (Pun).

Group G: Shyam Jagtiani (Rly) bt Dharminder Lilly (Pun) 647-403; Dharminder Lilly bt Neeraj Kumar (Bih) 831-462; Shyam Jagtiani w/o Gaurav Nagpal (Cha).

Group H: Dhruv Sitwala (Rly) bt Subrat Das (Ori) 867-126; Kamal Chawla (MP) w/o Antim Singhi (Rly).

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