The Asian Games gold medallist in snooker displayed a fine touch, good positioning and aggressive potting to win his maiden 9-Ball title. S. Sabanayakan reports.
That the newly introduced events in cue sports, the 8-Ball and 9-Ball pool games, are gaining in popularity was evident at the National Championships — sponsored by the ONGC-Spring Club — in Kolkata recently. Three of the four champions, Meenal Thakur of Maharashtra (8-Ball), Anuja Chandra of PSPB (9-Ball) and Rafath Habib of Railways (9-Ball), won their maiden titles, while Manan Chandra of PSPB (8-Ball) claimed his second crown.
In the 9-Ball pool, which is more popular than the 8-Ball event, Rafath Habib defeated Sumeet Talwar of Chandigarh in the final. Rafath is a thoroughbred snooker player, while Talwar is a hardcore pool player. Rafath, the Asian Games gold medallist in snooker, used all his experience to subdue Talwar. He displayed a fine touch, good positioning and aggressive potting to take an insurmountable lead of 10-1 in the final. Talwar managed to recover a bit, pulling back to 10-5, but it was only so much that Rafath would allow his challenger to do.
The 8-Ball pool final, on the other hand, was a nerve-wracking one. Manan Chandra, a former champion, had to draw deep from his experience to edge out Kamal Chawla of Railways 9-7 for the title.
In a match-up between two immaculate potters, Chandra was careful while opening up a 4-2 lead. Chawla did make it 4-4 but Chandra surged ahead again to 7-4 and thereafter maintained it till the end. Chawla failed to capitalise on some easy openings. Chandra, on the other hand, held his nerve to rack-out successfully.
With five 9-Ball titles under his belt, Chandra seems to have a penchant for pool games. He is the only player to have won the National titles in snooker, 8-Ball and 9-Ball pool events at the same time. Many still wonder why he has not been able to make a mark in the international pool circuit. According to the National coach, S. Jairaj, it is probably because of the light snooker cue with a thin tip that Chandra still uses to play pool games, which have heavier and bigger balls.
The Kolkata Nationals, in a way, was a happy hunting ground for the Chandras. Manan Chandra’s wife Anuja won her maiden 9-Ball women’s title, while his sister-in-law, Meenal Thakur of Maharashtra, claimed her maiden 8-Ball crown.
Anuja of PSPB defeated Indira Gowda of Karnataka 5-1 for the 9-Ball title; Meenal swamped Vidya Pillai of Tamil Nadu 5-0 in the 8-Ball final.
Anuja, who won the Arjuna Award for billiards and snooker in 2006, became the only player to have won all the National crowns in cue sports, men and women included. She had won the 8-Ball National title last year.
Anuja now has 11 titles to her credit, including six in billiards and three in snooker.
The ResultsMen’s 9-Ball pool final: Rafath Habib (Rly) bt Sumeet Talwar (Chandigarh) 11-5. 3rd place: Shahbaaz Khan (PSPB) bt Faisal Khan (Bengal) 7-5.
8-Ball final: Manan Chandra (PSPB) bt Kamal Chawla (Rly) 9-7.
3rd place: Rafath Habib (Rly) bt Alok Kumar (PSPB) 5-3.
Women’s 9-Ball final: Anuja Chandra (PSPB) bt Indira Gowda
(Kar) 5-1.8-Ball final: Meenal Thakur (Mah) bt Vidya Pillai (TN) 5-0.
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