Snooker Nationals: Darmendra Lily shines on day one

Darmendra Lily started on a brilliant note when he recorded a 40-minute victory over Hitesh Sethi, as the main draw of the National Snooker Championship began here on Monday.

Devendra Joshi had a good day at the office with a 3-1 victory over Jaswinder Singh

Darmendra Lily started on a brilliant note when he recorded a 40-minute victory over Hitesh Sethi, as the main draw of the National Snooker Championship began here on Monday.

A veteran on the circuit, Lily appeared in an ominous form which was evident in his 3-0 triumph (66-16, 96-7, 109-2). In contrast, Varun Madan was engaged in a cliff hanger against Khizar Raoof. Madan won 3-2 after twice taking the lead and keeping his composure in the decoder that came his way by a 65-33 verdict.

Devendra Joshi worked hard for a 3-1 win against Jaswinder Singh (65-51, 52- 56, 63-16, 95-29) and Himanshu Jain got past Bhargav Lakhar 3-1 (81-17, 50-55, 59-45, 74-1).

Lucky Vatnani overcame Rahil Bhat 3-1. A break of 51 put him on course in the opening frame (88-29) before losing the second 39- 59 to level at 1 -1. But Vatnani came up with a superb break of 74 to win the next frame 94-0. He won the fourth frame 66-36 to clinch the contest.

Kamal Chawla, not at his best in his first outing, came up with an encouraging 3-0 win over Arjun Divan (61- 12, 64- 17, 60-10) while Malkeet Singh defeated Ankit Kumar 3-0 (60-19, 67-1, 55-14). He had a break of 58 in the second frame.

Ketan Chawla emerged a 3-0 winner against Vinod Karker with frame scores of (66- 23, 68-23, 64-22).