Indian Billiards Thread ...

[jaydeep]

Pankaj and Yasin Merchant participated in men event ... Yasin failed to qualify for knock-out stage ... But other hand Pankaj won all his matches in Group E and that recieved him seeding with first round bye.

In second round he had tough challenge from Joaker, who stretched him to the fullest ... In round three he sored comfortable win against Afgani opponent ... In quarter he is facing Malaysian.

In women event our four women in knockout stage ... Uma Devi lost in first round ... Anuja lost close match against Hong Kong player in quarters ... Chitra couldn't match Vidya ... Now in semis Vidya is facing Ng On Yee

At IBSF World Snooker Championship 2010, Damascus, Syria

Knock-Out Stage - Men
[R1] Pankaj Advani (IND) bye
[R2] Pankaj Advani (IND) bt Mohd. Al Joaker (UAE) 5-4 (66(66)-65, 119(53)-16, 05-80, 16-83(53), 47-57, 66-39, 68-54, 50-66, 72-26)
[R3] Pankaj Advani (IND) bt Mohd. Rais Sen Zahi (AFG) 5-2 (60-40, 110(109)-15, 114(114)-00, 73-69, 00-73, 41-68, 68-21)

[QF] Pankaj Advani (IND) vs Moh Keen Hoo (MAL)

Knock-Out Stage - Women
[R1] Anuja Chandra (IND) bt Inese Lukashevska (LAT) 4-0 (59-48, 67-21, 81-39, 48-27)
[R1] Vidya Pillai (IND) bt Kathy Parashis (AUS) 4-2 (48-04, 73-38, 59-27, 42-70, 46(45)-81, 66-03)
[R1] Chitra Magimairaj (IND) bt Irina Gorbataya (RUS) 4-0 (92-23, 66-48, 74-18, 67-27)
[R1] R. Uma Devi (IND) l Hannah Jones (ENG) 0-4 (29-62(40), 49-56, 36-52, 36-64)

[QF] Anuja Chandra (IND) l Ng On Yee (HKG) 3-4 (07-65, 54-49, 06-77, 102(52)-19, 49-54, 75-40, 40-53)
[QF] Vidya Pillai (IND) bt Chitra Magimairaj (IND) 4-0 (63-43, 73-02, 75-05, 60-40)

[SF] Vidya Pillai (IND) vs Ng On Yee (HKG)

[Sandeep]

Vidya Pillai lost 0-4 to Ng on Yee . But it is good news on the men's side, Pankaj Advani beat Moh Keen Hoo 6-1 in the QF and will face Rodney Higgins in the semifinals.

[jaydeep]

Yes, disappointing one-sided loss to Vidya but other hand Pankaj scored authorative victory over Malaysian opponent and will face Irish player in semis.

At IBSF World Snooker Championship 2010, Damascus, Syria

Knock-Out Stage - Men
[QF] Pankaj Advani (IND) bt Moh Keen Hoo (MAL) 6-1 (70-32, 69-24, 60-2, 63-77, 68-8, 67-45, 124-0)

[SF] Pankaj Advani (IND) vs Rodney Goggins (IRL)

Knock-Out Stage - Women
[SF] Vidya Pillai (IND) l Ng On Yee (HKG) 0-4 (25-54, 7-67, 19-59, 41-84)

[jaydeep]

Pankaj entered into the final with comfortable win over Irishman Rodney Goggins ... In the final he is facing Thai Dechawat Poomjaeng.

At IBSF World Snooker Championship 2010, Damascus, Syria

Men - Semi Final
Pankaj Advani (IND) bt Rodney Goggins (IRL) 7-3 (53-41, 77-44, 114-8, 52-44, 32-81, 19-61, 60-18, 22-69, 89-1, 59-8)

[F] Pankaj Advani (IND) vs Dechawat Poomjaeng (THA)

[akmohanty]

a question that comes in my mind in sports like Billiards & Snooker - is this in any way a 'real' world championship or is it the amateur world championship or a feeder into the 'real' world championship? conversely, where do people like Ronnie O'sullivan, John Higgins, Stephen Hendry etc. stand in this context? i guess there's is the professional snooker championship and the 'real' one.

[prasen9]

IBSF is the non-professional organization. See http://www.ibsf.info/about.shtml. So this is not "the real" championship. Higgins, Robertson, and Williams lead it. Junhui Ding of China is #4. These players are professionals and are better than our amateur ones. Ding defeated Advani in the Asian Games if I recall correctly. I said that Advani had no chance against this guy and it came out to be true. In snooker, that is pretty clear. There is a world snooker organization that runs the professional game and IBSF the non-professional.

I think in billiards our guys are the real professional world champions.

[Sandeep]

Snooker has a professional circuit like PGA and majority of good players play in that circuit. IBSF tournaments are played by Amateurs.

[jaydeep]

Pankaj lost the final against Thai ... Well fought match.

At IBSF World Snooker Championship 2010, Damascus, Syria

Men - Final
Pankaj Advani (IND) l Dechawat Poomjaeng (THA) 7-10 (37-67, 71-47, 69-35, 138-0, 12-85, 15-68, 13-63, 27-68, 57-56, 61-15, 15-71, 35-75, 32-58, 71-25, 62-33, 0-130, 8-92)

[Sandeep]

CCI invitational snooker tournament is going on at the moment in Mumbai. Manan Chandra after a long time is looking very good and is in the semifinals of the event. He beat Lucky Vatnani who is the runner up at the national snooker championships 6-4. Good win for Manan Chandra. He will face Stephen Lee of Engand in the semifinals.

In the other quarterfinals matches, Yasin Merchant will play Jimmy white who beat Geet Sethi in the quarterfinals while Kamal Chwla will play Alfie Burdan.

PS : Looks like it is a great time for PSPB, they won the badminton nationals, table tennis nationals and now if Manan Chandra can win this tournament it will be three wins in three weeks for the players promoted by PSPB.

[Omkara]

Just read this while doing random news sheck on google. National Billiards Champion Alok Kumar has entered the final of the Asian Billiards Championship being held in Iran. He defeated Peter Gilchrist of Singapore 5-2 after leading 3-0. Peter won the fourth and the sixth before Alok took the game away.

Asian Billiards Championship
[SF] Alok Kumar bt Peter Gilchrist 102 (67)- 71(62 ), 101-87,100(100)-0 ,14-102 (77),102(98)- 34, 0-101( 83),100(72)-13

[jaydeep]

Thanks Omkara for reporting that ... I was bit lazy to update the scores though I was following it ...

Anyway good news is ALOK KUMAR IS NEW ASIAN CHAMPION!!!

[jaydeep]

Alok Kumar easily defeated Thai Praput Chaithanasukan 6-0 to win the Asian Billiards title and take revenge of losing against Praput in group stage ... With this win Alok become the 1st player to achieve the rare feat of winning both the Billiards and Snooker Asian titles ... In 2004 in Jordan, Alok Kumar won the Asian Snooker title by defeating his compatriot Pankaj Advani in the finals.

In his dream run to win title Alok Kumar defeated 3 former World Champions Pankaj Advani, Singapore's Peter Gilchrist and Thailand's Praprut Chaithanasukan in the quarter final, semifinal and final respectively.

In a best of 11 games - 100 points format, Alok from the start showed great form ... On his first visit to the table he scored a break of 93 to go ahead 1-0 ... Then in next 2 games with breaks of 84 and 85 respectively he went ahead 3-0 in just 25 minutes of play ... After that Praput never recovered though he tried to fight in 4th and 6th frames but Alok kept his focus to won it without losing a frame.

Alok Kumar participated in this event with regaining Asian Billiards Champion Pankaj Advani, Dhruv Sitwala and Geet Sethi ... Pankaj qualified for knockout stage winning Group D and others qualified on second place from their groups ... Alok defeated Pankaj in well fought match in quarters ... Geet and Dhruv also failed to qualify for semis.

At 2011 Asian Billiards & Under-21 Snooker, Kish Island, Iran

Final
Alok Kumar (IND) bt Praput Chaithanasakun (THA) 6-0 (101(93)-02, 101(84)-02, 100(85)-06, 100(40)-72, 101(73)-18, 101(76*)-57)

Semi Finals
Alok Kumar (IND) bt Peter Gilchrist (SIN) 5-2 (102(67)-71(62), 101-87, 100(100)-0, 14-102(77), 102(98)-34, 00-101(83), 100(72)-13)

Quarter Finals
Alok Kumar (IND) bt Pankaj Advani (IND) 4-3
Dhruv Sitwala (IND) l Peter Gilchrist (SIN) 2-4
Geet Sethi (IND) l Praput Chaithanasakun (THA) 3-4

[jaydeep]

In ongoing World Billiards Championship at Ireland, 9 Indians reached in the Round of 16 from group stage.

From that 5 Indians reached in quarter-finals ... In that Ashok Shandilya scored exciting win over Nay Thway Oo from 2-3 down ... In the quarterfinal, Geet lost in close match against Thai Praput Chaithanasukan ... Mike Russell defeated Ashok Shandilya ... In all Indians match Sourav defeated Rupesh to move into semis ... Pankaj also joined him with hard fought win from 2-3 dowm over very experienced Peter Gilchrist ... Both players produced lot many big unfinished breaks in this match.

At 2011 IBSF World Billiards Championship, Carlow, Ireland

[R24] Geet Sethi (India) bt Thanh Binh Nguyen (Vietnam) 3-1 (150(98)-86, 150-47, 142-150(86), 150-68)
[R24] Devendra Joshi (India) bt Phil Mumford (England) 3-0 (150-63, 150(66, 67)-25, 153(151)-02)
[R24] B. Bhaskar (India) bt Aidan Murray (Ireland) 3-2 (150(121-unf)-39, 148-150, 04-150(148-unf), 150(150-unf)-00, 150(76-unf)-91)
[R24] Ashok Shandilya (India) bt Phil Martin (Ireland) 3-0 (150(85)-98, 150(60)-20, 150(91)-39)
[R24] Dhruv Sitwala (India) bt Brian Harvey (England) 3-0 (150(74-unf), 150-58, 150(73, 74-unf)-35)
[R24] Sourav Kothari (India) bt Kyaw Oo (Myanmar) 3-2 (79-150(82), 66-150, 150(120)-27, 150-125(107), 150(80, 67)-106(76))

[PQF] Geet Sethi (India) bt Alok Kumar (India) 4-0 (150(103)-10, 150(87)-98, 150(76)-09, 150(110)-74)
[PQF] Peter Gilchrist (Singapore) bt Devendra Joshi (India) 4-0 (150(115)-114, 150-40, 153(151)-34, 157(157)-02)
[PQF] Pankaj Advani (India) bt B. Bhaskar (India) 4-0 (150-18, 150(150)-20, 150-38, 150(114)-124)
[PQF] Ashok Shandilya (India) bt Nay Thway Oo (Myanmar) 4-3 (150-60, 150-126, 76-150(91), 37-150(107), 89-150, 150(89)-107(77), 150(88)-20)
[PQF] Dhruv Sitwala (India) bt Matthew Bolton (Australia) 4-1 (150(131)-98, 95-150(71), 150(88)-71, 150(70)-35, 150(98)-106)
[PQF] Sourav Kothari (India) bt Rupesh Shah (India) 4-1 (150-45, 00-152(152-unf), 150-85, 150-83, 150(93)-53)

[QF] Praput Chaithanasukan (Thailand) bt Geet Sethi (India) 4-2 (134(100)-152, 150(140)-38, 47-150(75), 150(74)-53, 150-141(124), 150(82)-98(86))
[QF] Pankaj Advani (India) bt Peter Gilchrist (Singapore) 4-3 (150(121)-82, 00-151(151-U), 87-150(86-U), 150(85-U)-00, 14-150(141-U), 151(151-U)-00, 150(150-U)-04)
[QF] Mike Russell (England) bt Ashok Shandilya (India) 4-2 (150(116)-95(85), 145-150(148), 150-92, 150(145)-66, 56-150(118), 150(89)-66)
[QF] Sourav Kothari (India) bt Dhruv Sitwala (India) 4-2 (150(93)-32, 150(115)-125, 108-150, 150(85)-145(145), 110-150(121), 150(99)-40)

[SF] Pankaj Advani (India) vs Praput Chaithanasukan (Thailand)
[SF] Sourav Kothari (India) vs Mike Russell (England)

PS. U can follow live scoring or video from IBSF site - World Billiards Championships 2011 - live scoring

[jaydeep]

Pankaj reached in the final beating experienced Thai Praput Chaithanasukan 5-4 in closely contested semi-final ... Pankaj was leading 4-2 before Praput fought back .. He won next 2 frames but Pankaj won the final frame 150-104 to won this match ... Sourav Kothari played well against Mike Russell but current World champion proved too strong for Sourav.

At 2011 IBSF World Billiards Championship, Carlow, Ireland

Point Format - Semi Finals
Pankaj Advani (India) bt Praput Chaithanasukan (Thailand) 5-4 (150(91-U)-16, 150(95)-33, 150(91)-122(80), 116-150(79), 150(108-U)-34, 06-150(91-U), 94(91)-150(104-U), 126(92)-150(143-U), 150(55)-104)
Mike Russell (England) bt Sourav Kothari (India) 5-3 150(91)-46, 94(84)-150(139), 147-150, 71(71)-150(94), 150(87,70)-67(64), 151(150)-00, 150(150)-00, 150(145)-03)

[jaydeep]

In the final Mike Russell was in his best ... He scored 4 unfinished 140+ break to take 5-0 lead in best of 11 frames final ... Pankaj tried to fightback scoring couple of unfinished 100 breaks to won next 3 frames but Mike scored another unfinished 140+ break to lift the title.

At 2011 IBSF World Billiards Championship, Carlow, Ireland

Point Format - Final
Mike Russell (England) bt Pankaj Advani (India) 6-3 (150(150-U)-49, 150(150-U)-00, 150(148-U)-17, 150(150-U)-00, 150(114)-10, 83-150(143), 105(97)-150(120-U), 06-150(143-U), 150(143-U)-61)