Defending champions Catholic ‘Decapitare’ launched the defence of their title on a bright note, winning both their home and away ties against NIA ‘Quarterpillars’ in the opening Section-A round-robin league match during the first week, of the ‘CCI Kekoo Nicholson BSAM Billiards League 2018.
The Catholic Gymkhana team (handicap +120), comprising of Carl Serrao (+20), Melwyn Mascarenhas (+30) and Clyde Afonso (+70) comfortably won the home match against NIA (handicap +235) by a 474-193 points. In the away game, Mascarenhas as expectedly won the first frame before Shabbir Masani (+80), who replaced Afonso, did well to score a narrow 200-194 win against Manjit Singh Bhoomer (+80) to extend Catholic Gym’s lead. Later, Serrao who was required to score 193 points quite easily achieved his target defeating Hrannabh Shah (+80)193-58 to complete a satisfying first week for the team. In the process Catholic Gym who won both the home and away fixtures also earned a bonus point to tally five points.
Meanwhile, World Billiards bronze medallist Sidharth Parikh and Aditya Agrawal, both representing PJHG ‘Hazards’ stole the thunder constructing century breaks each during their first round home match against SPG ‘Gentlemen’ . Parikh made a 107 break while Agrawal did a little better making a run of 110 in their first match. Former two-time Asian Billiards champion Dhruv Sitwala compiled a run of 98 during the same match, which Hindu Gym despite playing with a stiff handicap of -210 managed to score over Shivaji Park (handicap +200) by a 600-121 scoreline in the home game. However, in the away tie, Hindu Gym having conceded a total of 405 points advantage found the going tough as they struggled to adjust to the Shivaji Park tables and lost the tie in the first two frames itself.
Sidharth Parikh
Shivaji Park’s Sanket Bapat (+60) did well to score 137 points against the 200 scored by Sitwala (-90) in the first frame and then Pramod Kulkarni (+85) managed to score the 67 points required in the second against Hitesh Kotwani (-60) who scored 184 points.
