Lucky retains snooker crown, Balsara bags billiards title

Mumbai, Aug 25 (UNI) Defending champion Lucky Vatnani of Hyderabad retained the snooker crown, while Omar Balsara clinched the billiards title, in the Kotak Mahindra Bank-Wilson Jones Open Handicap Championship, that concluded at the P J Hindu Gymkhana here today.

Vatnani (+15) ignored the loss of the opening frame to cruise to a convincing 47-91, 77-65, 78-65, 90-43, 87-27 triumph over Marzdi Kalyaniwala (+20) of Bombay Gymkhana in the best-of-seven frames championship round.

Balsara (-75) thrived on consistency to put it across Sanjiv Bijlani (+125) of Park Club, Dadar 375-301 in the billiards final that had its fair share of excitement early on.

Balsara rallied from an early deficit with Bijlani coming up with a strong challenge to lead by 190 points in the race to 375. But Balsara, who missed a few in-offs, made amends with immaculate potting that saw him recover with significant breaks of 61 and 59 and surge to an impressive victory.

Balsara earned Rs 25,000 for his win, while Bijlani received Rs 15,000.

In the snooker final, Kalyaniwala got off to a good start by snatching the opening frame. But his challenge surprisingly ended there rather early, as the sanguine Vatnani found his rhythm in the second frame.

Kalyaniwala had a chance for a 2-1 lead in the third frame while trailing 54-71. He needed the blue, pink and black, while Vatnani, who earlier struck a crucial break of 40, needed just one ball.

Kalyaniwala brilliantly potted a long blue at the bottom and returned to the top to sink the pink. But he missed a difficult black that was close to the top cushion along with the cue ball, before Vatnani snatched the frame.

An inspired Vatnani, who shocked twice Asian champion Yasin Merchant in the semi-finals, later fired breaks 47 and 42 in the fourth and fifth frames, respectively, to seal a deserving victory.

Vatnani received Rs 50,000 for his effort, while Kalyaniwala earned Rs 30,000.

Results (Finals): Billiards: Omar Balsara (-75) bt Sanjiv Bijlani (+125) 375-301.

Snooker: Lucky Vatnani (AP, +15) bt Marzdi Kalyaniwala (+20) 47-91, 77-65, 78(40)-65, 90(47)-43, 87(42)-27.

UNI