SPG-Park Club Billiards Tournament: Serrao scrapes through

Carl Serrao of Dadar Club registered crucial back-to-back wins.

Carl Serrao of Dadar Club registered crucial back-to-back wins to progress to the next phase, in the SPG-Park Club Open Billiards Handicap Tournament on Sunday.

Serrao kicked off an exciting day of billiards action when he fashioned a thrilling 156-152 win over Dependra Pinkyar of Shivaji Park Club in Group N and later overcame Vinay Kalro of Park Club to make it to the knock out round of 32 along with Pinkyar.

Former champion Rishabh Kumar of Bombay Gymkhana also snatched a crucial win over Dharmesh Mistry of Mandpeshwar Civic Federation (MCF), Borivali in his last Group D tie to scrape through along with compatriot Rovin D’Souza. Kumar, winner here in 2011, had to win by a substantial margin and his 267-168 win over Mistry shunted out Deepak Khubchandani of Khar Gymkhana.

Sunil Jain of Elphinstone Cricket Club and Chandu Kansodaria of MCF also registered crucial wins in their concluding ties to enter the next round. The others to make it were, Mahesh Jagdale, Jatinder Dawer, Raj Khandwala, Nikhil Ghadge, Vishal Madan, Jeet Gawde, Manoj Kasare, Sunil Ghadge, Amandeep Kohli and Ronnie Daruwalla.

Two players from each of the 16 groups qualify for a knock out round of 32.

Later, 16 will qualify for the round robin main draw that will have four groups of six players each including elite cueists, twice world runner-up Dhruv Sitwala, state champion Arun Agrawal, his son Aditya Agrawal and Railways champion Siddharth Parikh.

Two players from each group in the round robin main draw will qualify for the knock out quarter-finals that kicks off the final phase.

Results:

Group A: Mahesh Jagdale (Elphinstone CC) bt Ankit Thacker (Matunga Gym) 368(57)-182.

Group B: Sunil Jain (Elphinstone CC) bt Kailash Patil (SPG) 203-122; Vishal Madan (Chembur Gym) bt Ashwin Deshmukh (Dadar Club) 383(53)-77.

Group C: Prabdeep Singh (MIG) bt Manjeet Singh Bhomar (NIA) 272-192.

Group D: Rishabh Kumar (Bombay Gym) bt Dharmesh Mistry (MCF) 267-168.

Group E: Jatinder Dawer (NSCI) bt Pramod Mhatre (Park Club) 243-113.

Group G: Amit Sapru (Park Club) bt Rishad Bharda (Elphinstone CC) 352(59)-114.

Group I: Raj Khandwala (CCI) bt Sanjay Patil (SPG) 308-93; Vishal Gehani (Park Club) bt Kreishh Gurbaxani (Khar Gym) 282-85.

Group K: Chandu Kansodaria (MCF) bt Percy Patel (Matunga Gym) 232-123.

Group L: K.K. Bhatia (PJ Hindu Gym) bt Hitesh Kotwani (CCI) 226-190.

Group M: Nikhil Ghadge (Matunga Gym) bt Lalit Jham (Park Club) 230-162.

Group N: Carl Serrao (Dadar Club) bt Dependra Pinkyar (SPG) 156-152; Carl Serrao bt Vinay Kalro (Park Club) 182-107.

Group O: Sunil Ghadge (CRMI) bt Malcolm Kapadia (DPCG) 200-183.

Group P: Amandeep Kohli (Khar Gym) bt Ronni Daruwalla (PJ Hindu Gym) 192-169.