CUTTACK 25-Nov-2012 242
Subrat Das, Nishant Biswal and Ashutosh Padhy emerged champions in the 19th State Billiards & Snooker Championship, which concluded at Cuttack Club here today. Unseeded Nishant Biswal of Cuttack won the senior snooker title, pipping second seed Subrat Das of Bhubaneswar in the thrilling final 6-5.
Two-time state junior snooker champion Biswal raced to a 3-0 lead, winning the first three frames 50-11, 64-23 and 56-30. State senior billiards champion Das fought back to win the next two frames 56-23, 64-22. But a spirited Biswal rode on a break of 74 in the sixth frame to make the score-line 4-2 in his favour.
The contest hotted up with Das taking the seventh and ninth frames 60-35, 74-46 and Biswal grabbing the eighth 61-30. In the decisive 11th frame, Biswal proved unstoppable as carved out a break of 53 to win 67-0.
Subrat Das lived up to his reputation as the No 1 cueist of Odisha by winning the senior billiards title for the fifth time in a row. Bhubaneswar cueist Das won all three of his semifinal league matches to emerge champion, while Kunal Agarwal, also from Bhubaneswar, finished runner-up with two wins.
Bhubaneswar boy Ashutosh Padhy regained the junior snooker crown, defeating Biswa Prakash Sahoo in the final by 2-0 frames. Padhy, who earlier emerged champion in junior billiards, thus clinched a double in style. For Padhy, a former National sub-junior snooker champion, the junior billiards title was his third in a row and thus gave him a hat-trick.
Host Cuttack Club president Dr M Abbas and secretary Suvendu Mohan Patnaik handed over the prizes at the closing ceremony.
RESULTS:
Junior billiards: Semifinals: Ashutosh Padhy bt Devi Prasad Sahoo 243-84, Sumeet Sahoo bt Noman Salat 116-112. Final: A Padhy bt S Sahoo 220-104.
Junior snooker semifinals: Biswa Prakash Sahoo bt Devi Prasad Sahoo 2-0, Ashutosh Padhy bt Sumeet Sahoo 2-0. Final: A Padhy bt BP Sahoo 2-0.
Senior billiards: Semifinal league: Subrat Das bt Kunal Agarwal 3-1, Ahsan-ul Haque bt Ashutosh Padhy 3-0, S Das bt A Haque 3-0, K Agarwal bt A Padhy 3-0.
Senior snooker: Semifinals: Subrat Das bt Siddharth Sen 5-0 (54-26, 59-33, 52-42, 67-30, 60-40); Nishant Biswal bt Ashutosh Padhy 5-3 (50-11, 17-54, 34-55, 66-18, 12-54, 66-55, 53-38, 52-43). Final: N Biswal bt S Das 6-5 (50-11, 64-23, 56-30, 23-56, 22-64, 88-11, 35-60, 46-74, 61-30, 67-0).
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PHOTO: State senior snooker champion Nishant Biswal (Right) and runner-up Subrat Das in Cuttack on Nov 25, 2012.