Western Railway players Rovin D’Souza and Shekar Surve took off on the right track and recorded commendable victories in their respective second round encounters of the Bombay Gymkhana Handicap Billiards Tournament, and played at the Bombay Gym’s billiards room.
Shekhar Surve
D’Souza (-185 handicap) struck prime form and picked up steam from the start to outclass Ashish Raval (scratch handicap) of Juhu Vile Parle Gymkhana in a one-sided affair. He produced two solid efforts, a 101 break and a neat run of 69 to smoothly cruise to a 200-105 victory in the race-to-200-point encounter.
Surve (-130) also exhibited good touch and compiled a couple of decent breaks of 42 and two runs of 31 to knock the fight out of Thane’s Mithil Shinde (-40) by a close 200-188 points difference to also advance to the third round.
Manav Panchal of Malabar Hill Club and Carl Serrao of Dadar Club also progressed to the third qualifying round. Panchal (-120) played steadily and managed to pull through against Akshay Gogri (-60) of Madpeshwar Civic Foundation by a 200-190 points margin.
In contrast, Serrao (-150) had much his own way and stormed to a 300-132 victory against Bombay Gym’s Ramesh Arora (Scr) in another second round clash.
Results (2nd round): Manav Panchal (MHC, -120) beat Akshay Gogri (MCF, -60) 200-190; Manvir Sohal (JVPG, -70) beat Prabdeep Singh (MIG, -80) 200-193; Rovin D’souza (Railway, -185) beat Ashish Raval (JVPG, Scr) 200(101,69)-105; Umesh Barwe (CRMI, -60) beat Steven Sameul (Otters Club, -100) 200-133; Shekhar Surve (Railway, -130) beat Mithil Shinde (Thane, -40) 200-188; Carl Serrao (Dadar Club, -150) beat Ramesh Arora (BG, Scr) 200-132; K Murali Krishna (Railway, -120) beat Walter Vaz (Bombay Gym, -60) 200-188.