Abhimanyu Gandhi of Otters Club continued with his impressive run of form and in convincing style defeated Malabar Hill Club’s Manan Shah 5-1 in the best-of-9-frame final of the Khar Gymkhana Open Handicap Snooker Tournament 2018, and played at the Khar Gymkhana billiards room.
Former two-time Asian Snooker Champion and BSAM President, Yasin Merchant (Left), presents Abhimanyu Gandhi with the Khar Gymkhana Snooker ‘champions’ Trophy and a cheque of Rs 50,000.
Gandhi showed splendid touch and control as he potted steadily and he hardly put a foot wrong as he scored from almost every opportunity to completely dominate the summit clash. On the other hand, Shah was unable to rise to the challenge and could not offer much resistance and caved in rather meekly.
The Otters Club ace Gandhi playing with a low handicap of +10 as against Shah +45 hit the balls fluently and managed a couple of small breaks in winning the first two frames. He then stitched together decent breaks of 55 in winning the third and 36 in the fourth to take a commanding 4-0 lead.
Shah, who was not given many opportunities, managed to stall Gandhi’s charge to victory when he finally won the fifth frame. But, Gandhi produced another composed effort to clinch the sixth and wrap up the match. He coasted to a 71-58, 104-79, 81-67, 106-63, 41-83 and 94-79 victory and lift the title.
Former two-time Asian Snooker Champion and BSAM President, Yasin Merchant, presented Gandhi with the handsome ‘champions’ Trophy and a cheque of Rs 50,000. Shah received the runners-up trophy and a cheque of Rs 25,000.
Pankaj Basantani of Ulhasnagar and Khar Gymkhana’s Sparsh Pherwani the losing semi-finalists, recived a cheque of 12,500 each. The losing quarter-finals got Rs 8,000 each and the losing pre-quarter-finalists got Rs 4,500 each.
Results – final: Abhimanyu Gandhi (Otters Club, +10) beat Manan Shah (MHC, +45) 4-1 (71-58, 104-79, 81(55)-67, 106(36)-63, 41-83, 94-79).