Bombay Gymkhana’s Ghulam Vahanvati churned out another impressive performance and continued with his fine winning run of form to book a place in the main draw of the Bombay Gymkhana Handicap Billiards Tournament.
Vahanvati playing with a scratch handicap just kept it simple to ease past Malabar Hill Club’s Manan Shah (-100) in a third and final qualifying round match. Playing on his home tables, Vahanvati grabbed every opportunity and managed to accumulate his points with tidy breaks to run away with the match, coasting to a 200-121 in the race-to-200-point victory.
Meanwhile, Anurag Bagri of Elphinstone Cricket Club dashed the hopes of Rovin D’Souza of Western Railway in another third round encounter. D’Souza, who played with a revised handicap of -200, fought the going tough and could only manage to cover his handicap while Bagri who started with a handicap of -120 kept the scoreboard ticking with small efforts to come of victorious by a 200-24 points scoreline and join Vahanvati in the round-robin league stage of the competition.
Anurag Bagri
Raj Khandwala and Hasan Badami, both of Cricket Club of India, also won their respective third round matches and progressed to the tournament proper.
Khandwala (-125) with the help of two useful breaks of 47 and 39 went on to tame Matunga Gymkhana’s Shailesh Rao (scratch) by a comfortable 200-102 points margin of victory.
Meanwhile, Badami was his usual composed self and with some steady calculated play knockout Mumbai Port Trust cueist Gurunath Rane (-30) by romping to a 200-136 win.
Results – qualifying (third round): Carl Serrao (Dadar Club, 150) beat Mahadev Bhogle (JVPG, -120) 200-184; Ghulam Vahanvati (Bombay Gym, Scr) beat Manan Shah (MHC, -100) 200-121; Raajeev Sharma (MHC, -160) beat Cyrus Mistry (ECC. -100) 200-177; Pranay More (MHC, -50) beat Nishit Chandan (Mantunga Gym, -80) 200-171; Raj Khandwala (CCI, -125) beat Shailesh Rao (Matunga Gym, Scr) 200-102; Hasan Badami (CCI, -185) beat Gurunath Rane (MBPT, -30) 200-136; Anurag Bagri (Elphinstone CC, -120) beat Rovin D’Souza (Railways, -200) 200-24
Second round: Sanjay Gamre (Bombay Gym, -100) beat Mahesh Jagdale (ECC, -239) 200-21; Sanket Bapat (SPG, -70) beat Nitesh Madan (Bombay Gym, -150) 200-135; Dharmesh Mistry (MCF, -90) beat Vishal Gehani (Park Club, -160) 200-169; Amit Sapru (Park Club, -150) beat M S Reddy (Railways, -300) 200-87; Shahyan Razmi (ECC, -70) beat Pankaj Khatri (NIWEC, -110) 200-95; Rayaan Razmi (ECC, -135) beat Ankit Thakkar (Matunga Gym, 110) 200-124.