Kamal Chawla of Railways showed great character and maintained his winning momentum to emerge champion of the Bombay Gymkhana Handicap Billiards Tournament 2018.
Railways Kamal Chawla (right) receives the ‘Champions Trophy’ and cheque of Rs 30,000 from former World Billiards champion Ashok Shandilya.
The lanky Railway cueist Chawla (-325 handicap) just kept it simple and stayed right on track as he went on to quell the challenge from Mandpeshwar Civic Foundation’s Rohan Jambusaria (-375) by carving out a 200-113 victory in the final played at the Bombay Gymkhana billiards room.
Chawla displayed better consistency with his shots, but was unable to hit the high notes. However, he was cool and calculated throughout and with each visit to the table he managed to stitch together some tidy breaks, which included one substantial run of 60, as he kept accumulating the points which enabled him to successfully cross the finish line with a degree of comfort.
On the other hand, Jambusaria, who enjoyed a fantastic run till the summit clash, was unable to rise to the challenge as he struggled a bit and could not find his usual free-flowing touch and form. He showed signs of putting up a fight and fired in breaks of 123, 91 and 53, as he managed to cover his -375 points handicap, but it was not good enough as he fell short of reaching the target of scoring the 200 points for victory.
Chawla received the ‘Champions Trophy’ and the winners’ top prize of Rs 30,000 from former World Billiards Champion, Ashok Shandilya. Jambusaria received the runners-up trophy and the cheque of Rs 20,000 from Mehernosh Billimoria, Billiards & Snooker secretary, Bombay Gymkhana. The losing semi-finalists, Siddharth Parikh and Vishal Madan got a cash prize of Rs 10,000 each. The losing quarter-finalists and pre-quarter-finalists each received a prize of Rs 2000 and 1000 respectively. Devendra Joshi who had compiled the highest break of 177 in the competition earned a cash award of Rs 3, 500.
Results – Finals: Kamal Chawla (Railways, -325) beat Rohan Jambusaria (MCF, -375) 200-113.
Prizes – Winner: Kamal Chawla – Champions Trophy & cheque of Rs 30,000.
Runner-up: Rohan Jambusaria – Runner-up Trophy & cheque of Rs 20,000.
Losing semi-finalists: Siddharth Parikh and Vishal Madan – cheque of Rs 10,000 each.
Losing quarter-finalists: Rishabh Thakkar, Raj Khandwala, Anurag Bagri, Devendra Joshi – cheque of Rs 5,000 each.