by Suman Gupta
Mumbai: High-flying Otters Club’s outfit Otters ‘Rockets’ came crashing down to earth and their hopes of winning an historic hat-trick of titles went up in smoke. They suffered a shock 0-3 defeat at the hands of Juhu Vile Parle Gymkhana’s JVPG ‘Mafia’ in a surprisingly tame final of the Billiards & Snooker Association of Maharashtra organized BSAM-Otters Mumbai Snooker League and played at the Otters Club billiards room.
The JVPG players displayed plenty of grit and determination and muscled their way past the home favourites Otters Rockets to win the BSAM Snooker crown after 21 long years.
Otters Rockets, who had created history by winning back-to-back titles last year, were not at their usual best and their form seemed to have completely deserted them as they succumbed to the steady, calculated play of the JVPG cueists who played without any pressure and just kept it simply to come out trumps.
JVPG’s Adit Raja (+40 handicap) playing with a 30 point advantage against Otters star Abhimanyu Gandhi (+10) rose to the challenge. He did well to stitch together small useful breaks and managed to extend his position before running out 85-38 winner in the 15-red singles first frame to give his team a 1-0 lead.
Later, Asutosh Padhye and Rahil Patel playing a +15 handicap combined perfectly to tame the Otters pairing of Nabil Lakdawala and young Yash Babni (+24) in the 9-red doubles second tie. Padhye compiled a break of 32 and then with some tight safety play the JVPG duo charged to a facile 73-26 win to help the team take a 2-0 lead.
The Juhu Gymkhana team maintained the winning momentum as Krishna Saraf (+40) played patiently to quell the fight from Rishabh Thakkar (+20) to win a long drawn 15-red singles third frame, which lasted almost an hour and a half. Saraf employed a smart strategy and good safety tactics to keep the cue ball away from the reds forcing the experienced Thakkar to play from the bottom cushion. Thakkar had his chances, but blew them away as he missed sitters and allowed Saraf to gradually build on the 20 point advantage to clinch a 90-60 win and wrap up the contest in Mafia’s favour.
The champions JVPG Mafia received the handsome winners’ trophy and a cash award of Rs 75,000 from Otters Club, President Vikram Rao while Rockets received the runners-up trophy and a cheque of Rs 45,000. The losing semi-finalists, NIA ‘Surgical Strikers’ and MHCL ‘Snooker Stars’ received a cash award of Rs 20,000 each, while the teams which lost in the quarter-finals — Radio ‘Tigers’, KG ‘Legends’, CG ‘Derek Decapitare’ and Radio ‘Dragons’ – were presented with a prize of Rs 10,000 each.
Results – final: JVPG ‘Mafia’ beat Otters ‘Rockets 3-0 (Adit Raja (+40) beat Abhimanyu Gandhi (+10) 85-38; Asutosh Padhye/ Rahil Patel (+15) beat Nabil Lakdawala/ Yash Babni (+24) 73-26; Krishna Saraf (+40) beat Rishabh Thakkar (+20) 90-60).
