MCF Open Handicap Billiards Tournament 2016
Chandu stuns Nalin to enter quarters
MCF’s Chandu Kansodaria shocked defending champion Nalin Patel to storm into the quarter-finals of the state level MCF Open Billiards Tournament, at the Mandpeshwar Civic Federation, Borivali on Wednesday.
Kansodaria, playing with a handicap of -130, surprised the world professional No. 6 and favourite with a 250-173 win to set up a clash with V. ‘Raja’ Subramanian of Matunga Gymkhana. Subramanian, a recent champion in the first-ever Open Disability Snooker Championship in Gloucester, fired a 319 break, narrowly failing to overcome the competition’s highest of 323 by Dhruv Sitwala, in his 700-299 win over Rovin D’Souza of PJ Hindu Gymkhana.
Sitwala hit 252, 165 and two half-century breaks that ended at 92 while halting Sanket Bapat of Shivaji Park Gymkhana. The others to enter the quarter-finals were, Rishabh Kumar of Bombay Gymkhana, PJ Hindu Gymkhana trio Aditya Agrawal, Hitesh Kotwani and Siddharth Parikh, and Rohan Jambusaria of MCF.
A significant loser was 12-time state champion and Maharashtra No. 2 Arun Agrawal of Matunga Gymkhana who went down to Kumar.
Results: Pre-quarter-finals: V. Subramanian (Matunga Gym) bt Rovin D’Souza (PJ Hindu Gym) 700(319,92)-299; Rishabh Kumar bt Arun Agrawal (Matunga Gym) 250-147; Chandu Kansodaria (MCF) bt Nalin Patel (Bombay Gym) 250-173(121,93); Aditya Agrawal (PJ Hindu Gym) bt Loukic Pathare (Chembur Gym) 700(102)-367; Siddharth Parikh (PJ Hindu Gym) bt Nitesh Madan (Bombay Gym) 900(96,165,124,132)-157; Rohan Jambusaria (MCF) bt Nikhil Ghadge (Matunga Gym) 425-292; Dhruv Sitwala (PJ Hindu Gym) bt Sanket Bapat (SPG) 900(92,165,252,92)-178; Hitesh Kotwani (PJ Hindu Gym) bt Shekhar Surve (SPG) 460(146)-183.