Mumbai: PJ Hindu Gymkhana cueist Rovin D’Souza who displayed a steady consistent showing and Elphinstone Cricket Club’s Sunil Jain who came up with solid determined fighting effort were the star performers of the day, but the former finished on the winning side as his team PJHG Probables (combined team handicap -95 ) managed to get the better of ECC ‘Elfies Stars’ (handicap +75) 505-486 in an exciting final of the CCI Kekoo Nicholson BSAM Billiards League 2019, organized by the Billiards & Snooker Association of Maharashtra and played at the CCI’s Sir Wilson Jones billiards room, late on Sunday evening.
The summit clash between two former champions turned out to be a closely contested affair. Elphinstone Club went into the match with an overall 165 points advantage, but Hindu Gymkhana’s Hitesh Kotwani and in particular D’Souza chipped away at their advantage and reduced it to just 40 points to give their team a winning chance. Hindu Gymkhana skipper Siddharth Parikh, completed the formalities.
Elphinstone’s talented youngster Rayaan Razmi (scratch handicap) played to his potential and did well to keep pace with his more experienced opponent Kotwani (-40) in the opening frame as the scores ran close and changed hand a couple of times. But, the seasoned Kotwani managed two late efforts of 39 and 26 to record a narrow 200-183 win. Later, D’Souza (+15) who has been in impressive form was cool and composed and dished out another stellar performance against Cyrus Mistry (+45).
