The Indian Billiards and Snooker Championships took place from 18th December to 15th January at the Hari Niwas Palace in the Northern state of Jammu, nestled in the shadow of the Himalayas. The venue had accommodation for 350 spectators and close-circuit TV with giant LCD screens presented the action to those who could not gain access to the hall.
The Women's Billiards opened the Championship programme, being contested over three days from 18th-20th December. Playing matches comprising 50-up games, the honours went to Anuja Thakur who defeated reigning champion Uma Devi 4-0 in the final. Thakur, who had previously held the title in 2000, defeated her older sister in the semi-finals, while Devi reached the final by overcoming Sridevi.
Semi-finals: Uma Devi bt Sridevi 3-1; Anuja Thakur bt Meenal Thakur 3-0.
Final: Anuja Thakur bt R. Uma Devi 4-0.
Seventeen year-old Pankaj Advani (Karnataka) retained his Junior Billiards title producing a two-hour aggregate of 1088 in his third round match against Vaibhav Punvatkar which included the highest break of the tournament, a 165. Advani also produced an impressive total of 1568 in the three-hour final group against Brijesh Damani, winning all three of his matches in this section.
The other players making it through to the final round-robin, which was played over 28th-29th December, were Rishabh Thakkar (Maharashtra) and Sourav Kothari (Bengal). However, it was Thakkar who proved to be the biggest threat. Winning his other two games, the deciding match against Advani was desperately close, Thakkar eventually finishing the wrong side of a 836-804 scoreline. Sourav Kothari, who finished third, made an impressive break of 160 in his third round match, demonstrating the strength of the current junior game in India. Brijesh Damani, who had been unseeded in the competition, and is better known for his expertise at snooker, made an excellent showing to reach the final round.
First round (2 hrs): Sunil Rastogi bt J. Varun Kumar 373-335; Ishan Sharma bt Gaurav Joshi 310-286; Brijesh Damani bt Lucky Vatnani 547-472; Sumit Talwar bt Farooq Ibrahim 447-426; Ravi Kant bt Akhil Kumar 252-160; Wasim Ahmed bt Gagandeep Singh 460-396.
Second round (2 hrs): Nishant Azad bt Rohit Sharma 433-315; Dhruv Varma bt Kiran Chawla 529-429; Sagar Yadav bye; Vaibhav Punvatkar bt Ishan Sharma 327-75; Chiranjeev Singh bt Ankit Soni 443-281; Pankaj Advani bt Sunil Rastogi 997-162; Ravinder Singh bt Nitin Mehra 543- 306; Sourav Kothari bt Subrat Das 725-149; Brijesh Damani bt Aditya Mehta 582-414; Rishabh Thakkar bt Wasim Ahmed 603-139; Pamin Shah bt Ravi Kant 478-157; V. Katerla bt Sumit Talwar 618-264; Ankur Nanda w.o Kamaldeep Singh scr; Sunny Chaddha w.o Nitin Agarwal scr; Aparajit Mittal bt Sandip Sharma 403-274; Deepak Bajaj bt K. Jhanjarya 326-319.
Second Round (2 hrs): Pankaj Advani bt Ravinder Singh 982-282; Vaibhav Punvatkar bt Chiranjeev Singh 504-258; Sagar Yadav bt Aparajit Mittal 480-399; Brijesh Damani bt Sunny Chaddha 673-293; Sourav Kothari w.o Ankur Nanda scr; V. Katrela bt Deepak Bajaj 505-222; Pamin Shah bt Nishant Azad 522-391; Rishabh Thakkar bt Dhruv Varma 599-420.
Third Round (2 hrs): Pankaj Advani bt Vaibhav Punvatkar 1088-258; Brijesh Damani bt Sagar Yadav 766-337; Sourav Kothari bt V. Katrela 762-322; Rishabh Thakkar bt Pamin Shah 675-362.
Final league (3 hrs): Sourav Kothari bt Brijesh Damani 1130-734; Pankaj Advani bt Rishabh Thakkar 836-804; Pankaj Advani bt Brijesh Damani 1568-592; Rishabh Thakkar bt Sourav Kothari 852-619; Pankaj Advani bt Sourav Kothari 1292-667; Rishabh Thakkar bt Brijesh Damani 1055- 708.
The Senior Billiards Championship once again started without Geet Sethi, who two months earlier had lost his IBSF title to Mike Russell in Australia. However, most of the other top Indian players took part, including reigning champion, Ashok Shandilya.
Billiards was the final event in the championship series and was played between 9th-15th January. Pankaj Advani, who had already made history by becoming not only the youngest winner of the Senior Snooker Championship, but also collecting the Junior Billiards and Snooker titles, now tried for what would have been an unprecedented fourth title. Only Geet Sethi, had equalled the achievement of claiming a senior title in addition to the two Junior crowns, although in his case he had won the corresponding billiards event. Interestingly, Yasim Merchant was involved in both of these record achievements twenty years apart, having lost to Sethi in the Junior Snooker final in 1982, and also losing to Advani in the final of the senior snooker event this year.
Advani certainly gave it a great try, making the highest break in the tournament with 384 against Dhruv Sitwala in the semi-finals, but this was not enough to win the match as Sitwala staged a great come-back and ended the youngster's challenge at this stage. Sitwala had also beaten the reigning champion Ashok Shandilya in the previous round and now moved into the final to meet Alok Kumar, who won this title in 1999.
On the eve of his first appearance in the Championship final, Sitwala was reported to have suffered a sleepless night, being awake until five in the morning. This may well have been a deciding factor in a dour performance, with Sitwala always struggling to keep in the game, and with a top break of only 122, Kumar was sufficiently consistent to record a 251 point victory. Pankaj Advani had the consolation of winning the third-place play-off and also took the high break prize for the second consecutive year. With these championships being played under the professional "baulk-line" rule, his run of 384 was particularly impressive.
Last 16: Shandilya bt Rishabh Thakkar 763-294; Sitwala bt Jai Ganesh 611-418; Habib bt Nitin Kohli 433-370; Pankaj Advani bt Dharminder Lilly 1065-397; Joshi bt Kamal Chawla 944- 378; Parikh bt Vishal Madan 474-409; Jagtiani bt A. Haque 698-376; Alok Kumar bt Jaswinder Singh 926-328.
Quarter-finals (3 hrs): Dhruv Sitwala bt Ashok Shandilya 833-669; Pankaj Advani bt Rafath Habib 1189-720; Siddharth Parikh bt Devendra Joshi 936-871; Alok Kumar bt Shyam Jagtiani 694-615.
Semi-finals (3 hrs): Dhruv Sitwala (70, 142, 109, 98, 70, 144, 98) 1075 bt Pankaj Advani (384, 117, 54, 56, 54) 996; Alok Kumar (66, 53, 180, 82, 96, 94, 92, 101, 63, 94, 58, 121, 220) 1810 bt Siddharth Parikh (71, 97, 87, 130, 85, 78) 996.
Final (4 hrs): Alok Kumar (99, 62, 122, 106, 98, 88, 54, 66) 1080 bt Dhruv Sitwala (108, 54, 56, 64, 87, 101) 829. Third place playoff: Pankaj Advani (88, 87, 80, 89, 113, 72, 92, 58, 62, 59, 115, 85) 1330 bt Siddharth Parikh (108, 50, 133, 183, 70, 97) 871.