The Casa Copenhagen 6 red snooker national championship 2020 jointly organized by the Gujarat State Billiards Association & the Sports Club of Gujarat under the auspices of the Billiards & Snooker Federation Of India even as it entered the sixth day of the 13 days snooker extravaganza saw the advent of the lading lady cueists of the country at the premises of the Sports Club of Gujarat here on Thursday.
Besides the pretty damsels of the “green Baize ” being seen in action on the day, this also happens to be the day when all the 40 qualifiers from the double elimination qualifying stage of the national competition of the limited edition of snooker will be decided by late evening.
From the contests of the match to qualify section, played from noon time today some high quality action was witnessed to the satisfaction of the appreciative audience gathered to watch good snooker.
Host state’s, Oswald Massey was one of the heroes in the process of qualifying for the last 64 players main round of the competition. Oswald up against the talented youngster from his very state, Johnson Narsidani was equal to the task and more as quelled the challenge of Johnson in six frames of the best of seven frames enounter winning by 45-11, 18-54, 40-23, 05-39,26-18 and 32-11 points in a match which was marked for its ” safety first ” tactics by both the cueists as they seem to know each other’s style of play well. Eventually, Oswald was the more adroit in potting effectively at crucial stages of the match to emerge victorious and qualify for the main draw.
Dhruv Agarwal of West Bengal was engaged in a tough battle of attrition with Siddarth Parikh of RSPB in a match which lasted the full distance of seven frames before Dhruv showed exemplary temperament to remain focussed even when there was a greater pressure situation, finally winning the longish tie by 01-39, 31-39, 44-08, 35-06, 32-22, 28-39 and 42-30 points to also enter the main round stage.
Suraj Rathi of Maharashtra also made it to the main round with a fine victory over Arvind Kumar of RSPB another seven frames contest. With both players tied at 3-3 it was Suraj who broke the shackles to display flowing strokes in the clinching decider potting with consummate ease to down Arvind by 43-18, 41-08, 45-22, 37-40, 01-38, 17-42 and 73-08 points. Arvind trailing by 0-3 frames rallied brilliantly to take the next thrre frames on the trot to restore parity at 3-3 but when it mattered , his nerve mattered most, he failed to deliver and Suraj capitalized well on the chances offered to win.
Parthiv Jhaveri of Gujarat played out a stellar game of snooker while getting the better of his state mate, Purvang Patel in six frames to also make the main round grade winning by 41-01, 44-01, 35-22, 16-33, 33-00, 00-41 and 40-01 points.
Het Patel also of the host state of Gujarat continued to impress as he toppled Abhinav Sharma of Punjab in five frames to join the other victors of the day in the main round. Het came out on top by 50-38, 53-18, 32-29, 28-53 and 40-13 points.
Abhishek Ahuja of Delhi proved too strong for Satyam Shivhare of MP as he also registered an emphatic victory in six frames by 32-31, 54-17, 21-41, 36-20, 23-29 and 40-10 points to qualify for the last 64 main round .
Subrat Das of Odisha was engaged in a well contested seven frames tie with Bhadresh Panchal of Gujarat before snatching victory by 28-23, 23-29, 02-33, 00-45, 45-14, 39-30 and 32-08 frames to also qualify for the main rounds. Bhadresh who plays a open game missed some key shots in the decider and Subrat made the best of the situation to emerge out unscathed.
Hasan Badami of Maharashtra was in good form as he unsettled Udit Rai of MP in four straight frames to make the main round stage winning by 34-29, 52-02, 42-12 and 47-27 points.
Even so, the one player to really steal the show in the process of qualifying for the main stage was Joy Mehra of Punjab as he trounced Taaha Khan Of Maharashtra in five frames by 20-32, 32-10, 41-00m 41-25 and 54-40 points.
Joy who plays with a ‘no nonsense “style was extremely impressive as he came back strongly
in the second frame after losing the first to level scores at 1-1 in the best of seven frames match.
A steady approach, fluent cueing, uncluttered planning of strategy and the immaculate execution of his plan were the hall marks of this seasoned campaigner as he rattled his younger opponent.
Taaha should have won the fifth frame but he wilted under the pressure built up by Joy as the victor had no difficulty to come out twice from a position where needing snookers, not only he forced Taaha to give penalty points , but also clear the needed colour balls from the yellow to the pink ball to complete the rout.
In other matches 
Partiv Jhaveri beat Shoumik Mistry by 4-0 frames.
Hrithik Jain beat Sanchit Gupta by 4-2 frames.
Het Patel Beat Rohit Ravindran by 4-0 frames.
Ranveer Singh Marwah beat Ayush Mittal by 4-0 frames.
Soubhagya Behra beat Himanshu Patel by 4-0 frames.
Midhun M beat Mohsin Achhava by 4-2 frames.
Bhadresh Panchal beat Rovin D’Souza by 4-3 frames in a cliff hanger.
Sumehr Mago beat Sanket Mutha by 4-2 frames.
Abhimanyu Gandhi beat George Fernandez by 4-1 frames.
Hasan Badami beat Monu Chaudhary 4-2 frames.
Saad Sayed beat Mohd. Shoaib Khan by 4-2 frames.
Pandurangiah beat Atit Shah by 4-1 frames.
Arvind kumar beat Kashyap Shah by 4-1 frames.
Anish Parikh beat Shreyash Pednekar by 4-1 frames.
Taaha Khan Beat Rajat Khaneja by 4-3 frames in a see-saw battle.
Lakshman beat Chintamani Jhadav by 4-1 frames.
Ishtmit Singh Malik
Media Coordinator,
6 red snooker nationals
