Army’s Mubeen looking to make amends
The second day’s proceedings of the 65th National Snooker Championship conducted by the Billiards and Snooker Association of Sri Lanka and sponsored by U.W. Sumathipala Group of Companies for the 14th successive year played at the Moors SC billiards table in Braybrooke Place saw last year’s losing finalist M.M. Mubeen of Army beginning his campaign on a winning note.
Shamril Ameen in action - Pic by M.D.Nissanka
Defending champion M.F.M. Fazil of ‘The Cue Club’ and 18 times snooker national champion Susantha Boteju of Sea Endless had an easy passage against the national billiards champion K.H. Sirisoma of SLPA whom he outclassed by four frames to nil in the seven frame encounter.
Three other up and coming youngsters Shamil Ameen of Sea Endless, Mohamed Thaha (MICH) the 17 year old schoolboy from Lyceum International School Wattala who clinched the All Island Lanka Plate Championship title last week and M.S.M. Rasheed (8BPP) cleared their hurdles with comfortable wins over some experience cueists.
A noteworthy win was by M.F.M. Fahim of MSC who overcame former national snooker runner up Ryan Somaratna of OAC while the others to win their matches were S.M.A. Sherifdeen of Army and Azeem Hinoon of MICH.
Eight matches are down for decision today with four each in the morning and afternoon sessions. The match schedule in the morning are Susantha Boteju (Sea Endless) vs M.R.T. Chandana (BRC), M.F.M. Fazil (The Cue) vs Fouzan Hussain (Pyramid SP Kandy), M.J.A. Thasleem (AAC) vs D. John (Pyramid SP Kandy) and Ryan Somaratna (OAC) vs Mohamed Shafraz (Sea Endless).
The four matches scheduled in the afternoon are M.M. Mubeen (Army) vs S.H.M. Aslam (MSC), Fouzan Hussain (Pyramid SP Kandy) vs Mohamed Abzal (POP), Susantha Boteju (Sea Endless) vs D. John (Pyramid SP Kandy) and S.M. Zulfikar (YMCA) vs Azeem Hinoon (MICH).
The round robin matches are scheduled to be concluded on December 19 and the pre-quarter and quarter finals are scheduled to be played on December 20 and 21 also over seven frames. The semi finals will also be played on December 21 over nine frames and the final is slotted to be played on December 23 which will be over 11 frames.
Results
Mohamed Thaha (MICH) beat T.H.M. Farshad (MSC) 4-0 (60/37, 83/41, 49/23, 56/39); Shamil Ameen (Sea Endless) beat M.Z.A. Zulfi (MSC) 4-2 (34/57, 59/55, 23/47, 57/43, 79/46, 72/37); T. Thanji (YMCA) received walkover; M.F.M. Fahim (MSC) beat Ryan Somaratna (OAC) 4-1 (77/37, 50/27, 36/58, 62/27, 50/26); M.M. Mubeen (Army) beat K.H. Sirisoma (SLPA) 4-0 (46/11, 65/48, 72/39, 60/25); S.M.A. Sherifdeen (Army) beat Riyaz Noor (The Cue) 4-3 (59/51, 38/67, 57/65, 67/13, 68/35, 35/60, 47/37); M.S.M. Rasheed (8BPP) beat Namindu Fernando (Army) 4-1 (48/55, 63/33, 56/15, 73/47, 49/25); Azeem Hinoon (MICH) beat T. Thanji (YMCA) 4-3 (10/73, 63/34, 71/40, 37/61, 40/66, 59/54, 59/15).