Seafarer's club to host snooker tournament

Chennai, Jun 14 (UNI) For the first time, the Seafarer's club, one of the oldest clubs in this metropolis, would be hosting an invitation snooker tournament here from tomorrow.

After the two-day event, the club would be hosting the non-medallist tournament from June 17 to July nine, Club Chairman and Seafarer's Welfare Committee member Dr P Misra told reporters here last night.

The top 12 cueists from the State, including Asian gold medallist Rafath Habib, Tamil Nadu Number one R Girish, Varun Kumar, S A Saleem, Prem Prakash and the seasoned Antim Singhi, would be seen in action.

Matches up to quarterfinals would be of best of three frames. In the semi-finals and finals it would be best of five frames.

After the invitation tournament, an exhbition ladies snooker match involving world champion Chitra Magimairaj of Karnataka would be held. She would also be felicitated on the occasion.

Dr Misra said about 125 entries have been received for the non-medallsit event.

The conduct of the tournament was the club's initiative to encourage sports related actvities in a big way among the seafarers.

Since the invitation tournament had got a trophy sponsored by a member, it would be an annual event and upgraded to a national level event.

He said efforts were also being made to acquire two pool tables for running a pool tournament with the assistance of the Billiards and Snooker Federation of India (BSFI).

UNI