Under-18 Snooker C’ship from today

KARACHI: A total of 32 promising teenaged cueists from all over the country will be taking part in the 2nd National Under-18 Snooker Championship 2017 which gets underway at the PSB Complex in Islamabad on Monday (today).

According to the draws announced by the Pakistan Billiards & Snooker Association (PBSA) on Sunday, the cueists have been divided equally in eight groups for the preliminary rounds.

Naseem Akhtar (Punjab) has been drawn in the Group A alongwith Mubashir Khan (KP), Ahmed Ali (Islamabad) and Umar Farooq (Punjab).

The Group B comprises Shiraz Raza (Sindh), Annas Larik (Islamabad), Atif Arshad (KP) and Saud Khan (Punjab).

The quartet of Shaikh Ahmed (KP), Mohammad Ali (Islamabad), Hamza Ilyas (Punjab) and Junaid Hasan (KPK) constitute the Group C.

The Group D has Moiz Kashif (Islamabad), Faisal-ur-Rahman (KP), Faizan Fateh (Islamabad) and Ahsan Ramzan (Punjab).

The Group E features Kamran Chaudhary (Islamabad), Shaheryar Khan (Sindh), Raees Ali Usama (Punjab) and Abdullah Rizwan (KP).  The Group F has Abdullah Saeed (Sindh), Shaikh Mudassar (Punjab), Mohammad Abbas (Islamabad) and Munsifuddin (KP).

The Group G is made up of Umar Azhar (Punjab), Moosa Naqvi (Islamabad), Shahwais Moris (KP) and Mohammad Saqib (Punjab).

The Group H has Faiz-ur-Rahman (KP), Mohammad Umair (Balochistan), Rameen Ashraf (Sindh) and Shahzaib Malik (Punjab).

At the end of the preliminary round matches, the top two cueists from each group will proceed to the pre-quarter-finals.

The preliminary round matches will be best-of-five-frame contests.  The pre-quarter-finals and the quarter-finals will be best-of-seven-frame encounters.

The semi-finals will be best-of-nine-frame matches.  The final will be a best-of-11-frame fixture. The winner will receive Rs50,000, while the runner-up will get Rs25,000. The losing semi-finalists and the losing quarter-finalists will be given Rs15,000 and Rs5,000 each, respectively. The highest break carries a reward of Rs5,000.

Besides having waived the entry fee, the newly-elected executive committee of the PBSA is also taking care of the board and lodging of the cueists.