Teens take centre-stage as junior snooker begins

KARACHI: The teenagers, mostly debutants, took the centre-stage as the eighth edition of the National Under-21 Snooker Championship 2016 cued off here at Hotel Movenpick on Tuesday.

With the Pakistan Billiards & Snooker Association (PBSA) laying greater emphasis on grooming new talent, it was pleasing to see the thrill in the eyes of the young guns as the vast majority was playing in the arena of a five-star hotel for the first time.

Only two of the 16 matches on the opening day went to the full distance of five frames in which Haris Tahir of Punjab edged out William Laffourgue of Islamabad and Rabish Parvaiz of Balochistan elbowed out Hashir Siddique of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

It was in the fitness of things that top seeded Abdul Javaid of Punjab earned the honour of registering the first half-century break of the competition.

He fired a break of 57 in the very first frame against Abdul Rahim, also from Punjab. It remained the highest break of the opening day.

Haris Tahir displayed his break-building abilities later in the day. He was successful in chalking up big breaks under pressure which helped him contain the dangerous William Laffourgue.  He followed his break of 40 in the first frame with one of 44 in the third frame. He performed even better in the decisive fifth frame as he compiled a match-winning break of 50.

A total of 36 cueists from all over the country have entered the championship, divided in six groups for the preliminary rounds. The top two cueists from each of the six groups will be advancing to the knockout stage of the competition. While the top four will qualify directly for the quarter-finals, the remaining eight will be engaged in pre-quarter-finals.

Results: Abdul Javaid (Pjb) bt Abdul Rahim (Pjb) 3-1 (86-27, 66-33, 50-59, 62-45); Ghawish Khan (Sindh) bt Hammad Shaikh (Sindh) 3-0 (65-40, 65-18, 75-30); Mohammad Saqib (Pjb) bt Azam Khan (KP) 3-1 (54-63, 65-15, 82-63, 66-35); Mohammad Ibrahim (Bal) bt Mohammad Aftab (Bal) 3-0 (61-29, 54-25, 68-17); Mohammad Ahmed (Pjb) bt Usama Qurashi (Isb) 3-0 (57-47, 57-24, 62-50); Mohammad Afzal (Pjb) bt Taimoor Aftab (Bal) 3-0 (56-32, 56-38, 67-36); Suleman Shah (Sindh) bt Junaid Akhtar (KP) 3-0 (58-31, 43-19, 56-15); Haris Tahir (Pjb) bt William Laffourgue (Isb) 3-2 (72-22, 39-54, 81-16, 26-52, 75-23); Mohammad Adil (Bal) bt Zubair Shamsi (Sindh) 3-0 (61-26, 71-9, 70-12); Usama Hanif (Pjb) bt Hammad Rasool (Isb) 3-0 (68-25, 53-50, 64-29); Rabish Parvaiz (Bal) bt Hashir Siddique (KP) 3-2 (57-46, 35-43, 53-25, 60-80, 53-2); Tanveer Baloch (Sindh) bt Fareed Firdous (Sindh) 3-0 (57-52, 72-29, 48-49) Maaz Samad (Isb) bt Mohammad Farooq (Bal) 3-0 (48-36, 54-11, 56-24); Adil Zafar (Pjb) bt Naimatullah (Bal) 3-0 (50-13, 59-8, 81-4); Hamza Ali (Sindh) bt Hassan Ali Adnan (KP) 3-1 (34-56, 64-12, 93-14, 79-64).