Air-India won the Bombay Women's Hockey Association open tournament, defeating Khalsa Gymkhana A 9-1 at BHA's Mahindra Stadium today. Considering that Air-India were a professional outfit with a sprinkle of internationals, including veterans Fiona Fernandes and Sybil Miranda, Khalsa's capitulation was understandable.

But Sybil Miranda, the oldest player on turf, a mother at 33 with 10 years of international service behind her, was a trifle sad things had come to this pass. Khalsa never lost so badly during the days she learned the wares of her trade there, she reckoned.

``Even though we did not have any open tournament like this one, we did well at the state and national level, and results were often the mirror image of this one.''

The Air-India girls, Sybil felt, needed to put up a more determined showing if they were to make an impact at theNational level. ``We did not do well at the last Nationals, but hope to soon click as a unit.'' Ever since their cost-conscious management stopped offering jobs to players, Air-India have also felt the pinch of an unhealthy player turnover.

Perhaps the turf also merits a word in the general scheme of things. All six teams played their league matches at Khalsa's grass surface. The final was shifted to BHA's astroturf, probably because it was a progressive thing to do. But surely, the orientation to turf deserves a thought before such decisions are taken.

Air-India started proceedings with the tall centre-forward PM Ashwini, athletic and impressive, deflecting in. She was to score three more goals (34th, 42nd, 48th). Captain MV Hemalatha, Bhupinder Kaur (29th, 53rd), Urmila Kumari (39th) and Anita Rawat (50th) shared the spoils, while Nisha Prabhu provided Khalsa the consolation, with a regulation angular from the right. Centre Akshaya Shetty showed great promise for the losers, and won the appreciation ofher opponents.

Earlier, Martina Fernandes scored Carmel's sole goal in their match for the third place against Khalsa B.