The two ace cueists of the state, defending champion Raghoo Sinha of Allahabad and the challenger from Lucknow Nittin Kohli set up a showdown in the billiards final of the 2009 UP State Senior Billiards & Snooker Championships being played at Alexander Athletic Club, Meerut.

In the semi-final matches played over best of three games, Raghoo Sinha defeated Abhishek Raj of Moradabad by 2-0 while Nittin Kohli overcame the stiff challenge of local hope, Rajan Gupta by 70-150, 150-39 and 150-21points.

Losing the first game, Nittin rallied with exuberance in the second. Yet it was the last game which provided all the excitement before closing the game and match. Bringing forth all the finer skills he has acquired over the years, Nittin was full of confidence as he wrested the clincher even though Rajan fought tooth and nail before going down valiantly.

Earlier involved in a tie situation, the three cueists, Raghoo Sinha, Nishit Prakash and Nittin Kohli had to replay their matches which went well past midnight upto 2:00 am in the morning in which Raghoo Sinha beat Nishit Prakash by 100-39 and 100-34 points recording breaks of 50 in the first and a 41 in the second to win easily.

Nittin had to put in good effort to beat Nishit by 100-67 and 100-65 points to enter the semi-finals.

In a snooker match which began on Thursday, defending state snooker champion from Allahabad, Vinayak Agarwal had to bring out his best before surviving a scare in his match with Vikas Dhameja by 63-25, 21-54 and 72-52 points.

... contd.