Joshi corners glory

By M. C. Raman

CHENNAI, FEB. 23: Devendra Joshi does only two things in billiards. Either he loses or simply hijacks the matches. Or is it cuejacking?

His cue flowed so marvellously in the final of the Khel.com National men's championship at Wild West, Spencer Plaza, on Friday it caused tremors that dislodged Ashok Shandilya of Railways from the throne and made his master ascend majestically to it for the first time in his 14-year career with a stunning 1653-972 victory.

No one in the hall asked why this Maharashtra man won the Arthur Walker Trophy. But everyone was asking why he did not take the coveted title even once for so long. Such was the class that Joshi showed against the defending champion, who, the other day, said: ``In this sport when you stand at the table you are the player and you are your rival. There is no other opponent like in other sports. Either you play well or sit and sulk in a corner.''

Shandilya did not sit and sulk in a corner. He came back with a brilliant 189 break after the two-hour session in his 30th visit. At the midway stage, Joshi already found his touch and took a 679-382 lead. The Railways player's massive break would have made the final close. But Joshi, who let Shandilya off the hook by nine points in last year's final at Bangalore, was in no mood to repeat it again. He replied with a 144 which finally `killed' Shandilya.

``That 144 was the killer,'' said Ashok after the match. That neutralised the hectic effort that the defending champion made to get back into the race. Perhaps his bad semi- final struggle against Manoj Kothari prompted Joshi to tighten up the game.

Joshi could not afford to be casual. Look at the misfortune of this man. He lost to Geet Sethi in the World professional final in 1995 at Mumbai and thrice he made it to the National final, but went down. He could even win the National snooker honours in 1998 at Calcutta, but the billiards trophy was elusive.

Without doubt it was a high class match. Break for break. Challenge for challenge. But Joshi, after initial tentativeness, simply took off to leave Shandilya to settle for the No. 2 slot.

Shandilya looked shaky in the beginning and was in two minds about his strokes. However, he later said: ``The balls were causing me problems. I was not getting it right.'' He had only a 65 in the whole first session. Whereas Joshi was already on the move - 97, 91, 82, 105, 80 and 98, which he completed after the break.

Joshi too had his problems in the first session. Every time when the baulk line warning was coming he was fumbling and losing the big breaks. But all that changed in the second half as his shots flowed like Ganga. He was simply superb. When the baulk line warning came twice in his 180, he showed his magic touch. He hit the red which went in and the white took three frames before coming back for the cannoning again where he wanted. In the next call, his long white shot rebounded and hit both red and yellow simultaneously and the spectators gave him a big hand. By now he became the master of the table and Shandilya was fading away.

The 34 year-old Joshi, a Bharat Petroleum officer, made it at last, showing excellent consistency. From the beginning he was sounding the warning and those who heard it believed in him. But the margin of victory was amazing at this level of competition. He was unstoppable and Manoj Kothari paid a tribute to him for putting up such a high class performance.

Manoj Kothari won the third place, beating Alok Kumar of Punjab 855-744.

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