RCGC, in association with The Telegraph, ushered in the new year with an exciting snooker tournament, the Open HandicapSingle Snooker Tournament. After a series of matches since earlier this month, players finally reached the finals on January 20. The final match was competitive as well as contemplative with both players battling it out with deep focus. The 2018 Worlds Billiards Champion, Sourav Kothari, was present at the award ceremony and also showed some interesting trick shots to club members. Snapshots.
Ashish Gupta(right) was the grand winner of the evening.The tense final match ultimately culminated in a win by Gupta, who said he was delighted to have won the tournament.
Sourav Kothari interacted with members and showcased a number of exciting trick shots. Members were also called upon as volunteers to take part in them.
“When I took over the sports convenorship two years back, we had been primarily focusing on golf and indoor sports like bowling. But then,we got many new members who play multiple sports. So, we decided to have an in-house tournament in every sport, to encourage all members to come and participate. We have a lot of regular snooker players in the club and it is the busiest place in the club on most days. So, we wanted to organise something special for them,” said G.S. Baweja, sports chairman, RCGC.
“Having Sourav Kothari here with us is a great source of inspiration for the members. There are a lot of young members who, on watching him, might be interested in taking up the sport. Few of them might be going on to play at national and international levels. So, this is the grassroots level from where things start. So, it is important to cultivate the culture of the sport. This is one sport which is difficult for people to access as well. So, weat the club are trying to start a program where we can also get a lot of female players involved,” said Rajesh Chandan, sports coordinator, RCGC.
“At the state level, there is always a huge amount of interest among youngsters to play the sport. But the only problem with sports like golf or snooker is that it needs a particular infrastructural set-up that is sometimes only available at clubs, which might not be accessible to everyone. Among members too, the interest in the sport is rising and there are many regular players who are playing daily. It is not that expensive to play this sport. The only impediment is that you need access to the infrastructure. This can be done with the help of more academies and programs that are open to people at large,” said Sourav Kothari on the popularity of snooker.