Seven cueists book berths in quarter-finals

The Over-40 Masters (Veteran) Snooker Championship 2016 conducted by the Sri Lanka Billiards and Snooker Association of Sri Lanka (SLBSA) got underway at the headquarters billiards table of the SLBSA at the Sugathadasa Hotel in Colombo yesterday.

The morning session of play on day one of the two day championship saw six matches being worked off. From the ten matches that were scheduled while four matches ended in walkovers and in the evening session two pre-quarter matches were played.

The first round of matches which were played over three frames saw S.H. Ranjan (Sealord), Nimal de Silva (Grand Hotel N’Eliya), Tony Hafiz ( Starlight), T. N. S. Saldin ( Sealord), D. R. Meemanage (Air Force) and Sarath J. de Alwis (YMBA) winning their matches with ease.

Out of the four cueists T.N.S. Saldin (Sealord), D.R. Meemanage (Air Force) and Sarath J. de Alwis (YMBA) won their games while Prasanna Ginige (Panadura SC) on virtue of the two walk overs he received qualified and moved to the quarter-finals.

In the two pre-quarter-final matches that were played in the evening session saw Nimal de Silva (Grand Hotel N’Eliya) and S.H. Ranjan (Sealord) winning their matches to book a berth to the quarters and one more pre-quarter final match is scheduled to be played today morning.

Today’s quarter-final schedule is S.H. Ranjan (Sealord) vs T.N.S. Saldin (Sealord), Anil Rohana (AAC) vs Prasanna Ginige (Panadura SC), Nimal de Silva (Grand Hotel N’Eliya) vs Sarath J. de Alwis (YMBA) and D.R. Meemanage (Air Force) will meet the winner of the pre-quarter final match between Tony Hafiz (Starlight) and Faizal Haniffa (MSC).

This will be followed by the semi-finals due to be played from 2.00 p.m. and the final is slotted to be played from 5.00 p.m. onwards. These three stages will be contested over five frames.