Sports

Boteju, Aslam in snooker final

BY BERNARD Perera

THE defending National Snooker Champion Susantha Boteju had an easy passage to the final of the National Snooker Championship now in progress at the Billiard and Snooker Association tables on Thursday.

He defeated last year's runner-up Naresh Samarawickrama with a classy show - six frames to one to make his way to the final.

In the semi-final Boteju got off to a fine lead winning the first three sets comfortably Naresh came back strongly in the next frame to clinch the fourth set and to reduce the lead. Boteju once again fought back to take the following three sets to take the match in his favour - six frames to one.

S. H. M. Aslam is the other cueist to reach the final when he ousted M. K. M. Nazeer six frames to one.

Here too it was Aslam who got to the lead with winning the first three frames. After a close fight Nazeer took the fourth frame to make it 3 frames to one (65-52).

Aslam continued his good form winning the fifth, sixth and the seventh frames to win the semi-final comfortably.

This victory also gave him the opportunity to have a fight with the defending champ Susantha Boteju today.

It was not a good period for one of Sri Lanka's top snooker players P. M. J. Ameen. Ameen was in peak form during the preliminary round and was heading towards the quarter-final stage, but the businessman had to abandoned the championship as he had to leave the island on business matters.

Today's final between Susantha Boteju and S. H. M. Aslam is sure to produce top class snooker as both players have reached their best form after playing continuously for over two weeks.

During this period they have confronted top cueists from all parts of the country.

These two have had no difficulty in overcoming their opponents at any stage of the tourney.

Boteju is favoured to win the title today but Aslam will definitely make Boteju fight all the way in the final which consists of 13 frames. The winner will be awarded with the U. W. Sumathipala trophy. The national championships is sponsored by Sumathi Group of Companies.

Results (semi-final):

S. H. M. Aslam (Moors SC) beat M. K. M. Nazeer (MICH) 6-1 (73-27, 63-37, 57-20, 52-65, 70-31, 62-30, 71-47). Susantha Boteju (YMCA) beat Naresh Samarawickrama (YMBA Galle) 6-1 (70-53, 80-16, 53-52, 47-64, 58-48, 70-56, 77-52).