Billiards/Snooker for Lafir Trophy

The eighth M.J.M. Lafir Memorial Billiard and Snooker championship commenced yesterday, with the opening ceremony at the fully equipped air conditioned MICH Billiards Parlour at No. 115, Dematagoda Road, Maradana. The matches of the tournament will commence today according to the organizers of the tournament. The tournament could not continue due to various reasons during the past decade.

Altogether 83 cueists have confirmed their participation in both forms on the game. Sixty four cueists in the snooker will compete in four groups on a knockout basis. Each group consists of 16 players and the winner will be decided on best of three frames up to pre- quarters.

The winner in each group will then join the Sri Lanka Number one and two snooker players Susantha Boteju, Ryan Somaratne and two ranked players from India in the quarter finals where matches will be played in best-of-5-frames.

These eight cueists will be played their games on a round robin basis in two different groups for five frames and two top cueists from each group will go through to the semi-finals. The final is scheduled for December 12 at 1.00pm.

Meanwhile in the billiards tourney 19 players will go through on a knockout process in four different groups. The winner from each group will then join Sri Lanka’s Top most cueists. K.H. Sirisoma, S.H.M. Aslam, M.J. Thasleem and Thishan Samarasinghe in a round robin format.

The best two of each group will advance to the semi-finals and the final is also scheduled for December 12 at 10.00am.

The tournament is organized by the Social and Recreation Committee of the Moors Islamic Cultural Home (MICH) in memory of M.J.M. Lafir who brought fame to Sri Lanka with the first ever World title, the World Billiards Championship in 1973.