Snookering success at the Midlands Cup

On the weekend 5th/6th February the ICU Snooker team descended on Coventry for the annual pre-BUCS warm-up; the Midlands Cup Tournament. After an eventful journey in which one player missed the train, the team arrived with high spirits. The 1st team consisted of experienced old heads whereas the 2nd team composed of enthusiastic Freshers and 2nd years who had worked their way into the team.

Individual tournament matches were played on the Saturday, with the 1st and 2nd teams being separated to enter the individual championship and individual trophy tournaments respectively. Both teams had mixed success and there were notable performances from Nitesh Mehta who overwhelmed his opponent in the first round with accurate potting and flawless safety. The individual tournament ended without an Imperial student progressing beyond the 3rd round, however the team event was still to come.

The 1st and 2nd teams were once again entered into separate team tournaments. The 1st team of Sam Dennis (Captain), Hari Arora, Lawrence Wild, Bogdan Cozmacuic and Grace Yip played some fantastic match snooker and finished 4th in their group. Most notably Hari Arora managed a draw against Cardiff’s R.Taylor and from 25 points behind against Southampton’s D. Jose.

The 2nd team of Nitesh Mehta (Captain), Shyam Pankhania, Aaron Trowbridge and Paul Choong was one player light. Consequently two random players competed in an extra frame in each match. Nitesh Mehta and Paul Choong endured tough matches and persevered to keep the Imperial 2nd’s in the tournament at the close of play on Saturday. So far results had not gone the teams’ way, after losing 6-4 against Cardiff 3rd’s and Warwick 2nd’s. In the final team match against Southampton 3rds, Aaron Trowbridge’s persistence paid off and he obtained a well-earned draw in the first match. Unfortunately, Nitesh Mehta nor Paul Choong could secure a frame leaving Imperial 2nd’s trailing 5-1. It was time for Shyam Pankhania to step up to the plate and give Imperial an unlikely path through to the knockout phase. The first frame started off with the Southampton player taking a 20 point lead, however with some fantastic safety play and astute snookering the frame went down to the black. The Southampton player potted the long black, and went on to win the next frame on the black. Imperial’s pride was at stake and Shyam Pankhania earned a couple of chances in the final frame. He successfully converted these chances with breaks of 14 and a career high break of 27, winning the frame on the long black which had eluded him throughout the tournament.

The high breaks table was dominated by a Cardiff player who made fourteen breaks of over 30. Nevertheless the Imperial 1st’s had impressive breaks of their own with Lawrence Wild making 41 and 43, and Bogdan Cozmacuic complemented this with a 32.

Overall the Tournament was successful and now the ICU Snooker teams switch their minds to defending their BUCS Snooker Title in March.