 The Carolina Carrom Open Singles Event
was a huge success, with sixteen
players from NJ, PA, VA and NC competing for
a $1000 cash payout (Atul and Billy added
$100 each to the $800 in registration fees.)
By siting the event at the Carolina Classic
Women's Billiard Tournament, we drew a large
crowd of fascinated onlookers, including
some world-class professional pool players.
Most spectators had never seen the game
before, unless they'd run across us last
year at other billiards events. We played
six rounds on Saturday, giving us a ranking
from which we broke into two groups of eight
and played quarters, semis and finals on
Sunday. The level of play was very high and
many near slams and spectacular finishes
were witnessed. Sonny Finger acted as Chief
Referee and scorekeeper, doing a great job
of keeping things moving and adjucating
numerous queries.
Atul Kharacha played well all day and came
in first, Mandar Deshpande and
Naveen Chandran took second and third
places, and Billy Stevens came in
fourth after three close games. Sarma
Vadlamani bested Hari Venkatesan in
the finals of Group B. We won over many
people from the billiards community, all of
whom were impressed by the game, as well as
by our skill and finesse. |
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An
adjacent vendor, Linda Paults, an artist
from New York state, was so
impressed that she donated her signed series
of billiards prints, based on
Hollywood pool themes, to the winner. This
was a nice addition to the $400
first prize (half of which Atul donated, in
the form of a carrom board, to
the 16th place player, a Malaysian from
Rocky Mount who never scored a
point,) $200 second prize, $150 thrid prize,
$100 fourth prize, and $100 and
$50 for first place and runner-up in Group
B. We all had a blast and
definitely planted a seed for a local Rocky
Mount Carrom Club.
Here are the complete results:
Finals: Atul Kharecha b. Mandar
Deshpande
Consolation: Naveen Chandran b.
Billly Stevens
Semis: Atul Kharecha b. Billy Stevens
Mandar Deshpande b. Naveen Chandran
Quarters: Atul Kharecha b. Saroj
Parekh
Mandar Deshpande b. Sameer Sawant
Naveen Chandran b. Sridhar Sundar
Billy Stevens b. Mandava Rao
Group B Finals: Sarma Vadlamani b.
Hari Venkatesan
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