NEW DELHI: The Delhi state billiards and snooker championships will be played from November 5 at the Baba billiards academy in Nirman Vihar here, announced the Delhi Billiards and Snooker Association (DBSA) on Saturday.
This year’s state championships will be organised in the memory of Wilson Jones, a professional player of English billiards from India, who won the amateur World Championships twice, in 1958 and 1964, informed DBSA president Vijay Goel.
The last date for submission of entries is November 2.
For the first time, a Masters snooker championships (above 40 years) will be held simultaneously, along with the senior and junior events. The tournament will feature events in sub-junior boys, junior snooker, junior billiards, senior snooker, senior billiards, Masters snooker and 6-Red snooker, stated DBSA secretary general Ravi Tandon.
The DBSA will be celebrating the birth centenary year of Wilson by hosting the tournament.
Wilson Jones
Jones, an Arjuna awardee in 1963, Padma Shri in 1965 and Dronacharya in 1996, was the first Indian to be a World champion in any sport. He passed away on October 4, 2003.
Tandon informed that the federation had started with Wilson in the year 1978, when exhibition matches were played at the Maurya Sheraton hotel here to promote the game.
“DBSA was formed in the year 1977 and worked tirelessly for the promotion of cue sports with Wilson Jones, Michael Ferreira, Arvind Savur and Girish Parikh,” he added.
