Two qualifiers to precede 69th billiard nationals
Kumara Lanerolle, Secretary of BSASL, receives the sponsorship package from Dhammika Attygalle, President of AAC
The cue players will be back in action as the Billiards and Snooker Association of Sri Lanka (BSASL) have finalised arrangements to conduct the National Billiards Championship scheduled to be played from May 17 in Colombo.
The National Billiards Championship, which is the 69th edition, is being sponsored by the Automobile Association of Ceylon (AAC) with the blessings of the Billiards and Snooker Association of Sri Lanka.
Before the National Championship, the BSASL will be conducting two qualifying tournaments with the first being the district tournaments, which will be conducted in Colombo and Mawanella.
For the district tournaments the organizers have already received over 75 entries. After the completion of the district tournaments the second qualifying tournament, which is the All-Island Lanka Plate Championship is scheduled to be held from May 11 to 13. The players contesting in the All-Island Lanka Plate will be clashing for the16 slots to contest along with the 16 national ranked players at the 69th National Billiards Championship.
The round robin matches of the Colombo District Tournament will be played at the BSASL headquarters billiards table in Torrington and from the pre-quarter finals onwards, matches will be played at the Automobile Association Club in Colombo. The tournaments, including the national championship, will be played in the time format.
The round robin matches of the district tournaments will be played over a one hour duration and the knockouts will be played over one and a half hour time frame. The national championship final is scheduled to be played over two hours at the AAC billiards table. Last year Irshad Thaha of Moors SC emerged the national champion defeating Susantha Wickrama of Sri Lanka Army in the final.