ISP Squash
 
   
   
 

Royal Palms Handicap Squash Tournament 

  At Royal Palms Golf and Country Club, Mumbai: (1.11.1998)
   


At the prize distribution ceremony of the tournament held at Royal Palms, Goregaon, Mumbai from left to right front row:
Kavita Nalavade, Deepali Anvekar, Chandrakant Pawar & Sunil Verma (The Leela team, runner-up) along with Mahendra Agarwal (Founder Director, ISP).

Back row from left to right:  Dilawar Nensey (Joint M.D. Royal Palms India), Dean Jones (Cricketer & Chief Guest), Subhash Wali (Director, ISP) & Roger Binny

Click here for more photographs

All Results

Finals :
Otters 'A' beat The Leela 3-1
Manish Chotrani beat Saket Wali (plus 10) 10-15, 15-10, 10-15, 17-16, 15-13
Karanpal Sethi bt Kavita Nalavade (plus 8) 9-15, 15-9, 15-10, 15-12
Cyrus Poncha lost to Sunil Verma (plus 11) 8-15, 15-11, 13-15, 15-12, 10-15
Santosh More beat Subash Wali (plus 10) 10-15, 15-10, 15-13, 13-15, 17-14
3rd Place :
Willingdon Catholic Gymkhana beat Otters 'B' 3-2
Rajesh Sonawane (plus 6) beat Niraj Shirgaokar 8-15, 15-9, 15-11, 10-15, 15-8
Bipin Batra (plus 8) lost to Abhijit Kukreja 10-15, 15-11, 15-4, 14-15, 16-17
Sanjay Goyal (plus 6) beat Vijay Sonawane 9-15, 15-10, 15-10, 10-15, 15-14
Rakshak Malhotra (plus 10) lost to Avinash Bhavnani 11-15, 15-11, 15-12, 11-15, 10-15
Sudesh Malik beat Vinay 9-15, 15-9, 15-11, 15-12

 

Press Articles of tournament : 

Otters ‘A’ crush Leela for title
(Article in Afternoon, Mumbai : 2/11/1998)

Otters Club ‘A’ demonstrated their overall strength in a display of inspired execution, doled out a 3-1 belting to The Leela to win the Rs.62,500 Royal Palms handicap team squash tournament, organized by the Indian Squash Professionals on Sunday.

A heavy handicap dampened neither the spirits nor the performance of the stars in their midst, as the Otters players scored comprehensive wins over the younger and less experienced Leela contingent. Manish Chotrani, considered as India’s best current squash player gave Saket Wali, one of the leading youngsters of the day, a lesson or two about the fighting to the end. Playing with a handicap of 10 points, Chotrani overcame a one game deficit twice in the match to complete a 10-15, 15-10, 10-15, 17-16, 15-13 win over the youngster.

Players like Manish Chotrani can be beaten only if given a handicap of 14 points, opined one of the players Leela were handicapped by the absence of the in-form Deepali Anvekar, who was unavailable due to her examinations. Their ploy of holding back the seasoned fighter Chandrakant Pawar for the decider failed as Otters wrapped up the match in four games itself, to walk away with winner’s cheque of Rs.25,000.

Otters Club ‘B’ contrary to expectations as well as handicaps lost a close encounter against Willingdon Catholic Gymkhana to miss out on third place. Willingdon prevailed 3-2 over their rivals, with Sanjay Goyal winning a key match against Vijay Sonawane.

 

Otters ‘A’ triumph
(Article in Afternoon, Mumbai : 3/11/1998)

Otters Club ‘A’ demonstrated their overall strength while defeating The Leela, 3-1, in the Rs.62,500 Royal Palms handicap team squash tournament, organized by the Indian Squash Professionals, on Sunday.

The heavy handicap they had to carry proved no deterrent to the star players in their midst. Manish Chotrani, currently rated as India’s No.1, for instance, gave Saket Wali, one of the leading youngsters, 10 points and a beating in the opening match.

Karanpal Sethi, an under 12, also pitched in by defeating Kavita Nalavade who had an eight-points advantage. Professional Santosh More recorded the other victory for Otters ‘A’. He beat Subhash Wali who began each game at 10-love players like Manish Chotrani can be beaten only if given a handicap of 14 points, opined one player. The Leela were handicapped by the absence of Deepali Anvekar who was preoccupied with examinations. Their move to hold back Chandrakant Pawar, one of the top pros and a tremendous fighter, for the fifth and final match was in vain as Otters ‘A’ clinched the issue by the fourth match.

The triumph enabled Otters ‘A’ to bag the top prize of Rs.25,000 They picked up another Rs.10,000 through Otters ‘B’ even though, contrary to expectations, Otters ‘B’ lost to recent entrants Willingdon Catholic Gymkhana in the match to decide third place.

In a close encounter Willingdon prevailed at 3-2, Sanjay Goyal winning a key match against Vijay Sonawane who had a six-points advantage. Rajesh Sonawane (plus six) scored a fine victory over Niraj Shirgaokar and Sudesh Malik clinched the decider.

In the semi-finals on Saturday, Otters ‘A’ had beaten Otters ‘B’ 3-1, and The Leela had scored over Willingdon Catholic Gymkhana 3-2.

Former cricketers, Dean Jones of Australia and India’s Roger Binny, who had come to take part in a golf event organized by the Royal Palms Golf and Country club, and Mr. Dilawar Nensey, of the Royal Palms, gave away the prizes.

 

Leela, Otters ‘A’ vie for top prize
(Article in Asian Age, Mumbai : 1/11/1998)

The Leela and Otters Club ‘A’ will vie for the top prize of Rs.25,000/- in the Rs.52,500/- Royal Palms handicap team squash tournament, Organized by Indian Squash Professionals on Sunday.

Both encountered stiff opposition before the final at the Royal Palms Golf and Country Club’s court at Goregaon on Saturday. The Leela, especially, had to sweat it out against Willingdon Catholic Gymkhana by three matches to two.

After Deepali Anvekar, the national under-19 runner-up, and Saket Wali, just out of the junior ranks, had given The Leela a seemingly comfortable 2-0 lead Willingdon Catholic Gymkhana fought back through Bipin Batra and Rashak Malhotra to draw level.

The decider was bitterly fought between two professionals and Chandrakant Pawar rose to the occasion to overcome Rajesh Sonawane who had a 6-0 advantage in handicap in a lively five-game tussle to settle the issue in The Leela’s favour.

Though Otters A beat Otters B 3-1 in the other semifinal it was from a domestic affair. An under-12 who had an 8-0 handicap. Karanpal Singh

Played a key role for Otters by winning the fourth match that went the full distance.

Willingdon Catholic Gymkhana and Otters B will now play each other for the third position which will be worth Rs.12.500/-. The team finishing fourth will receive Rs.10,000. Former Australian cricketer Dean Jones will be the guest of honour at the finals commencing at 11am.

 

Otters A Capture crown
(Article in Free Press Journal, Mumbai : 2/11/1998)

OTTERS Club A demonstrated their overall strength in no uncertain terms, while defeating The Leela 3-1 in the Rs.62,500 Royal Palms handicap team squash tournament, organized by the Indian Squash Professionals, on Sunday.

The heavy handicap they had to carry proved no deterrent on the star players in their midst, Manish Chotrani, currently rated as India’s number one, for instance, gave Saket Wali, one of the leading youngsters, 10 points and a beating in the opening match.

Karanpal Sethi, an under-12, also pitched in by defeating Amit who had an eight-point advantage. Professional Santosh More recorded the other victory for Otters. He beat Subhash Wali who began each game at 10-love.

Players like Manish Chotrani can be beaten only if given a handicap of 14 points, opined one player. The Leela were handicapped by the absence of Deepali Anvekar who was preoccupied with examinations. Their move to hold back Chandrakant Pawar, one of the top pros and a tremendous fighter, for the fifth and final match was in vain as Otters clinched the issue by the fourth match.

The triumph enabled Otters A to bag the top prize of Rs.25,000/. They picked up another Rs.10,000/- through Otters B even though, contrary to exceptions, Otters B lost to recent entrants Willingdon Catholic Gymkhana in the match to decide third place.

In a close encounter Willingdon prevailed 3-2, Sanjay Goyal winning a key match against Vijay Sonawane who had a six-point advantage. Rajesh Sonawane (plus six) scored a fine victory over Niraj Shirgaokar and Sudesh Malik clinched the decider.

 

Willingdon win
(Article in Times of India, Mumbai : 31/10/1998)

Willingdon Catholic Gymkhana scored a thrilling 3-2 victory over Navi Mumbai sports association to reach the semifinals of the Rs.62,500 Royal Palms team handicap squash tournament Organized by Indian squash professionals, at the club’s courts on Friday.

29/10/1998: RPGCC handicap squash from Oct 31 (Article in Free Press Journal, Mumbai)

Otters Club will field the cream of the players from Maharashtra for the Rs.62, 500 Royal Palms and Country Club’s Open Handicap Team squash tournament to be held at the club’s courts in Goregaon from October 31 to November 1.

Otters Club will be fielding two teams of almost equal strength in the event. The Otters-A team consists of Manish Chotrani, who recently won the Dewan Housing title defeating national champion Akhil Behl in the final, Santosh More, the number one among professionals, Junaid Nathani, the national under-16 champion, Karanpal Sethi, a talented under-14 player, Cyrus Poncha a well known coach and Carl Bokdawala, according to a press release.

Otters-B team consists of Niraj Shirgaokar who led Maharashtra to victory at the National Inter-State championships, Abhijit Kukreja, an under-19 semifinalist at the Little Masters that concluded last Saturday, Arif Patel, Avinash Bhavnani, Vijay Sonawane and Vijay Bajaj.

Actually, otters had entered five teams but in view of the tight scheduled and the fact that the tournament has to be completed in three days, only two have been accepted, according to the release. For the same reasons only one Jindal team had been accepted out of the three entered and one each from Navi Mumbai Sports Association and Willingdon Catholic Gymkhana out of two, the release added.

There are eight teams in the fray out of the 15 entered and thanks to the draw, only one Otters Club team can bid for the winners purse of Rs.25,000. However, the other side can aspire for the third prize of Rs.12,500. There are four prizes in all for the eight teams.

 

27th Tournament Organised by ISP

HOME