Women's Snooker: India - Part One

When Judith Walia of Bangalore was crowned India's first national woman snooker champion at the inaugural National Billiards and Snooker Championships way back in 1989, she had to contend with barely 18 participants - far from flattering, to say the least and worse, an air of uncertainty about whether the women's' game would survive.

Fourteen years down the line, women's snooker has held its own in India. Importantly, it has gained acceptance from a wide spectrum of women, be it Mumbai's teenage wonder Anuja Thakur, or the veteran 60-plus stalwart Kamala C. Babu from Chennai.

Today, the sport has an intriguing mix of youth and experience. Am insight into this abundant talent can be seen in Mumbai at the second CCI Ladies Invitation snooker tournament. There are the seniors led by Kamala, which includes Pune's Usha Khandelwal - finalist in the 1989 tourney, Heena Khandelwal - national champion in 1995 and 1998, also runner-up at the 2000 nationals, R. Umadevi - Karnataka's state champion in snooker and billiards, runner up at the 2000 snooker and billiards championship, Sangeeta Hemchand and of course Judith Walia. Then the circuit has the mother-daughter combination of Renu Bharkatiya and Daughter Pooja Galundia, winner at the 1991 and '92 nationals, also runner-up in 1995.

The enthusiasm among the young brigade is especially heartening; Varsha Majumdar - reigning champion at CCI and Bombay Gymkhana events, CCI's Neeta Sanghvi, sisters Anuja and Meenal Thakur, Jagruti Patel, Ritu Shrivastava, M. Chitra and Vidhya Pillai.

Has women's snooker changed over the years? "Positive play, tougher opponents have transformed the game, giving it a sharper edge", feels Judith, who also bagged the crown in 1997.

This article will be continued with analyses next week too.