69th National Billiards Championship Over 100 cueists in action in two qualifying tournaments

By M. Shamil Amit   
The cue players will be back in action as the Billiards and Snooker Association of Sri Lanka (BASL) have finalized arrangements to conduct the National Billiards Championship scheduled to be played from May 17th onwards.   
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 billiards championship which is scheduled to be played from May 17th the BASL will be conducting two qualifying tournaments with the first being the district tournaments which will be conducted in Colombo and Mawanella.   
The district tournaments will get underway on May 4 and will end on May 6 which will be followed by the second qualifying tournament which is the All Island Lanka Plate scheduled to be held from May 11 to 13. The organizers are expecting the participation of over 100 cueists for the two tournaments.   

The completion of the district tournaments will see players fighting for the 16 slots to contest in the All Island Lanka Plate Championship where the players will be clashing in 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 BASL headquarters table in Torrington and from the pre-quarter finals onwards the matches will be played at the Automobile Association Club in Colombo.   
The preliminary round and the pre-quarter final matches will be played over three frames and the quarter finals over five frames.   
The two semi finals will be played over seven frames and the final over nine frames which will be played in two sessions. Last year Irshad Thaha of Moors SC emerged then national champion defeating Susantha Wickrama of Army in the final.