Devpriya clinches boys' U-18 singles title; Shruti adds another feather to her crown

File Photo: Shruti Jaiswal

Patna, May 30, 2009
Devpriya Jaiswal of Bihar won his second All India Tennis Association (AITA) talent series title in a row within a week. In the second tournament of the series, Devpriya struggled hard to down Keshav Kishan of Maharashtra 5-7, 6-2, 6-1 to claim the boys’ under -18 singles title at the Patliputra Colony courts here on Saturday.

Keshav was in a terrific form in the first set. He broke Devpriya service twice and took the first set at 7-5. But in the next two sets, Devpriya found his form to minimize the unforced errors. He won the next two sets quite easily and bagged the title.

Devpriya’s elder sister Shruti was as usual into her business in the girls’ under-18 final against state mate Madhu Jaiswal. Shruti had not find any notable resistance against Madhu and won the match and the title.

Later, Shruti added doubles title to her kitty. Pairing with Ayushi Yadav of Uttar Pradesh, she drubbed the Bihar-UP combination of Madhu Jaiswal and Sivana Zaidi 6-2, 6-2 to capture the crown.

It was Shruit’s second grand double in week. Earlier on May 22, she won the singles and doubles titles in the first tournament of this series.

Bihar Tenni-Koit gears up to host Sub-Junior National and Federation Cup championships

Patna, May 30, 2009
Bihar Tenni-Koit Association has geared up to host the 24th National sub-junior and Federation Cup championships to be held at Sudarshan Bihar Patna Central School courts here from June 8 to 12.

Patron-in-chief of the organizing committee Acharya Sudarshan Jee Maharaj said that preparations for the National were on the full swing. All the necessary arrangements had been done and required measures were being taken to laid new courts at school ground.

Meanwhile, SB Prasad, CMD, Star India Construction and president of the organizing committee announced several committees for smooth conduct of the five-day sporting extravaganza.
Organising Committee:

Acharya Sudarshan Jee Maharaj (patron-in-chief), Rakesh Srivastav, Dr M K Sinha, Dr Jeetendra Singh, Rama Shankar Prasad, Mukesh (all patrons), B K Sudarshan (chairman), Shashi Bhushan Prasad (president), EJM Gautam, SP Singh, O P Singh, Basant Kumar (all vice-presidents), Niraj Kumar Pappu (secretary), Aketa Kumari Jindal, Ajit Kumar Singh (joint secretaries), Sudhir Kumar (treasurer), Subodh Kumar, Rakesh Ranjan, Amaresh, Raj Kumar Singh, Kunal, Vivek, Saini, Jhon Aryan, Ajitesh, Anand, Abhisshek, Gaurav Ranjan, Kamna Bharati, Miki, Sweta, Neha, Sumedha, Jasmin, Sneha, Aparna and Monika (all members).

Others committees:

Welcome Committee: Vandana Nitu, Kamana Bharti, Micky, Sweta, Neha, Sumedha.
Boarding and Lodging Committee: KK Jha, Sanjiv Kumar Singh, Anil Kumar Sharma, Amresh, Kunal, Raj Kumar Singh, Anand, Gaurav.
Inauguration and Closing Committee: Saroj Das, Shailendra Kumar, Shailesh Kumar, Kanak, Sneha Ranjan, Jasmin, Arpana, Monika, Rakesh Ranjan.
Media Committee: Shailendra Kumar, Abhishek Kumar, Ashutosh Kumar Singh, Manjit Kumar and Dheeraj Kumar.

Photo caption: Acharya Sudarshan Jee Maharaj (centre) talking to media on the forthcoming Sub-Junior National and Federation Cup teeni-koit champiosnhips in Patna.

Photo: Aftab Alam Siddiqui

Dr MS Gill takes over as Union Minister of Youth Affairs and Sports

New Delhi, May 29, 2009
Dr. M.S. Gill took over as Minister of Youth Affairs & Sports, here on Friday. He was also Minister of State (Independent Charge) of Youth Affairs and Sports in the previous Union Government.

Immediately after taking over as Sports Minister, Dr. Gill said, “In the last one year several initiatives have been taken and will continue to do the work with same excitement.” Regarding preparations of Commonwealth Games, he said “Whatever bottlenecks were there in construction of stadia by Sports Authority of India ( SAI), those have been removed and am confident that all timelines will be met. The systems are in place, coordination committee meets regularly and discuss and takes all decisions unanimously.”

Speaking about his other priorities, Dr Gill said “there is great potential in the Youth Programmes like Nehru Yuvak Kendra and National Social Service Scheme.” The minister intended to expand it further on larger scale. Regarding appalling financial conditions of sportspersons, Dr Gill said that although he had doubled the pension of them last year but would try to enhance it to a decent level.

Earlier, on his arrival at the ministry in the Shastri Bhawan, Dr. Gill was received by the senior officials of the Ministry. Later, the Secretary, Youth Affairs, Sports Secretary and senior officers called on him and discussed important issues relating to the Ministry.

Source: Press release from Minsitry of Youth Affairs and Sports

Interactive cricket quiz show “Stumped” on STAR Cricket from June 1

New Delhi, May 29, 2009
ESPN STAR Sports will launch an interactive quiz show titled 'Stumped' starting June 1. Produced by leading production house - Endemol, “Stumped” will be telecast on STAR Cricket every day of the week. This is the first time that sports channel is telecasting a live interactive quiz. This hour long show will hosted by Indian model and television anchor Shonali Nagrani.

With a live format that entails a high level of viewer interactivity, the viewer/ cricket fan sitting at home is given the chance to play and win incredible prizes. The show will also have representation from Cricket stars as well as celebrities giving chance to Cricket fans to have an interaction on live television.

According to RC Venkateish, Managing Director, ESPN Software India Pvt. Ltd., "There is a huge interest for an interactive Cricket based quiz show which allows fans to test their knowledge of the game while at the same time giving them an opportunity to win interesting prizes. Stumped is an attempt to fulfil this need. This show is also an extension of the live programming line-up during ICC World Twenty20."

We have already aired the show from May 1 to 24 with Wasim Akram as the Celebrity Guest to gauge the initial feedback. The response has been overwhelming from cricket lovers across the nation and we expect that the participation levels will be higher during the ICC World Twenty20."

On this occasion Mr. Deepak Dhar, Managing Director, Endemol says "India being one of the largest cricket loving nations, our venture into the sports entertainment arena with Stumped has been a planned one. At Endemol, our aim is to expand our expertise from being known as a non- fiction provider into various other genres. After a successful entry into fiction, the sports foray was a gradual yet determined progression. With the success of our sports entertainment production Stumped - we reinstate Endemol's position as a leading, multi-format, multi-genre content creator."

Former Pakistan Captain Wasim Akram, celebrity guest on Stumped said, "It is a unique program as the fans can interact live, answer live and win jackpots. In a country which has a Cricket expert in every house, the concept of Stumped will surely be lapped up. The initial two weeks were very exciting as despite almost no advertising we received innumerable calls from across the country."

Shonali, the host of show said, "I am glad to have been given the opportunity to host this spectacular show. The live interactive sessions are quite challenging but I love every moment of it."

Format of the show
In-studio contestants go through two or three rounds of quizzing to compete for the money prize at stake. Between In-studio rounds, the host announces puzzles and quiz games that viewers at home can participate and win prizes. The viewers need to call a mobile number to participate in the games and contests. Stumped is fast and live and the winners are declared in the show itself. The host also covers an update on the happenings in the cricket world.
Source: Press release from Business Wire India

Social Club TT: Gauresh, Priyanshu move up

Patna, May 28, 2009
Gauresh Nishad, Priyanshu Ambastha, Sagar and Avinash moved into the second round of the boys’ singles in the first Kadamkuan Social Club table tennis championships at the club hall here on Thursday.

Other winners of the day were Raj Ranjan, Tushar Kanti, Ajitesh Roy, Jayant Roy, Md Adnan, Aman, Pushkar, Rishutosh Kumar, Anil Oraon, Peter D’ Costa, Shiv Kumar, Braj Bhushan, Kunal Kumar and Gopal Kumar.

Earlier, Dr Yuvraj Deo Prasad inaugurated the tournament playing a board with Bihar Table Tennis Association secretary Mukesh Roy.

Photo caption: Dr Yuvraj Deo Prasad (left) and BTTA secretary, Mukesh Roy (right) playing a game at the inaugural function of Social Club table tennis championships in Patna on May 28, 2009.

Photo: Aftab Alam Siddiqui

Neel Kamal, Ujjwal called for National kabddi camp

Patna, May 28, 2009
Neel Kamal of Marachi has been called by the Armature Kabaddi Federation of India (AKFI) for the National junior camp to be held in Trivandrum from June 1 to 30.

Giving this information, Bihar State Kabaddi Association secretary, Kumar Vijay said another Bihar lad Ujjwal had been selected for the National sub-junior camp to be held in Lucknow from June 2 to June 30.

Women’s team leaves for Mumbai
Meanwhile, Bihar women team on Thursday left for Mumbai to participate in the All India kabaddi championships to be held there from May 31 to June 2.

Team: Smita Kumari (captain), Mansiha Kumari, Rekha, Naglakshmi, Devyanti, Sinku, preeti, Rashmi, Sima and Puja. Coach: Vinod Kumar.

Raj Kumar wins Bihar rapid chess title

Patna, May 28, 2009
Raj Kumar Chauhan of BSLN won the Bihar State senior rapid chess title with better progressive score here on Thursday. YP Srivastava got the second position while PK Singh bagged the third place at the end of seventh and final round play.

At the end of sixth round Raj Kumar Chauhan and YP Srivastava were tied with 5.5 points each. In the final round, Raj Kumar faced YP Srivastava. After some lightening chess, both the players agreed for a draw and shared the points. The final round saw PK Singh also collected six points defeating Krshna Prasad. The winners were decided on progressive scores and Raj Kumar won the crown.

Dr Rajiv Prasad, associate professor, Amrita School of Business, Coimbatore, who was the chief guest at the closing function, gave away the prizes. Manisha Trisvedi of LIC of India, who was the guest honour, also distributed the prizes. Dilip Kumar Bhagat welcomed the guests while Arvinda Kumar Sinha, secretary, All Bihar Chess Association proposed a vote of thanks.

Rankings:
1.Raj Kumar Chauhan (6), 2.Y P Shrivastav (6), 3.P K Singh (6), 4.VipalSubhashi (5.5), 5.Suman Kumar (5.5), 6.Saurabh Anand (5.5), 7.Krishna Prasad(5), 8.Rumpesh Ranjan (5), 9.Nilesh Shankar (5) and 10.Saurabh Rup (5).

Photo caption: Players concentraing on their next moves on the final day's play of the Bihar state rapid chess championships in Patna on Thursday.

Photo: Aftab Alam Siddiqui

AITA talent series: Devpriya sets up title clash with Keshav Kishan

Patna, May 28, 2009
Devpriya Jaiswal of Bihar set up summit showdown with Keshav Kishan of Maharashtra in boys’ under-18 singles final of the All India Tennis Association (AITA) talent series tournament at the Patliputra Colony courts here on Thursday.

Devpriya had an easy outing against Amrendra Singh Chowdhary (Uttar Pradesh) in the first semi-final. Devpriya mauled Amrendra 6-0, 6-1. Kesshav Kishan fought hard to down Adamya Vikrant (Bihar) 7-6, 6-2.

In the boys’ under-16 singles final, Adamya Vikrant (Bihar) will take on Shashank Sharma of Delhi.The girls’ under-18 singles final will see Shruti Jaiswal vying with Madhu Jaiswal (Bihar) for the crown while in the girls’under-16 singles final Ayushi Yadav (UP) will face her state mate Sivana JoyceZaidi.

Results:
Semi-finals: Boys U-18 (singles):
Devpriya Jaiswal (Bihar) beat Amrendra Singh Chaudhary (UP) 6-0, 6-1, Keshav Kishan (Mah) beat Adamya Vikrant (Bih) 7-6 (0), 6-2.


Semi-finals: Boys U-16 (singles):
Adamya Vikrant (Bih) beat Armaan Banerjee (Kar) 7-6 (1), 6-7 (7), 6-2, Shashank Sharma (Delhi) beat Vaibhav Kumar (Bih) 6-4, 7-5.

Semi-finals: Girls U-18 (Singles)
Shruti Jaiswal (Bih) beat Ayushi Yadav (UP) 6-1, 6-0, Madhu Jaiswal (Bih) beat Ishita Pragya (UP) 6-1,6-2.
Semi-finals:
Girls U-16 (Singles): Ayushi Yadav (UP) beat Madhu Jaiswal (Bihar) 6-0, 6-1, Sivana Joyce Zaidi (UP) bt Ayushi Singh (Bih) 6-3,6-3.

Bihar rapid chess: Six players share lead

Patna, May 27, 2009

Six players were jointly on the top of the table with two points each at the end of second round play of the Bihar state senior rapid chess championships at the Patna Youth Hostel hall here on Wednesday.

Senior pros Vipal Subhashi, Y P Srivastav, P K Singh, Sanjiv Kumar, Sourav Rup and Ashutosh Kumar won their first two round matches with commendable ease to collect full points.

Earlier, Arun Kumar Sinha, MLA, inaugurated the tournament. Arvind Kumar Sinha, secretary All Bihar Chess Association, Satya Prakash, Dilip Kumar Bhagat and Birendra Kumar Upadhyaya (chief arbiter) were present on the occasion.

Results (second round)

Vipal Subhashi (2) beat Srishti Gautam (1), Y P Srivastava (2) beat Akhourhi Vineet (1), P K Singh (2) beat Akhourhi Harshit (1), Sanjeet Kumar (2) beat Amarnath Gupta (1), Raj Kumar Chouhan (2) beat Amresh Kumar (1), Sourabh Rup (2) beat Aryan (1), Aasutosh (2) beat Ankit Gourabh Utpal (1), Vijay Kumar (2) beat Gourav Kumar (1), Sourav Anand (2) beat Minhajul Haque (1), Suman Kumar (2) beat Rajesh Kumar Sinha (1), Abhay Kumar Sinha (2) beat Subhandu Chakrabarti (1), Krishna Prasad (2) beat Vivek Nandan (1), Rupesh Ranjan (2) beat Sujeet Kumar (1), Neelesh Shankar (2) beat Raj Tilak Singh (1), Rishi Shankar (2) beat Tushar (1), Vijay Kumar (2) beat Kumar Gourav (0), Soumitra Verma(1) beat Prince Kumar (0), Rahul Raj (1) beat Shidarth Goutam (0), Abhishek Kumar Sinha (1) beat Rakesh Kumar (0), Shambhu Sharan Singh (1) beat Chandra Bhushan (0), Kumar Deepak Singh (1) beat Suraj Kumar Suman (0), Kumar Neelesh Raj (1) beat Sudhir Kumar Srivastava (0).

Photo caption: Arun Kumar Sinha, MLA, inaugurating the Bihar senior rapid chess championships in Patna on May 27, 2009.

Photo: Aftab Alam Siddiqui

AITA talent series: Devpriya, Adamya in semis

Patna, May 27, 2009
Devpriya Jaiswal and Adamya Vikrant (both Bihar) sailed into the semi-finals of boys’under-18 singles in the AITA talent series tournament at the Patliputra tennis court here on Wednesday.

Strong favourite Devpriya produced another thunderous performance to outclass his team-mate Ishank Ravi 6-1, 6-2 while another Bihar lad Adamya Vikrant struggled to beat Venkat Siddarth 7-6, 7-6 in gruelling tie-breakers.

Results:
Boys' U-18 (singles) quarter finals
Devpriya Jaiswal (Bihar) beat Isank Ravi (Bihar) 6-1,6-2, Amrendra Singh Chaudhary (UP) beat Ishan Priyadarshi (Bihar) 6-0, 6-0, Keshav Kishan (Maharashtra) beat Aman Kumar (Bihar) 6-2, 6-3, Adamya Vikrant (Bihar) beat Venkat Sidharth 7-6 (4), 7-6 (10).

Boys' U-16 (singles) quarter finals
Adamya Vikrant (Bihar) beat Savrabh KR Singh (UP) 6-2, 6-2, Armaan Banerjee (Karnataka) beat Ritwik Bhrigvvanshi (Bihar) 6-1, 6-1,Vaibhav Kumar (Bihar) beat Venkat Siddharth 4-6, 6-1, 6-1.
Girls U-18 (singles) quarter-finals: Shruti Jaiswal (Bihar) beat Sivana Joyce Zaidi (UP) 6-0, 6-0, Ishita Pragya (UP) beat Ayushi Singh (Bihar) 6-3, 2-6, 6-4, Madhu Jaiswal (Bihar) beat Shweta Sen (West Bengal) 6-4, 6-0.
Girls’ U-16 (singles) quarter-finals: Ayushi Yadav (UP) beat Ishita Pragya (UP) 6-0, 6-2, Sivana Joyce Zaidi(UP) beat Shweta Sen (West Bengal) 6-2, 6-3.
Boys' U-16 (doubles) quarter-finals:
Anish Anupam (Bihar) and ArmaanBanerjee (Karnataka) beat Pradumn Buddhi Raja (UP) and Abhilash Nair (UP) 6-0, 6-3.

Minu called for National kabaddi camp

Patna, May 26, 2009

A regular player of Bihar state kabaddi team, Minu Kumari Singh of East Central Railway, Danapur division has been called for the national coaching cum selection camp. The camp has been organised by the Amateur Kabaddi Federation of India (AKFI).

Bihar State Kabaddi Association secretary Kumar Vijay said the camp would be held in Bhopal from June 1.

AITA talent series: Devpriya moves into quarters

Patna, May 26, 2009
Devpriya Jaiswal led the four Bihar players into the quarter-finals of the boys’ under-18 singles in the All India Tennis association (AITA) talent series tournament at the Patliputra Colony courts here on Tuesday.

Devpriya, who a few days ago won the first tournament of this series, proved too strong for Bheeshmak Srivastava of Uttar Pradesh 6-0, 6-0 in a pre-quarter-final encounter. Other Bihar players made the grade were Ishank Ravi, Venkat Siddath and Adamya Vikrant. Keshav Kishan of Maharashtra also entered the quarter-finals defeating Armaan Banaerjee of Karnataka 6-2, 6-2.

Results:
Boys’ under-18 singles (pre-quarter-finals)
Keshav Kishan Kisha (Maharashtra) beat Armaan Banerjee (Karnataka) 6-2, 6-2; Devepriya Jaiswal (Bihar) beat Bheeshmak Srivastava (UP) 6-0, 6-0; Ishank Ravi (Bihar) beat Vaibhav Kumar (Bihar) 7-5, 7-6 (7); Venkat Siddharth (Bihar) beat Saurabh Kumar Singh (UP) 6-2, 6-1 and Adamya Vikrant (Bihar) beat Adarsh Prakhar (Bihar) 6-1, 6-0.

Boys’ under-16 singles (pre-quarter-finals)
Ritwik Bhriguvanshi (Bihar) beat Abhilash Nair (UP) 6-2, 6-1 and Adamya Vikrant (Bihar) beat Ayush Agarwal (MP) 6-1, 6-0.

Coaching camp for U-9 chess players

Patna, May 25, 2009
A three-day pre-National intensive coaching camp for Bihar under-9 (boys and girls) chess players will be held at the community hall of the RBI staff quarter in Rajendra Nagar here from May 29, according to Arvind Kumar Sinha, secretary, All Bihar Chess Association.

Mukesh to lead Bihar sub-jr powerlifting team

Patna, May 25, 2009
Mukesh Kumar will lead a 12-member Bihar team in the sub-junior National powerlifting championship to be held at Jamshedpur from May 27, according to Ashok Kumar Mehta, secretary, Bihar StatePowerlifting Association.

Team:
Mukesh Kumar (captain), Avinash Kumar, Md Shakeel, Deepak Kumar, Vikas Kumar, Alok Raj, Govind Kumar, Pankaj Kumar, Md Rinku, Bhupendra, Pratap Singh, Vijay Mehta and Subodh Kumar Roy. Coaches: Suresh Prasad and Abhishek Kumar. Manager: Sukhdev Prasad.

AITA talent series: 6 Bihar players in second round

Patna, May 25, 2009
Six Bihar players moved into the second round of the boys’ under-18 singles in the All India Tennis Association (AITA) talent series tournamenrt at the Patliputra tennis courts here on Monday.

Vaibhav Kumar led the Bihar charge with 6-3, 6-0 victory over statemate Abhishek Ranjan. Joining Vaibhav in the second round were IshankRavi, Ritwik Bhriguvanshi, Anish Anupam, Venkat Siddharth and Asarsh Prakhar. Bheeshmak Srivastav of Uttar Pradesh also entered the second round posting 6-3, 6-1 win over Pappu Kumar (Bihar).

Results:
Boys’ under-18 singles (first round):Vaibhav Kumar (Bihar) beat Abhishek Ranjan (Bihar) 6-3, 6-0; Ishank Ravi (Bihar) beat Arsh Prakhar (Bihar); Ritwik Bhriguvanshi (Bihar) beat Om Prakash (Bihar) 6-1, 6-3; Parag Agarwal (MP) beat Abhilash Nair (UP) 7-6 (5), 7-6 (7); Anish Anupam (Bihar) beat Nihal Singh (Bihar) 6-1, 6-0; Keshav Kishan (Maharashtra) beat Qasim Masumi(Bihar) 6-2, 6-0; Venkat Siddharth (Bihar) beat Praduman Buddhi Raja(UP) 6-2, 6-4; Saurabh Kumar Singh (UP) beat Aditya V Bhardwaj (Bihar) 6-2, 6-1; Asarsh Prakhar (Bihar) beat Anurag (Bihar) 6-2, 6-2; Amarendra S Choudhary (UP) beat Ayush Agarwal (MP) 6-1, 6-0.

2nd Asian Grand Prix archery: India win 3 gold, 4 silver medals

Kolkata, May 25, 2009
Indian won three gold and four silver medals at the second Asian Grand Prix archery meet at Tehran on Saturday.

According to information received here on Monday, the men’s recurve team of Tarundeep Rai, Muni Ram Tirkey and Kapil, won the gold medal beating Iran 217-211 in the final. Punya Prabha, V. Pranitha and Reena Kumari brought out the best in the women’s recurve team final defeating Iran 198-194 in the final.

Compound archer L. Haridas Singh earned India the third gold medal in the individual event when he annihilated Hungary’s Robert Bojti in the tie breaker after the two tied 109-109 in the final. Singh shot a 10 as against Bojti’s 9 in the tie-breaker.

However, the men and women compound teams lost to Iran in the final. The men lost 220-227 and the women went down 207-208. Olympian Tarundeep Rai, perhaps the most experienced in the field, could get only a silver medal losing to Iran’s Milad Vaziri Teymoorlooei at 107-108 in the men’s recurve individual event final.

Compound women archer Sweety Kumari too failed in the final going down to Seyedeh Vida Halimian Avval of Iran 102-108 to settle for silver.

Tirkey and Sushma (both individual recurve) lost to Nadar M. and Zahara Nemati of Iran respectively in the bronze medal play-off. All other medals went to host Iran which emerged the best in the four-day tournament attended by six nations and 60 archers.

Source: Indian Archery Association press release

2nd Asian Grand Prix archery: Five Indians in medal round

Patna, May 23, 2009
Five Indians made it to the medal round in the individual section of the second Asian Grand Prix archery tournament at Tehran on Friday. Three Indians, Tarundeep Rai (men’s recurve), L. Haridas Singh (men’s compound) and Sweety Kumari (women’s compound) moved into the final while two, Muni Ram Tirkey (men’s recurve) and Sushma (women’s recurve) reached the bronze medal play-off.

Tarundeep Rai, seeded second, will take on fourth seed Milad Vaziri Teymoorlooei of Iran for the gold medal. The Indian army archer, who missed the individual bronze medal by a whisker in the 2005 Madrid World Championship, showed enough touch and class in this meet. He had the scores of 109, 106 and 106 in the three rounds he played so far and would look to avenge his compatriot Muni Ram Tirkey’s defeat in the semifinals in the hands of Milad.

The Iranian had defeated top seed Muni Ram Tirkey in the semifinals 109-106. The semifinal loss pushed Tirkey against sixth seed Nadar M. of Iran in the bronze medal play-off. The other two, Kapil and K. Shiv Shankar, lost in the quarterfinals.

Fifth-seeded Indian L. Haridas Singh will come up against third seed Hungarian Robert Bojti in the men’s compound division final. Singh scored 116 in the first round, 112 in the second and in the semifinals he downed top seed Hamzeh Nekooi of Iran 109-107.

The other Indians, L. Chinglensana Luwang (seed No. 2), Amrinder Singh (eighth seed) and Arun Sharma (11th) were eliminated early.

Sweety Kumari was the best among four Indian women compound archers. She ensured a place in the final against second seed Seyedeh Vida Halimian Avval of Iran. The other three disappointed with miserable display with Manjudha Soy (2nd seed) losing to Leila Sakhaeifar of Iran in the quarterfinals 102-108 while Vrushali Gorle lost to Sweety at the same stage 99-104. Sakro Besra lost to the second seed also in the quarterfinals at 100-111.

Sushma, the sixth-seeded Indian reached the women’s recurve semifinals where she lost to ninth ranked Farideh Mirzaei of Iran 91-95. Sushma will play 10th seed Zahara Nemati of Iran for the bronze medal. Reena Kumari (top seed), Olympian V. Pranitha (second seed) and Punya Prabha (third seed) all lost in the second round.
Source: Press release from www.indianarchery.info

2nd Asian Grand Prix archery: Indians dominate qualifying round

Patna, May 21, 2009
The 16-member Indian archery contingent made a clean sweep by occupying the top positions in all the four categories – Recurve men and women and Compound men and women – on the opening day of the second Asian Grand Prix archery tournament at Tehran on Wednesday.

According to a press release of the Indian Archery Association, the Indian men’s recurve team, comprising MR. Tirkey, Tarundeep Rai and Kapil totalled 1967 points to take the first place after competitions were held in two 70m distances as qualifying round in which each archer had to shoot 36 arrows over 70m twice for a total of 720 points.

Tirkey’s 659 points was the best among Indians and was followed by Rai (658) and Kapil (650). Fourth member K. Shivshankar scored 614.

The Indian trio of Reena Kumari (641), V. Pranitha (619) and Punya Prabha (613) helped the Indian women team to reach 1873 point which gave it the top spot. The fourth member Sushma came up with 600 points.

In the men’s compound section, M. Chinglensana Luwang (686), L. Haridas Singh (683) and Amrinder Singh (674) enabled India top with 2043 points. Fourth member Arun Sharma scored 662.

In the women’s section, Manjudha Soy (658), Vrushali Gorle (638) and Sakro Besra (637), who formed the team, enabled India take the top spot with 1933 points. Sweety Kumari, who was the fourth member, scored 656.

Archers from six countries, host Iran, Iraq, India, Syria, Bangladesh, Nepal and Hungary are in the competition of the four-day meet. This is the second of the five Grand Prix series planned by the Asian Archery Federation. New Delhi is set to host the fourth of the series in September.

Source: Indian Archery Association press release

AITA talent series: Devpriya claims boys' U-18 title, Shruti earns a grand double; U-16 girls' crown for Monalisa

Patna, May 22, 2009
Devpriya Jaiswal of Bihar clinched the boys’ under-18 singles title of the AITA talent series blanking Shashank Sharma of Delhi 6-0, 6-0 in the final at the Patliputra tennis court here on Friday.

It was mere a cake-walk for Devpriya, who had been stunning throughout the tournament. He did not give a bit of breathing space to his rival Shashank and won the two sets convincingly.

Devpriya’s elder sister, Shruti Jaiswal earned a grand double in the five-day tournament. She first claimed the girls’ under-18 singles crown beating Ayushi Yadav of Uttar Pradesh 6-1, 6-0 then pairing with Ayushi Yadav, she won the girls’ under-18 doubles title thrashing the Uttar Pradesh combination of Yogita Kumari and Shivana Joyce Zaiddi 6-0, 6-1 in the final.

The UP pair, however, amended their fault in the under-16 doubles final, beating Madhu Jaiswal (Bihar) and Shekh Naaz 6-1, 6-1 in the final.

Adamya Vikrant (Bihar) and Monalisa Chakraborty of Jharkhand bagged the boys’ and girls’ under-16 singles titles respectively. Adamya tamed Shashank Sharma by 6-4, 6-3 while Monalisa beat Shekh Naaz of Uttar Pradesh 6-3, 6-1 for the crowns.

Earlier on Thursday, Ayushi Yadav of Delhi set up title clash with Shruti Jaiswal of Bihar in the girls’under-18 singles final. In the first semi-final, Shruti defeated Monalisa Chakarborty of Jharkhand 6-2, 6-1 while Ayushi prevailed over Shivana Zaidi of UP 6-2, 6-4.
Results:
Boys’ under-18 singles (semi-finals)
Devepriya Jaiswal (Bihar) beat Rohit Choudhary (Delhi) 6-1, 6-0; Shashank Sharma (Delhi) beat Armaan Banerjee (Karnataka) 6-3, 6-3.

Boys’ under-16 singles (semi-finals)
Adamya Vikrant (Bihar) beat Venkat Siddharth (Bihar) 6-7 (2), 6-2, 6-2; Shashank Sharma (Delhi) beat Aman Kumar (Bihar) 6-3, 6-2.
Girls’ under-16 singles (semi-finals):
Monalisa Chakarborty (Jharkhand) beat Ayushi Yadav (UP) 4-6, 6-2, 6-1; Sheikh Naaz (UP) beat Madhu Jaiswal (Bihar) 7-6 (4), 6-3.

Photo caption: Top: Monalisa Chakraborty (Jharkhand) and bottom: Shruti Jaiswal (Bihar) in action during their resspective singles matches of the AITA talent series tournament in Patna on May 22, 2009.

Photo: Aftab Alam Siddiqui

MM Bose cricket: Adalatganj in semi-finals

Patna, May 22, 2009
Adalatganj Cricket Club entered the semi-finals of the second MM Bose memorial cricket tournament defeating Vidyarthi Club by 48 runs at the Sanjay Gandhi Stadium here on Friday.
Batting first, Adalatganj made 179 for the loss of eight wickets off 25 overs. Animesh top scored with 46 runs. Gaurav claimed three wickets for 38 runs.

In reply, Vidyarthi Club could manage to score 131 runs for the loss of seven wickets off 25 overs. Utkarsh played a defiant knock of unbeaten 40 runs. Vinay took two wickets for 18 runs.

Animesh of Adalatganj CC was declared man of the match.
Brief scores:
Adalatganj CC: 179 for eight wickets in 25 overs (Animesh-46, Saurav Anand-30, Bipesh-23, Rupesh-22, Chandan-15, Gaurav-3/38, Sonu-2/48).
Vidyarthi Club: 131 for seven wickets in 25 overs (Utkarsh-40 not out, Saurav Dey-14, Vibhuti-13, Sachin-11, Vinay-2/18)

Earlier on Wednesday, Gardanibagh Athletic Club (GAC) moved into the final defeating Vinoo Mankad Cricket Club by 102 runs. In another match, Adalatganj Cricket Club beat YCC, Rajendra Nagar by 12 runs.

Bihar juinor swimming team named

Patna, May 21, 2009
A 12-member Bihar team will take part in the 36th junior National swimming championship to be held in Jaipur from June 23, according to Ram Bilas Pandey, secretary, Bihar Swimming Association.

Team:
Ratan Kumar Singh, Rohit Prakash, Himanshu Choudhary, Harshit Krishna, Kumari Bhavni Verma, Suryadev Singh, Ritesh Kumar, Shourya Mohan, Bablu Kumar, Neha Singh, Sudha Kumari and Baby Kumari. Coach: Mahendra Choudhary. Manager: Mohan Kumar Sinha. Technical officer: Vijendra Rai.

Afzal to lead Bihar in Santosh Trophy

Patna, May 22, 2009
Bihar Football Association announced a 24-member Bihar team for the 63rd National football championships for Santosh trophy to be held in Chennai from May 24.

According to Syed Ejaz Hussain, secretary, BFA, Md Afzal Alam will lead the Bihar team while Gopi Nath Dutta will be the coach.

Team:
Md Afzal Alam (captain), Indrajit Kumar Singh, Anup Kumar, Rajesh Patel, Nadir Pravez, Md Adil Ansari, Birendra Kumar Yadav, Md Alimuddin, Sanjay Kumar, Sunil Patel, Rajgiri Yadav, RajeshRanjan, Satyajit Roy, Suman Kumar Dayal, Rakesh Prakash Singh, Devashish Rai, Md Sahwaz, Navin Thapa, Sonu Kumar, Md Tanvir Khan, Gopal Singh, Raj Kumar Singh, Arvind Kumar Singh and Bhirgunandan Kashyap. Coach: Gopi Nath Dutta. Manager: Ravindra Singh.

AITA talent series: Devpriya in semi-finals

Patna, May 20, 2009
Devpriya Jaiswal, Rohit Choudhary, Armaan Banerjee and Shashank Sharma booked their berths in the under-18 boys’ singles semi-finals of the AITA talent series tournament at the Patliputra Tennis Court here on Wednesday.

Top seed Devpriya had no difficulty to tame his state mate Aman Kumar 6-0, 6-1 while Rohit Choudhary of Delhi beat Keshav Kishan (Maharashtra) 6-2, 7-6 in a grueling encounter.

Results:
Boys’ U-18 (singles) quarter-finals
Devpriya Jaiswal (Bihar) beat Aman Kumar (Bihar) 6-0, 6-1; Rohit Choudhary (Delhi) beat KeshavKishan (Mah) 6-2, 7-6 (3); Armaan Banerjee (Kar) beat Amrendra Singh Choudhary (UP) 6-3, 6-4; Shashank Sharma (Delhi) beat Adamya Vikrant (Bihar) 4-6, 6-2, 6-0.
Boys’ U-16 (Singles) quarter-finals:
Adamya Vikrant (Bihar) beat Shivam Shukla (UP) 6-2, 6-3; Venkat Siddharth (Bihar) Vaibhav Kumar (Bihar) 6-4, 6-4; Aman Kumar (Bihar) bt Ritwik Bhriguvanshi (Bihar) 6-1, 6-1.
Girls’ U-16 (singles) quarter-finals
Monalisa Chakraborty (Jharkhand) beat Shivana Joyce Zaidi (UP) 6-3, 6-0; Ayushi Yadav (UP) beat Packer Fatema (Bihar) 6-1, 6-0; Sheikh Naaz (UP) beat Yogita Kumari (UP) 4-6, 6-0, 7-6 (6); Madhu Jaiswal (Bihar) beat Shivangi Singh (UP) 6-2, 6-4.
Girls’ U-18 (singles) quarter-finals
Shruti Jaiswal (Bihar) beat Shiekh Naaz (UP) 6-1, 6-0; Monalisa Chakraborty (Jharkhand) beat Yogita Kumari (UP) 6-0, 6-0; Ayushi Yadav (UP) beat Shivangi Singh (UP) 6-1, 6-3; Shivana Zaidi (UP) beat Madhu Jaiswal (Bihar) 7-6 (1), 6-4.

Tuesday’s results
Boys’ under-18 (pre-quarter-finals):
Devpriya Jaiswal (Bihar) beat Ritwik Bhriguvanshi (Bihar) 6-0, 6-0; Aman Kumar (Bihar) beat Arsh Prakhar (Bihar) 6-2, 6-1; Keshav Kishan (Maharashtra) beat Venkat Siddharth (Bihar) 6-3, 6-2; Rohit Chodhary (Delhi) beat Ishank Ravi (Bihar) 7-6 (3), 6-0; Amarendra Singh Choudhary (UP) beat Anurag Sharma (UP) 6-1, 6-2; Arman Banerjee (WB) beat Sachin Antony (Kerala) 6-3, 6-2; Shashank Sharma (Delhi) beat Harsh Shivash (TN) 6-4, 6-2 and Adamya Vikrant (Bihar) beat Shantanu Soumya (Bihar) 6-1, 6-0.

Boys’ under-16 (pre-quarter-finals)
Aman Kumar (Bihar) beat Anurag Sharma (Rajasthan) 6-1, 6-2; Adamya Vikrant (Bihar) beat Ankesh Anand (Bihar) 6-0, 6-0; Ritwik Bhriguvanshi (Bihar) beat Ashish Sharma (UP) 7-6 (4), 7-5; Shivam Shukla (UP) beat Anish Anupam (Bihar) 3-6, 6-1, 6-1; Vaibhav Siddharth (Bihar) beat Shantanu Soumya (Bihar) 6-2, 6-0 and Ishank Ravi (Bihar) beat Praduman Buddhi Raja (UP) 6-3, 6-2.

MM Bose cricket: GAC in semi-finals

Patna, May 19, 2009
Gardanibagh Athletic Club (GAC) stormed into the semi-finals of the second MM Bose memorial cricket tournament thrashing Kadamkuan Cricket Club by 105 runs at the Sanjay Gandhi Stadium here on Tuesday.

In another match, Rajbanshinagar Cricket Club snatched four- wicket victory over Engineering College and got a berth in the quarter-finals.

In reply to GAC’s mammoth 225 for 7 off 25 overs, Kadamkuan could manage to score 120 runs. Dharmesh Bharti was the wrecker-in-chief for the winners claiming four wickets for 32 runs. He also scored 35 runs. Dharsmesh was declared man of the match.

In the second match, Engineering College scored 123 runs off 23.3 overs and Rajbanshinagar boys faced no worthwhile difficulty in reaching the target.

Indrajeet Kumar of Rajbanshinagar Club, who scored 57 runs and claimed four wickets for 12 runs, was adjudged man of the match.

Brief scores:
Gardanibagh AC: 225 for seven wickets in 25 overs (Arvind Jha-47 not out, Ankit Singh-39, Dharmesh Bharti-35, Saket-25, Aman-23, Kundan-15, Rahul-4/24).
Kadamkuan CC: 120 all out in 17.1 overs (Abhilash-22, Rahul-18, Dharmesh Bharti-4/32, Gaurav Hajara-3/38, Arvind Jha-2/18).

Engineering College: 123 all out in 23.3 overs (Anand-48, Bishwajit-24, Indrajeet Kumar-4/12, Vinit-3/11, Shashi Bhushan-2/17).
Rajbanshinagar CC: 124 for four wickets in 17 overs (Indrajeet Kumar-57, Vinit-14, Dharmendra-2/28)

Shasheem slams ton as Bihar boys crush Chhattisgarh by 8 wickets in final one-day match

Patna, may 18, 2009
Bihar under-16 team crushed Chhattisgarh by eight wickets in third and the final one-day match at Bilaspur. With this win Bihar clinched the series 3-0.

According to information reached here, Chhattisgarh scored a modest 203 for the loss of eight wickets off 45 overs. Ranjan made a quick-fire 56. Faisal Gani and Sanjay Kumar bagged three and two wickets respectively.

In reply, Shasheem Rathore slammed a hurricane hundred (136 not out) to guide Bihar to a thumping eight wicket win. Bihar raced to the target off 19.5 overs losing only two wickets on the way.

Brief scores:
Chhattisgarh: 203 for eight wickets in 45 overs (Rajan-56, Gulam Rasool-25, Shikhab-30 not out, Faisal Gani-3/35, Sanjay Kumar-2/33)
Bihar: 207 for two wickets in 19.5 overs (Sanjay Kumar-17, Sidhant Vijay-21, rajiv Kumar-16 not out, Shasheem Rathore-136 not out)

Randhir Verma cricket: Bhagalpur in final

Patna, May 18, 2009
Bhagalpur cruised into the final of the Randhir Verma memorial Bihar Cricket Association (BCA) under-19 inter-district cricket tournament defeating Saharsa by four wickets in Supaul on Monday.

In another match Patna stormed into the semi-finals beating Bhojpur by four wickets at the Sanjay Gandhi Stadium here.

Brief scores:
Bhojpur: 169 all out in 35.3 overs (Sonu-37, Abhishek-29, Puroshotam-20, Deepak-23, Varun-20, Kamlesh-4/25, Satish-3/48, Anand Priya-2/27)
Patna: 170 for six wickets in 32.1 overs (Tushar Kant-34, Nitesh Anand-53 not out, Nishant, 12, Kumar Aditya-14, Rohit-3/16)

Saharsa: 161 for nine wickets in 30 overs (Neeraj-29, Badal-24, Sujit-17, Ajay Nayar—15, Arshad Ali-2/19, Basukinath Mishra-2/37, Rahul-2/17)
Bhagalpur: 163 for six wickets in 25 overs (Sandeep Mishra-56, Basukinath Mishra-25, Sujit-2/27)

AITAtalent series: Five Bihar players in second round

Patna, May 18, 2009
Five Bihar players sailed into the second round of the boys’ under-16 singles in the All India Tennis Association (AITA) talent series tournament at the Patliputra tennis courts here on Monday.

In the girls under-18 singles Monalisa Chakraborty of Jharkhand entered the quarter-finals.

Results:
Boys U-16 singles (first round)
Ankesh Anand (Bihar) beat Shobhit Raj (Bihar) 6-0, 6-0; Shivam Shukla (UP) beat Ahmad Malick (UP) 6-1, 6-4; Anish Anupam (Bihar) beat A Prokhar (Bihar) 6-1; 6-0; Venkat Siddharth (Bihar) beat Qasim Masumi (Bihar) 6-0, 6-1; Abhilash Nair (UP) beat Nihal Singh (Bihar) 6-0, 6-1; Amar Kumar (Bihar) beat Shivesh Tripathi (UP) 6-0, 6-2; Anurag Sharma (Rajasthan) beat Salman Sajjad (Bihar) 6-0, 6-1; Shashank Asharma (Delhi) beat Ayush Bhartia (Bihar) 6-0, 6-0; Praduman Buddhi Raja (UP) beat Yash Raj Sharan (Bihar) 6-1, 6-2.

Boys’ under-18 (first round)
Ritwik Bhriguvanshi (Bihar) beat Aditya V Bhardwaj (Bihar) 6-0, 6-1; Arsh Prakhar (Bihar) beat Ahmad Malick (UP) 6-2, 6-4; Aman Kumar (Bihar) beat Anish Anupam (Bihar) 6-1, 6-0; Keshav Kishan (Maharashtra) beat Shivam Shukla (UP) 6-4, 6-2; Rohit Chaudhary (Delhi) beat Vaibhav Kumar (Bihar) 6-4, 6-2; Ishan K Ravi (Bihar) beat Qasim Masumi (Bihar) 6-0, 6-2; Anurag Sharma (Rajasthan) beat Om Prakash (Bihar) 6-2, 6-0; Arman Banerjee (WB) beat B Srivastav (UP) 6-3, 6-3; Harsh Shivash (TN) beat Abhilash Ranjan (Bihar) 6-1, 6-1 and Shantanu Soumya (Bihar) beat Adarsh Prakhar (Bihar) 7-6 (1), 6-3.

Randhir Verma cricket: Bhagalpur, Saharsa, Muzaffarpur qualify for semi-finals

Patna, May 17, 2009
Bhagalpur, Saharsa and Muzaffarpur booked their berths in the semi-finals of the Randhir Verma memorial Bihar Cricket Association (BCA) inter-district under-19 cricket tournament held at three different venues on Sunday.

According to information reached here, Sahrsa beat Begusarai by 18 runs. Muzaffarpur beat Siwan by 83 runs while Bhagalpur beat Samastipur by nine wickets.

Brief scores:
Samastipur: 74 all out in 18.3 overs (Rajkumar Bharati five wickets for 13 runs and Sandeep Mishra 3 for 21).
Bhagalpur: 75 for one wicket in 14.1 overs (Basukinath Mishra 50)

Saharsa: 161 for six wickets in 30 overs (Nitosh 65, Ziauddin 18, Raj Kumar 2 for 35, Sonu 2 for 28).
Begusarai: 143 for nine wickets in 30 overs ( Murari 33, Ajit 13, Md kaif 3 for 27, Nitosh 2 for 36).

Muzaffarpur: 234 for six wickets in 40 overs ( Sushant 69, Amit 44, Pawan 39, Vikas 28, Sashikant 3 for 21, Raakesh 2 for 10)
Siwan: 151 all out in 28.1 overs (Kaifee 45, Manish 37, Rakesh 26, Nishant 3 for 41, Ashish 2 for 15, Chandela 2 for 19).

Scholars Abode boy Sunit wins cycle race

Patna, May 17, 2009
Sunit Kumar of the Scholars Abode School claimed the gold medal in the cross-country cycle race here on Sunday. Adil Manzar of the same school grabbed silver medal.

RR Prasad, former DGP and member, Human Rights Commission, Bihar, flagged off the race at the BMP ground. About 70 cyclists participated in the race which covered 6-km distance beginning from BMP ground to Raj Bhawan and back. Dr DK Singh, president, professor RS Sharma, secretary, Bihar Public School and Children Welfare Association, and Dr B Priyam, principal, Scholars Abode were present at the opening function. Raman Awasthi of TI Cycles, India, gave away the prizes.

MM Bose cricket: Emphatic win for Vinoo Mankad

Patna, May 17, 2009
Vinoo Mankad Cricket Club drubbed Engineering College by five wickets in the second MM Bose memorial cricket tournament at the Sanjay Gandhi Stadium here on Sunday.

Batting first, Engineering College made 173 runs in 25 overs. In reply, Vinoo Mankad Club hit up the required runs in 23.2 overs losing five wickets. Vibhakar Aryan of Vinoo Mankad Club, who remained unbeaten on 76 runs, was declared man of the match.

Brief scores:
Engineering College: 173 all out in 25 overs (Anand-56, Dheeraj Kumar-32, Pankaj-16, Praveen-15, Nikhil-3/41, Vibhakar Aryan-2/11, Mani-2/27).

Vinoo Mankad CC: 175 for five wickets in 23.2 overs (Vibhakar Aryan-76 not out, Sudarshan-30, Manas-15 not out, Nikhil-10, Omkar-2/26).

First one-day match: Bihar U-16 boys too good for Chhattisgarh

Patna, May 15, 2009
Bihar cricketers are back in action after a gap of almost nine years. They were in a lurch after the bifurcation of the state and consequent approval of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) granting full membership status to Jharkhand and keeping Bihar case in a limbo. Bihar got an associate member status in September 2008 meeting of the BCCI. The associate member status enabled Bihar start cricketing activities in under-22 categories. Now, Bihar under-16 cricket team is on the tour to Chhattisgarh, which also got the associate status in the same BCCI meeting.

In their tour opener, Bihar under-16 team defeated Chhattisgarh by nine wickets in the first one-day match at Raipur, according to a Bihar Cricket Association (BCA) secretary Ajay Narain Sharma. It was the first of the three one-day matches that would be played during the tour.

Batting first, Chhattisgarh made 174 all out off 43.5 overs with Shakir (43), Yashmark (31) and Kaisal (21) contributing well. Shasheem Rathore and Anurag claimed three wickets each.

In reply, Bihar raced to the target losing only one wicket. Siddhant Vijay played a glittering unbeaten knock of 86 runs. He was ably supported by Sanjay Kumar (83 not out).

Brief scores:
Chhattisgarh: 174 all out in 43.5 overs (Shakir-45, Yashmark-31, Kaisal-21, Shasheem Rathore-3/22,Anurag-3/36, Sanjay Kumar-2/23).
Bihar: 178 for one wicket in 24.4 overs (Siddhant Vijay-86 not out, Sanjay Kumar-83 not out, Shahnawaz-1/16)

MM Bose cricket: GAC in quarter-finals

Patna, May 15, 2009
Gardanibagh Athletic Club (GAC) stormed into the quarter-finals of the second MM Bose memorial cricket tournament defeating Adalatganj Cricket Club by five wickets at the Sanjay Gandhi Stadium here on Friday.

Kumar Aditya of GAC, who was unbeaten with 76 runs, was declared man of the match.

Brief scores:
Adalatganj Cricket Club: 176 all out in 24.5 overs (Rakesh Sinha-46, Rajesh Choudhary-24, Animesh-21, Rajnish Gaurav-14, Keshav Kumar-3/26, Saket-2/25).
GAC: 177 for five wickets in 24.3 overs (Kumar Aditya-76 not out, Arvind Jha-42, AmaN-18, Bipesh-4/31)

Randhir Verma cricket: Saharsa beat Supaul

Patna, May 15, 2009
Saharsa beat Supaul by one wicket in the Randhir Verma memorial Bihar Cricket Association (BCA) inter-district under-19 cricket tournament at Supaul. In another match, Bhojpur trounced Buxar by 46 runs at Ara, according to a information reached here.

Brief scores:
Supaul: 118 all out in 17.4 overs, Saharsa: 119 for nine wickets in 24.5 overs.
Bhojpur: 221 for nine wickets in 35 overs, Buxar: 175 all out in 33 overs

MM Bose cricket: YAC, Rajendra Nagar in Q-F

Patna, May 14, 2009
YAC, Rajendra Nagar booked their berths in the quarter-finals of the second MM Bose memorial cricket tournament defeating youth Union by three wickets at the Sanjay Gandhi Stadium here on Thursday.

Batting first, Youth Union made 144 for nine wickets in the stipulated 25 overs. YAC hit back on a sound note and reached the target in 23.3 overs for the loss of seven wickets. Tejswi Lav of YAC, who claimed three wickets for 23 runs, was declared man of the match.

Brief scores:
Youth Union: 144 for nine wickets in 25 overs (Anand-38, Ritesh-17, Abhimanyu-20, Tejswi Lav-3/23, Abhishek-2/17)
YAC, Rajendra Nagar: 145 for seven wickets in 23.3 overs (Rahul-22, Sunil Yadav-21, Vikas-14, Ayush-15, Tejswi Lav-11, Anurag-2/27, Kshitiz-2/31)

MM Bose cricket: Big wins for Vidyarthi Athletic Club and Rajbanshi Nagar Club

Patna , May 13, 2009
Vidyarthi Athletic Club and Rajbanshi Nagar moved into the next round of the second MM Bose memorial cricket tournament defeating their rivals by huge margins at the Sanjay Gandhi Stadium here on Wednesday.

In the first match of the day, Vidyarthi AC trounced Boring Road by 108 runs while Rajbanshi Nagar swamped Vinoo Mankad Club by 89 runs in the second match,

The highlight of the first match was a five-wicket haul by Aditya Abhishek for Vidyarthi Athletics after Vibhuti Bhaskar decorated the innings with his quick-fire 70 runs. Vibhuti was later adjudged man of the match.

In the second match, Rohit Gupta claimed five wickets for 13 runs for Rajbanshi Nagar. He was awarded man of the match.
Brief scores:
Vidyrathi AC: 197 for 6 off 25 overs (Vibhuti Bhaskar 70, Saurav dey 42, Sachin 24, Utkarsh Bhaskar 15, Sammer 2 for 25.
Boring Road: 89 all out off 24.5 overs (Vishal 24, Sammer 21, Aditya Avbhishek 5 for 16).

Rajbanshi Nagar: 181 for 6 off 20 overs (Ghanshyam 54, Uday 34, Mukul 26, Shashibhusan 15, Indrajeet 12, satyam 2 for 37, Khalid 2 for 34).
Vinoo Mankad Club: 92 all out off 16.2 overs (Sudarshan 46, Satyam Jha 13, Rohit Gupta 5 for 13, Indrajeet 2 for 10).

BCA under-16 team leaves for Raipur

Bihar Cricket Association (BCA) under-16 team poses for group photograph with BCA secretary Ajay Narain Sharma (in blue shirt) and other office-bearers of the association in Patna on May 12, 2009. The BCA team left for Raipur on Tuesday to play three one-day and two two-day matches against Chhattisgarh team.

Photo: Aftab Alam Siddiqui

http://www.bahtiganga.com

Four changes in Indian archery team for World Cup stage III

Patna, May 12, 2009
The Archery Association of India (AAI) made four changes in the 16-member Indian contingent which will participate in the World Cup stage III at Antalya in Turkey from June 2 to 7.

The four, Viswash, Chekrovolu Swuro (both recurve), Arjun Rao and S. Jayalakshmi (both compound) have been replaced by Kapil, Reena Kumari, M. Chinglensana and Vrushali Gorle respectively, according to Mr. P.N. Mukherjee, secretary general, Archery Association of India (AAI).

Indian archers had won three gold medals and two bronze medals from the two World Cup meets held so far.

Team:
Recurve (men): Rahul Banerjee, Jayanta Talukdar (both Steel Plant), Mangal Singh Champia (Railways) and Kapil (Chandigarh).
Women: L. Bombayla Devi, Dola Banerjee and Reena Kumar (all Railways) and Rimil Biruily (Steel Plant).
Compound (Men): C. Srither, Chungda Sherpa, Kh. Ratan Singh and M. Chinglensana Luwang (all Services).
Women: Jhanu Hansda, Bheigyabati Chanu, Namita Yadav (all Jharkhand) and Vrushali Gorle (Maharashtra).

The AAI also announced the Indian team for the second Asian Grand Prix to be held in Tehran from May 18 to 23.

Team:
Recurve (men): Kapil (Chandigarh), Tarundeep Rai, Muni Ram Tirkey and K. Shivshankar (all Services).
Women: Punya Prabha (UP), Sushma, Reena Kumari (both Rly) and V. Pranitha (Steel Plant). Compound (men): L. Haridas Singh, M. Chinglensana Luwang, Arun Sharma (all Services) and Amrinder Singh (Punjab).
Women: Sakro Besra (Rly), Vrushali Gorle (Mah), Manjudha Soy and Sweety Kumari (both Jharkhand).

MM Bose cricket: Keshav shines in GAC win

Patna, May 11, 2009
Gardanibagh Athletic Club (GAC) snatched 14-run win over YCC, Rajendra Nagar in the second MM Bose memorial cricket tournament at the Sanjay Gandhi Stadium here on Monday.

Bating first GAC made 193 for the loss of nine wickets off 25 overs. Keshav scored a fluent half-century (53). Kumar Saket (36) and Arvinda Jha (25) were the other notable contributors. Ravi took three wickets for 28 runs.

In reply, YCC Rajendra Nagar could collect 179 runs off 24 overs. Keshav Kumar captured four wickets for 22 runs. Shasheem Rathore scored a blazing 60 runs.
Keshav Kumar of GAC was declared man of the match.

Brief scores:
GAC: 193 for seven wickets in 25 overs (Keshav-53, Kumar Saket-36, Arvind Jha-25, Saket Kumar-25, Kumar Aditya-19, Ravi-3/28)
YCC, Rajendra Nagar: 179 all out in 24 overs (Shasheem Rathore-60, Nitish Anand-25, Manish Anand-20, Kislay Kanan-14, Keshav-4/22, Dharmesh-2/13, Arvind Jha-2/33)

Sanjay to lead BCA under16 team for Chhattisgarh matches

Patna, May 10, 2009
Sanjay Kumar will lead a 15-member Bihar Cricket Association (BCA) under-16 team in the three one-day and two two-day matches against Chhattisgarh in Raipur from May 14.

According BCA secretary, Ajay Narain Sharma, the team will leave for Raipur on May 12. He said Pawan Kumar would be the manager of the team while Ajit Msihra would be the coach.

Team: Sanjay Kumar (captain), Shasheem Rathore (vice-captain), Ishan Kishan, Rajeev Kumar, Imran Shaquib, Manish Kumar Thakur, Arup Priya, Ashutosh Kumar, Rahul Priyadarshi, Krishna Anurag, Harprit Singh, Faisal Gani, Md Rashid, Ashish Ranjan and Anjani Ranjan.
Stand byes: Rajesh Ranjan, Pravi Ranjan, Sagar Burman, Ihsan Ravi, Siddhant Vijay, Akash Kumar, Anand Kumar, Kaifi Ahmad Hashmi, Imran Nazir, Rohit Kumar and Kundan Sharma.
Manager: Pawan Kumar. Coach: Ajit Mishra

MM Bose cricket: Sinha Biswas move up

Patna, May 10, 2009
Sinha Biswas Cricket Club got the better of YBCC by seven wickets in the second MM Bose memorial cricket tournament at the Sanjay Gandhi Stadium here on Sunday.

Batting first, YBCC made 184 for nine wickets in 25 overs. In reply, Sinha Biswas reached the target in 23 overs. Anand (39) and Bishwajit (29) excelled with the bat for YBCC while Dhramendra, Abid and Raushan claimed two wickets each.

Vimlesh was the hero of Sinha Biswas victory as he stroked in valuable 77 runs. His 36 balls innings contained 12 boundaries and one six, Ranjit (31) and Dharsmendra (20) were the other notable contributors. Vimlesh of Sinha Biswas Club was declared man of the match.

Brief scores:
YBCC: 184 for nine wickets in 25 overs (Anand-39, Bishwajit-29, Ujjawal-21, Dharmendra-2/35, Abid-2/28, Raushan-2/24)
Sinha Biswas CC: 187 for three wickets in 23 overs (Vimlesh-77, Ranjit-31, Dharmendra-20, Manish-1/27)

International School win Jay-Prabha cricket trophy

Patna, May 9, 2009
International School clinched the Jay-Prabha Memorial under-19 cricket tournament title beating Navin Vidyalaya, Danapur, by 43 runs at the Patna High School ground here on Saturday.
Batting first, International School scored 122 runs off 20 overs and then restricted their rivals for 79 for the loss of nine wickets off 20 overs.

Kislay Kanan of International School, who scored 42 runs and bagged four wickets for 10 runs, was declared man of the match and also the man of the series. Prem Ballabh Sahay, executive member, PDCA distributed the prizes.

Earlier, on Friday Navin Vidyalaya, Danapur entered the final defeating Miller High School by 34 runs in the second semi-finals.

Brief scores:

International School: 122 all out in 20 overs (Kislay Kanan-42, Kislay Kishore-28, Vibhakar Arya-20, A Wasi-3/12, Tushar-2/21)

Navin Vidyalaya: 79 for nine wickets in 20 overs (Ranjit-43, Amardeep-10, Kislay Kanan-4/10, Rupak Kumar-3/5, Sumit Kumar-2/8)

Photo caption: International School team with Jay-Prabha cricket trophy in Patna on May 9, 209.

MM Bose cricket: Facile win for Kadamkuan

Patna, May 8, 2009
Kadamkuan Cricket Club scored a comprehensive 7-wicket victory over Boring Road Cricket Club in the second MM Bose memorial cricket tournament at the Sanjay Gandhi Stadium here on Friday.

Batting first, Boring Road made 160 for the loss of five wickets off 25 overs. Samir scored a classy half-century (63) runs. In reply, Kadamkuan reached the target off 20 overs losing three wickets. Ravi slammed a breezy unbeaten half-century (62).. Ravi of Kadamkuan CC was declared man of the match.

Brief scores:
Boring Road CC: 160 for five wickets in 25 overs (Samir-63, Suraj-10, Vishal-17, Rajeev-3/28)Kadamkuan CC: 161 for three wickets in 20 overs (Ravi-62 not out, Ankit-23, Sunny-14, Abhilash-13, Vishal-1/32, Samir-1/18)

Archery World Cup Stage II: Jayant Talukdar bags recurve gold, makes it a grand double

Patna, May 9, 2009
Jayanta Talukdar won the individual recurve gold medal on Saturday out-shooting Athens Olympic gold medallist Marco Galiazzo of Italy by 110 points to 108 in the final of the archery World Cup Stage II at Porec, Croatia.

According to information reached here, the win enabled Talukdar to win a double gold medal. The first gold of the meet came through the team championship.

Talukdar also won his third head-to-head contest against the Italian all played at Porec. He first tamed Galiazzo in 2006 on way to the gold medal, and again beat him in 2008 and now in the final.
Talukdar held the lead in the first two ends of three arrows each at 55-52.

He surprisingly conceded two points in the third end to allow the Italian to narrow the gap to 81-82. When Galiazzo hit an 8 with his second arrow of the final end of the three arrows, the Indian needed a nine to win. Instead he hit a 10 to take the second crown in Porec.

V.K. Malhotra, president and P.N. Mukherjee, secretary general, Archery Association of India, congratulated the winners.

Source: press release from http://www.indianarchery.info/

Archery World Cup Stage II: India win recurve team gold medal

Patna, May 9, 2009
India’s fearsome threesome of Jayanta Talukdar, Rahul Banerjee and Mangal Singh Champia, earned India a gold medal in the recurve team event of the archery World Cup Stage II at Porec, Croatia, on Saturday.

According to information reached here, India defeated Russian Federation by 220 points to 218. Italy won the bronze beating China 221-219.

This was the trio’s second consecutive team gold medal after having won the first at the Santo Domingo World Cup Stage I last month. Then India had beaten Great Britain in the final.
After India’s disastrous world championship in 2007, Jayanta, Mangal and Rahul were instrumental in getting India the gold medal at the 15th Asian Championship at Xi’an in China the same year, the gold medal coming after 18 years.

The trio got India first team gold medal in the World Cup series winning at Antalya (Turkey) in 2008. This was followed by two more this year at Santo Domingo and now at Porec.

Russia trailed by one point (54-55) in the first end, but could recover in the second end to tie the match at 108 points at halfway mark.

India could take the lead in the third end with 164-162. Russia showed their best in the last end, but it was not enough to beat the Indians.

The women’s recurve team, however, failed to clinch the bronze medal losing the play-off to Ukraine at 197-212. China beat France 214-200 for the gold medal.

It was pretty good performance in dusty conditions for India as they take the lead in the first end with 53 points against a low 49 points by their opponents. The Indians, however, could not manage the windy conditions as they did in the first end and went on a wayward shooting, 7-9-8-8-9-6, all on the right side of the target. The Ukrainians tied the match at 100 points. Ukraine took the lead in the third end with 154-150.

The last end for India was quite stressful as the last arrow slipped from the arrow rest and five seconds were left on the clock… it landed on the 5 ring. Ukraine confirmed their win with a great 58-point end.

Photo Caption: Indian team (blue) on the podium flanked by Russia (white) and Italy (deep blue) at Porec.
Photo courtesy: http://www.indianarchery.info/

Source: Press release from http://www.indianarchery.info/

http://www.bahtiganga.com/

Patna girl Ankita excels at California State Scholastic Chess

Patna, May 8, 2009
Patna girl Ankita Roy a 10th grader from Irvington high School, Fremont, California won 4th place in the California State scholastic ( 9-12 Junior varsity) chess championship held in San Jose from May 2 to 3.

According to information reached here, the championship held at San Jose convention center drew 833 scholastic players from all over California. Ankita top seeded in her group won four and drew one game defeating players from various parts of California.

Top 25 players were awarded trophies by California States Chess Association.

Ankita had several titles under her belt including the California State Championship (K-3 division) two years in a row. This was a record in itself since no girl had ever won this and no player had won this twice.

Ankita born in United States, spent her early childhood in Bhagalpur with her grandparents and joined her parents in US at age four. Almost every year she loves to visit India and especially Patna, her father’s paternal house. Besides chess Ankita won debate competitions representing her school and is a honor roll student. In her studies, Ankita is one of the top students in class and aspires to become doctor to serve the society.

Ankita's father Sujay Roy based in the San Francisco Bay Area in California was a chess champion during his own time in India representing Bihar State at national championships. Sujay Roy is from Patna and after finishing engineering degree from Bihar College of Engineering, Patna joined ONGC. During his student years Sujay was captain of Patna university chess team and under his captainship Patna University won second place in All India Inter University Chess championship held at Hyderabad.

Sujay was Captain of ONGC team that won several championships in All India petroleum tournaments. Sujay is working as research and development Senior Staff Engineer in a fortune 500 company in California. He is also Secretary of California based non profit American Organization for Development of Bihar which helps Bihar through several projects like children education and health camps. Recently Sujay Roy as chief Coordinator of Bihar Flood relief committee in USA raised over $60000 for flood victims in Bihar. The fund was donated to Punarwaas, R.K.Misson and several other smaller projects like school building, blankets, clothes distribution in flood affected area.

Archery World Cup Stage II – Indian men’s team in final; women to playoff for bronze medal

Patna, May 8, 2009
Continuing the form that fetched the Indian men’s recurve team the gold medal at the World Cup Stage I at Santo Domingo, the threesome of Jayanta Talukdar, Rahul Banerjee and Mangal Singh put India in line for a gold medal in the Stage II at Porec, Croatia, according to information reached here.

Indian women’s recurve team, consisting of Bombayla Devi, Rimil Buriuly and Dola Banerjee, made it to the bronze medal play off against Ukraine.

Indian men’s outfit had no problem in disposing off Slovakia at 224-193 in the first round and outshot the USA 227-218 in the quarterfinals in a field of 16 teams. The confidence the team had gained from the earlier two victories stood it in good stead against Italy in the semifinals. The contest was far more intense as India had Marco Galiazzo, Talukdar’s final opponent in the individual event.

The Indian trio has been performing exceptionally well for the past two years meant Italy had to bow to India’s superiority at 225-220. India’s final opponent will be Russian Federation on Saturday.

The women’s side, ranked ninth had a tough outing in the first round against eight-ranked Great Britain. The two teams tied at 217-217 before the Indians prevailed in the tie-breaker at 28-23. The win ought to have boosted the morale of the side as India took the top seed Italy apart in the quarterfinals at 217-212.

Like the Indian men, the women failed to consolidate the gains in the semifinals againstfourth-ranked France and lost the tie 206-209.

Source: Indian Archery press release

Archery World Cup stage II: Jayanta Talukdar in men’s recurve individual final

Patna, May 7, 2009
India’s Jayanta Talukdar is in the threshold of winning his second World Cup gold medal in archery.According to information reached here, the 23-year-old Guwahati-born assistant manager with Tata Steel at Jamshedpur made it to the final in the ongoing World Cup at Porec (Croatia) by winning five rounds in-a-row on Thursday. He will vie for the top honours against 2004 Athens Olympic champion Marco Galiazzo of Italy.

Porec has been a happy hunting ground for Indians. Talukdar began it all in 2006 winning the individual gold medal, the year in which his world ranking rose to No. 2. He figured in the World Cup finals at Mexico but finished last among the four contestants. Last year it was his compatriot Rahul Banerjee who made it to the final at Porec and lost.

Amidst very disappointing results coming from the Indian recurve contingent being coached by Limba Ram, Talukdar’s display so far has been the only silver lining.

Second-seeded Talukdar began with a fluent win against 63rd ranked Brazilian Luis Felipe Paulinyi (113-105), conquered two Chinese, 34th ranked Hai Feng Xue (112-111) in the second round and 18th placed Yu Xing (113-111) in the third round.

Talukdar ousted 10th seed Baljinima Tsyrempilov of Russia (112-110) in the quarterfinals and edged out 46th ranked Jean-Charles Valladont of France (112-111) in the semi-finals. Talukdar’s success was due to his ability to consistently shoot 112 points and above.

While all other Indians lost in the second round, only Rahul Banerjee and Chekrovolu Swuro were eliminated in the pre-quarterfinals. Seventh-ranked Banerjee fell to Tsyrempilov at 110-113, Sophie Dodemont of France eliminated 23rd placed Chekrovolu at 105-104.

Archery World Cup stage II: Srither, Jhano to the fore

Patna, May 6, 2009
Army man Chinna Raju Srither shot a perfect 360 in the 30m distance of the compound bow section of the archery World Cup stage II at Porec in Croatia on Wednesday. Yet, he finished fifth because four more archers, all scoring 360 points, had more bulls eyes than him. Srither finished 24th overall with a score of 1387 while his closest Indian was Chungda Sherpa at 32nd with a score of 1382. Khuraijam Ratan Singh ended 48th with 1364 while Arjun Rao was 72nd with 1314.

According to information reached here, the Indian men’s team ended overall eight with a total of 4133.

Jhano Hansdah, as usual, was the best among four Indian ladies with ascore of 1382 which earned her 14th rank in the qualifying stage.Namita Yadav with 1364 was 23rd while Bheigyabati Chanu was 27th with1361. Sarikonda Jayalakshmi was 38th with 1346. The Indian women’s team was placed fifth overall with 4107.

MM Bose cricket: Sinha Biswas post comprehensive victory over YAC, Rajendra Nagar

Patna, May 6, 2009
Sinha Biswas scripted a facile seven-wicket win over YAC, Rajendra Nagar in a first round match of the MM Bose memorial cricket tournament at the Sanjay Gandhi Stadium here on Wednesday.

Batting first YAC boys could muster 159 runs for the loss of two wickets off 25 overs. Vishal Gaurav slammed a half-century (58). Sunil (28) and Rahul Raj (22) were the other notable contributors.

Despite having a fight score on the board, YAC could not save the match as Sinha Biswas boys reached the target off 21.3 overs losing three wickets. Roshan played a key role in the victory scoring a half-century (50). Vimalesh (34) and Snehal (18) were the other useful scorers.

Roshan of Sinha-Biswas was declared man of the match.

Brief scores:
YAC: 159 for 2 off 25 overs (Vishal Gaurav 58, Sunil 28, Rahul Raj 22, Dharmendra 1 for 29, Robin 1 for 19).
Sinha Biswas: 160 for 3 off 21.3 overs (Roshan 50, Vimalesh 34, Snehal 18, Vikas 1 for 35, Rohit 1 for 24).

St Michael's School win Father Arrupe cricket trophy; Don Bosco Academy lose in final

Patna, May 6, 2009
St Michael’s school won the 11th Father Arrupe memorial inter-school cricket trophy defeating Don Bosco Academy by 28 runs at their home ground here on Wednesday.

Batting first, St Michael’s School boys made 119 for the loss of four wickets off 20 overs. Gaurav (40), Fahad (40) and Jayant (31) produced substantial contribution with the bat. Ankur and Abhishek took one wicket each.

In reply, Don Bosco Academy crawled to 91 all out off 20 overs. Amitesh (24) and Sachin (17) gave a brief resistance to St Michael’s attack. Pushkar took three wickets for 22 runs while Vikram got two wickets for 20 runs.

Arun Kumar Singh, Principal Accountant General, who was the chief guest at the closing function, gave away the prizes. St Michael’s School principal, Father Peter Arockiasamy, SJ, welcome the guests. Father Joseph Maripuram, SJ, Rector of the school was also present at the prize-distribution function.

Brief scores:
St Michael’s School: 119 for 4 off 20 overs (Gaurav 40, Jayant 31, Fahad 40, Ankur 1 for 25, Abhishek 1 for 15).
Don Bosco Academy: 91 all out ( Sachin 17, Amitesh 24, Vikram 2 for 20, Pushkar 3 for 22).

MM Bose cricket: Vidyarthi AC win

Patna, May 5, 2009
Vidyarthi Athletic Club beat Kadamkuan Cricket Club by 24 runs in the inaugural match of the second MM Bose memorial cricket tournament at the Sanjay Gandhi Stadium here on Tuesday.

Batting first, Vidyarthi AC scored 170 for two wickets in 25 overs with Utkarsh and Saurav Dey making 33 runs each. In reply, Kadamkuan CC crumbled out for 146 runs in 25 overs. Shashi, Sonu and sachin took two wickets each. Rahul (24) and Sunny (24) were the useful rungetters.

Saurav Dey of Vidyarthi Athletic Club, who scored 33 runs and took one wicket, was declared man of the match. Earlier, Ram Babu Rai, a social worker inaugurated the tournament.
Brief scores:

Vidyarthi AC: 170 for two wickets in 25 overs (Vibhuti-20, Utkarsh-33, Saurav Dey-33, Chitranjan-25, Manish-1/15, Sunny-1/25)

Kadamkuan CC: 146 all out n 25 overs (Rahul-24, Sunny-24, Manish-14, Shashi-2/16, Sonu-2/20, Sachin-2/20, Saurav Dey-1/15, Manish-1/14)

Photo caption: Vidyarthi AC and Kadamkuan CC teams at the inauguratio of MM Bose cricket tournament in Patna on May 5, 2009.

Photo: Aftab Alam Siddiqui

NYK crowned PDCA Sr league champions

Patna, May 4, 2009
Nehru Yuvak Kendra Cricket Club (NYKCC) are the Patna District Cricket Association (PDCA) senior division league champions. They retained the title defeating State Bank of India (SBI) by eight wickets in the final at the Moinul Haq Stadium here on Monday. With this win NYK made it two in a row.

Batting first, SBI made 108 runs in 29.3 overs. In reply, NYKCC reached the target losing only two wickets in 19.5 overs for the loss two wickets.

The final was virtually a one-sided affair as SBI batsmen failed to do well against NYK attack. Rajeev Prasad (23) and Sunil Kumar (16) were the only two batsmen, who did somewhat noteworthy. Anand Priya claimed three wickets for 17 runs while Saurav and Kamalesh bagged two wickets each.

In reply, NYK had no hiccups to surpass the total. They made 113 runs for the loss of two wickets off 19.5 overs. Opener Neeraj played a magnificent knock of unbeaten 49 runs. Nishant (25) and Kumar Aditya (27 not out) were the other praise worthy batsmen.

Brief scores:

SBI: 108 all out in 29.3 overs (Arvind Jha-11, Rajeev Prasad-23, Sunil Kumar-16, Tarun Kumar-11,Anand Priya-3/17, Saurav Chakravorty-2/16, Kamlesh-2/18, Rehan Khan-1/24, Shashi Bhushan-1/12)
NYKCC: 113 for two wickets in 19.5 overs (Neeraj-49 not out, Nishant-25, Kumar Aditya-27 not out, Sunil Kumar-2/20)

Photo caption: Jubilant NYK team after winning the PDCA senior division league title in Patna on May 4, 2009.

Photo: Aftab Alam Siddiqui

Father Arrupe cricket: St Michael's School set up final clash with Don Bosco Academy

Patna, May 4, 2009
St Michael’s High School moved into the final of the 11th Father Arrupe memorial inter-school Twenty20 cricket tournament defeating Patna Central School by 17 runs at their home ground here on Monday.

In a low scoring match, St Michael’s School made 105 for the loss of seven wickets. Gaurav (30), Pushkar (20) and Saurav (24) were the main scorers. Dharmesh and Aman took two wickets each.

In reply, Patna Central School were all out for 88 runs. Vivek top scored with 30 runs. Amandeep claimed four wickets for 15 runs. Now, St Michael’s School will take on and Don Bosco Academy in the final. Amandeep of St Michael’s, who claimed four wickets for 15 runs, was declared man of the match.

Brief scores:
St Michael’s HS: 105 for seven wickets in 20 overs (Gaurav-30, Pushkar-20, Saurav-24, Dharmesh-2/20, Aman-2/25)
Patna Central School: 88 for seven wickets in 20 overs (Vivek-30, Aman-17, Dharmesh-14, Amandeep-4/15, Ajay-2/18)

CAB hog limelight in Jamshedpur

Patna, May 3, 2009
Cricket Academy of Bihar (CAB), Patna, clinched the Pankaj-Karim inter-coaching (under-16) cricket tournament title defeating Bournvita, Kolkata by four wickets in the final in Jamshedpur, on Sunday.

According to information received here Anmol Boni (CAB), who scored 48 runs, was declared man of the match. Batting first Bournvita made 158 all out off 30 overs. CAB chased the target successfully losing six wickets in the way.

Brief scores:
Bournvita: 158 all out in 30 overs (Deepu Chatterjee-39, Sandeepan Roy-35, Rohan-25, Deepak-3/10,Anurag-3/18, Satbir-3/14)
CAB: 159 for six wickets in 29.4 overs (Anmol Boni-48, Anshul-38, Satbir-35, Himanshu-17, Sandeepan Roy-2/33)

PDCA Sr. league: SBI, NYK in final

Patna, May 3, 2009
State Bank of India (SBI) will face Nehru Yuva Kendra Cricket Club (NYKCC) for the supremacy of Patna District Cricket Association (PDCA) senior division league. In the second semi-final SBI bat Bihar State Electricity Board (BSEB) by two runs while in the first semi-final NYKCC beat Patna College by 67 runs to set up summit showdown at the Moinul Haq Stadium here on Sunday.

Batting first, SBI made 153 for the loss of five wickets off 30 overs with Arvind Jha (40) and Rajeev Prasad (24) contributing well. Ravi Prakash took three wickets for 19 runs.

In reply, BSEB could manage to score 151 off 29.4 overs despite a defiant knock of 40 runs by Ranjeet. Rohit Gupta (33) and Ravi Prakash (32) were the other notable scorers. Sunil Kumar claimed five wickets for 15 runs.

In the other semi-final, NYK scored 173 runs for 7 off 30 overs. Nishant slammed a polished half-century (53). Dilip took three wickets for 34 runs.

In reply, Patna College stumbled out for 106 runs off 24.5 overs. Anand, Kaushik and Shashi all took three wickets each. Amit top scored with 27 runs.

Brief scores:
SBI: 153 for five wickets in 30 overs (Mridul-41, Arvind Jha-40, Rajeev Prasad-24 not out, Sridhar-10 not out, Ravi Prakash-3/19)
BSEB: 151 all out in 29.4 overs (Ranjeet-40, Rohit Gupta-33, Ravi Prakash-32, Sunil Kumar-5/15,Saket-1/7, Arvind Jha-1/28, Nilay-1/34)

NYKCC: 173 for seven wickets in 30 overs (Nishant-53, Manish Kumar Sonu-30, Aditya-29, Pradeep-29, Dilip-3/34, Chandan-2/41, Sanjeev-1/27, Sunil-1/33)
Patna College: 106 all out in 24.5 overs (Gyanendra-13, Amit-27, Amalesh-16, Sunil-10, Chandan-11, Anand Priya-3/21, Kaushik-3/30, Shashi Bhushan-3/28)

Patna Central School paddlers reign supreme

Patna, May 3, 2009
Patna Central School (PCS) players proved their superiority in the BY Yadav memorial table tennis championships winning all the tiles save one at the Bihar Young Men’s Institute here on Sunday.

Ankit Kumar of Patna Central School (PCS) won a grand double clinching the sub-junior boys’ and junior boys’ singles titles with commendable ease. He first beat Piyush D Gandhi (DPS) 11-8, 11-8, 11-7 for sub-junior title and then outsmarted Nishant Chandra of his own school PCS 7-11,9-11, 11-3, 11-9, 11-7 for the boys’ singles crown.

Gauresh Nishad of Radiant International School claimed the cadet boys’ singles title beating Gagan Neer of Loyola High School 11-9, 11-9, 11-9 in the final.
In an all- PCS final, Patna Central School ‘B’ won the team championship title beating their ‘A’ team 3-1 in the final.

Kripa Shankar, superintending engineer, NCFL (Singrauli) distributed the prizes. Mukesh Roy, secretary, Bihar Table Tennis Association (BTTA) welcomed the guests. Tarun Kumar, convenor of thetournament proposed a vote of thanks. Banarsi Prasad, Amitabh Sinha, Sanjeev Shankar and Mahadeo Prasad Yadav and all officials of the BTTA graced the function.

Photo caption: Winners of BB Yadav memorial table tennis championships displaying their trophies and certificates in Patna on May 3, 2009.

Photo: Aftab Alam Siddiqui

PDCA Senior Division League: Prabha XI, Amar Cricket Club earn full points

Patna, May 2, 2009
Amar Cricket Club chalked out a narrow five-run victory over Young Men’s Cricket Club (YMCC) in the Patna District Cricket Association (PDCA) senior division league at the Moinul Haq Stadium here on Saturday. Earlier in the first match, Prabha XI defeated Navshakti Niketan by 19 runs.

Batting first, Prabha XI scored 106 all out off 21.5 overs. Munchun slammed 38 runs to become top scorer for his side. CM Yadav took three wickets for 25 runs while Rajesh Choudhary bagged two wickets for 30 runs.

In reply, Navshakti Niketan could manage to score 87 runs off 19 overs. Rupesh scored 18 runs. Nikhil, Pawan, Raghunath and Sandeep all took two wickets each.

In the second match, Amar Cricket Club made 122 runs for the loss of nine wickets off 25 overs. Rupak (25), Pankaj (38) and Sanotsh (25) were the notable condtributors. Santosh and Sandeep grabbed two wickets each.

In reply, YMCC were able to score 117 runs for the loss of eight wickets off 25 overs. Santosh hit a defiant half-century (51). But his effort was not enough to see his team through. Sanjeev Sharma bagged three wickets for 20 runs and Pankaj captured two wickets for 21 runs.

Brief scores:
Prabha XI: 106 all out in 21.5 overs (Munchun-38, Arya-10, Pawan-18, Nitish-4/20, CM Yadav-3/25, Rajesh Choudhary-2/30).
Navshakti Niketan: 87 all out in 19 overs (Rupesh-18, Ram Kishore-11, Nikhil-2/18, Pawan-2/20, Ragunath-2/17, Sandeep-2/10)

Amar CC: 122 for nine wickets in 25 overs (Rupak-25, Pankaj-38, Santosh-25, Ravi-2/28, Santosh-2/19, Sandeep-2/25)
YMCC: 117 for eight wickets in 25 overs (Santosh-51, Kislay Kanan-17, Vimal Raj-10, Sanjeev Sharma-3/20, Pankaj-2/21)

Father Arrupe cricket: Don Bosco Academy in final

Patna, May 2, 2009
Don Bosco Academy stormed into the final of the 11th Father Arrupe memorial inter-school cricket tournament crushing St Dominic School by six wickets at the St Michael’s School ground here on Saturday.

Batting first, St Dominic boys struggled hard to collect 86 runs off 15.5 overs. Ankit (40) saved his team from complete disaster. Amitabh and abhishek took three wickets each.

In reply, Don Bosco Acdemy boys achieved the target off 15.2 overs losing four wickets. Amitabh (23) emerged as the top scorer.

Amitabh of Don Bosco, who claimed three wickets and scored 23 runs, was declared man of the match.

Brief scores:
St Dominic School: 86 all out in 15.5 overs (Ankit-40, Saddab-12, Amitabh-3/20, Abhishek-3/15).
Don Bosco Academy: 87 for four wickets in 15.2 overs (Amitabh-23, Shashank-12, Ankur-10, Santosh-2/26).

BB Yadav TT: Patna Central school teams in final

Patna, May 2, 2009
Patna Central School (PCS) teams ‘A’ and ‘B’ set up title clash in the team event final of the BB Yadav memorial inter-school table tennis tournament at Bihar Young Men’s Institute Hall here on Saturday.

PCS ‘A’ beat St Xavier’s High School ‘A’ 3-0 while PCS ‘B’ got the better of Delhi Public School (DPS) 3-1 in the semi-finals.

Meanwhile, in junior boys’ singles event, Nishant Chandra, Vedant Patwari, Amit Kumar and Ankit Kumar made the last four grades.
Cadet boys section saw Gagan Neer, Akash Narain, Tushar Kanti and Gauresh Nishad booking their berths in the semi-finals.

Ankit Kumar, Tushar Kanti, Amit Kumar and Piyush D Gandhi moved into the semi-finals of the sub-junior boys’ singles.

Photo caption: Vedant Patwari (right) and Nishant in action during their singles match of the BB Yadav table tennis championships in Patna on May 2, 2009.

Photo: Aftab Alam Siddiqui