Eternal India Encyclopedia

Eternal India encyclopedia

SPORTS

BILLIARDS

length and show no substantial departure from the generally ac- cepted shape and form.

Though the history of the game of the green baize is long, its origins are vague. The game, however, became so popular in England in the 19th century that it began to be called English Billiards. The game came to India in the 1930s, thanks to the efforts of M.M. Begg, a character actor

BODY BUILDING It has been man's endeavaour to excel in every walk of life. In sports — which has become an integral part of modern life — man has been striving to achieve higher and higher. The return to body building as a competitive sport took place in the nineteenth century. Arnold Schwarzenegger in his encyclopedia of modern body build- ing states : At the end of the nineteenth century a new interest in muscle building arose, not muscle just as a means of survival or of defending oneself, but a return to the Greek ideal —muscular de- velopment as a celebration of the human body. And thus began the sport of body building as a celebration of the male physique." By the last decade of the 20th century women abroad have also taken to 'flexing' their muscles. Sandra Ann Brickett of England (Ms. World in 1991 and Ms.Europe in 1992) was the first woman to demonstrate the sport in India during the 1992 national champion- ships at Bangalore. England's Eugene Sandow was the first man of modern body building, who sent the audiences into raptures by his body display during the 1890s in America. The sport rapidly spread in America after the success of Eugene Sandow's shows and today there are two distinct cultures of body building at the international level. Before its evolution as an individual sport, body building was a part of the training exercises for wrestlers and weightlifters. Body building was a demonstration sport in the first Asian Games at New Delhi in 1951. It was, however, dropped subsequently. Till 1980, body building was conducted under a common cate- gory. However in that year it was divided into height class body- building and weight class body building. While the Americans dominated in the weight class, the height class has remained the 'forte' of European body builders. From the era of the late K.V. Iyer, India has its own history of body building. A strict vegetarian and a great believer in the values of natural food, fresh air and exercises, K.Y. Iyer transformed his weak body into a monument of physique by sheer hard work using only dumb bells and bar bells. The National Amateur Body Building Federation of India, the parent organisation for the spread of the sport, is affiliated to the World Amateur Body Building Association (height class) head- quartered in Paris and the Asian Body Building Federation with its headquarters in Japan.

of yesteryears, who performed under the name of Nemo. Begg who was instrumental in forming the Billiards and Snooker Federation of India, represented the country in the world championships. Calcutta has continued to be the stronghold of the Federation except for a brief period of four years, when it was housed in Bombay. The national federation has since shifted to Calcutta. Though India has produced four world champions in billiards, the game has not become popular among the masses. Rooted among the urbanites, billiards in India has not even gained as much popu- larity as it has in a small country like Thailand. Way back in 1989, Thailand boasted of 9000 tables, whereas in India - the second largest populated country of the world - even today there are only 1500 tables. While clubs with at least 50 tables under one roof are a common feature in many billiards playing coun- tries, it goes to the credit of the Karnataka State Billiards Associa- tion for having the maximum number of eight tables (the largest in the country) under its roof. Despite its poor spread among the masses, the game has de- veloped tremendously and India is the proud holder of 15 world titles and four world championships. Leading personalities at the national and international levels include M.M. Begg, Maharaj Dhiraj of Burdwan, late B.K. Roy, late R.K. Vissanji, Captain Sadler, Sam Hill, Tiger T.A. Selvaraj, Chan- dra Hirjee, Wilson Jones, Michael Ferreira, Thomas Monteiro, Sa- tish Mohan, Arvind Savur, Geet Sethi, Sonic Multani, Subhash Agrawal, Om Agrawal and Miss Judy Walia. World Champions : Wilson Jones (twice), Michael Ferreira (thrice), Geet Sethi and Manoj Kothari. With the game slowly beginning to lose ground to snooker, the playing pattern has been changed from hourly basis to the frame ba- sis with 150 points normally being set as the maximum for the com- pletion of a frame. The game is played with two white balls and one red (object ball). There is a black spot on one of the white balls to enable the players to identify their respective cue balls. Some of the strokes commonly used in billiards and snooker are: 1. Swerve shot, 2. Masse shot, 3. Stun shot, 4. Screw back or pull back, 5 Top ball or follow shot, which is also known as normal shot. The billiards table measures twelve-and-half feet by six-and- half feet with the playing area within the cushion faces measuring 1 lft 8 1/2 inches by 5ft 10 inches with a tolerance on both dimen- sions of plus or minus 1/2 an inch. The height of the table from the floor to the top of the cushion rail shall be from 2ft 9 1/2 inches to 2ft 10 inches. The balls shall be of an approved composition and each ball shall weigh between 135 and 145 gms. The diameter of balls shall be 52.5 mm with a tolerance of + 0.05 mm to - 0.08 mm. They shall be of equal weight with a tolerance of 0.5 gms per billiards set. The cue shall not be less than three feet in

Mantosh Roy of Calcutta became the first Indian to win the Mr.Universe title in 1951 at the London championship. Manohar Aich, Parimal Roy, Premchand Dogra and Raymond D'Souza are