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Eternal India
encyclopedia
SPORTS
BILLIARDS
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
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
length and show no substantial departure from the generally ac-
cepted shape and form.
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.
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