KARACHI, July 28: Apart from disturbing outdoor activities, for the first time in its history heavy rains on Monday afternoon forced the organizers to reschedule its National Ranking Snooker Championship programme.

Due to downpour which flooded the road and disturbed the traffic, several cueists taking part in the championship failed to reach the venue, Area Snooker Club in Gizri.

Secretary, Pakistan Billiards and Snooker Association (PBSA) Aspi Mavalwala told APP that no play was possible in the final session which was due to start 5.30pm.

However, whatever league matches possible on the day, Pakistan number one Khurram Agha, Rambel Gul, holder Saleh Muhammad, Muhammad Nazir, Amit Perwani and Naveen Perwani advanced in the last 16 stage of the competition.

Saleh Muhammad smashed two fine breaks of 74 and 58 in the last two frames in his 4-2 win over Shah Khan.

Fourth seed Naveen Perwani battled all the way to overpower Amit Parwani to seal a place in the pre-quarterfinals. Amit, however, emerged as group ‘D’ champion.

Aspi said remaining matches involving Khurram Agha- Rambel Gul, Atiq Latif Bakhsh-Minhas Malik and Imran Mughal- Yousuf Haroon weather permitting will be played on Tuesday morning.

He said re-seeding which was to take place after the completion of the league rounds on Monday will now be held on Tuesday.

However, he made it clear all depends on rains and flooding situation. If things got worse, pre-quarterfinals can be staged on Wednesday and making the event to go on till Sunday instead of Saturday when the final was scheduled to be held.

Following are the results:

Muhammad Yousuf (KPT) bt Muhammad Nazir (Punjab) 4-2; Shadab Baig (Sindh) bt Raja Rashid (Punjab) 4-1; Farhan Mirza (Punjab) bt Vishan Gir (Sindh) 4-2; Muhammad Akhlas (Sindh) bt Ahmer Shaikh (Sindh) 4-2; Naveen Perwani (Sindh) bt AmitParwani 4-3; Saqib Butt (Punjab) bt Faisl Essa (Sindh) 4-1; Shakeel Bhatti (Sindh) bt Arifullah (NWFP) 4-1; Mustifa Hyder (Balochistan) bt Janan Khan (Balochistan) 4-0; Saleh Muhammad (NWFP) bt Shah Khan (NWFP) 4-2; Muhammad Asif (Punjab) bt Kashif Khan (SIndh) 4-3; Imran Shahzad (Punjab) bt Faiq Malik 4-1; Raees Khan (Sindh) bt Abu Saim (Punjab) 4-1.—APP