The Simla Dragons team retained the Phil’s Autoport sponsored North West Billiard and Snooker Association 2020 League playoff title after defeating Nadi Sports Club 4-3 in the final on Sunday.
The tight affair went down to the wire with the Dragons winning the decisive snooker doubles fixture to clinch the title back to back.
In the snooker singles, Vinesh Prasad (Dragons) defeated David Reddy (Nadi Sports) 114-40, Vikrant Sharma (Dragons) went down to Yogen Prasad (Nadi Sports) 87-108 while Mahen Deo (Nadi Sports) beat Epeli Bua 101-87 to give the Jetsetters a 2-1 advantage.
Raymond Reddy (Dragons) squared the fixture 2-all after downing Rimal Narayan (Nadi Sports) 66-33 in the six reds encounter.
Sharma bounced back to defeat Narayan 121-75 in the billiards to nudge the Sugar City based Dragons team ahead 3-2.
It was left to the final two snooker games to decide the winner with the Dragons needing one game and Nadi Sports both. Vinesh paired with Aman Khan to claim the winner for the Dragons beating David and Deo 123-91.
Dragons captain Raymond said they managed to win the playoff title without two of their star players Simon Reddy and Tony Cen, who were stuck overseas because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Raymond said though Nadi Sports won the 2020 league, they proved to be mentally tougher during the crunch playoff stage.
In the semi-finals, the Dragons came from behind to down giant killers Olosara from Sigatoka 4-3.
Olosara led 3-1 after winning two out of the snooker doubles fixtures and the six reds match.
The side needed to win the next billiards fixture to claim a spot in the final and sent in favourite Rahil Prasad to face Bua.
Rahil led for most of the fixture, but Bua the former Fiji champion with the backing home crowd fi red back to reach the winning margin of 121 points first.
This gave the Dragons the much need life line and the side went on to claim the final two snooker doubles matches to clinch victory.
The NWBSA will set out its 2021 calendar soon with more focus on developing young talents.
