CPT spikers land maiden title

This is after a gap of six years that a Kerala team is winning the men’s title. CPT became the third Kerala team to win the title after Kerala Police (1991, Cuddalloore) and Titanium (1993, Kothegudam).

In the women’s final, Southern Railway lived upto their billing winning the title in 70 minutes over KSEB 25-18, 18-25, 25-18, 25-15.

In the losers final, Punjab Police beat Indian Juniors 18-25, 27-25, 25-14, 25-20 and in the women’s section Eastern Club, Calcutta thrashed Vypeen Volleyball Academy 25-9, 25-10,25-12.

Knowing fully well that they start as underdogs, the Kochi side went for an all-court attack right from word go. Whereas IOB looked like having an off day. Their attacker Manjunath was given march orders in the last set.

Though IOB were expected to bounce back after losing the first in 15 minutes, they, however, could not recover from the early setback.

Tom Joseph, Ismail, Biju Thomas and Sunilkumar were in full steam for CPT in the second set. Libero Raj Vinod was unparalleled with his retrievals in the nick of the time and helped his team pocket the set in 17 minutes.

The bankmen from Chennai were trailing 22-24 in the final set and the spectators were beginning to leave the stadium expecting an imminent end. But Thulasi Reddy came up with an intelligent drop and a deceptive serve bringing the score level at 24-all. But CPT’s Tom and Sunil cheered lustily by the crowd hit the last nail with two smashes.

CPT coach M T Samuel attributed the teams maiden triumph to team effort. “My boysplayed to their real potential for the last three days,” remarked the jubilant coach.

KSEB DISAPPOINT: KSEB lost the chance to emerge as women champions as this was the first time that clubs were allowed to take part in women’s category in the national club championships.

The match failed to inspire the full-house crowd which hardly lived upto expectations. KSEB women paid dearly for depending too much on their captain Anu Jacob their only attacker in the side who played with high temperature for the second successive day.

For the winners, the 70 minute match turned out to be an easier than expected affair. The Kerala team’s defence and net blocks were poor, barring in the second set. And worse, KSEB did the cardinal mistake of allowing Slaomi Rami, Railway’s kingpin to dictate terms. And the veteran Railway international utilised the chances to hilt. She unleashed some terrific strikes which fell on the KSEB court and did not find any resistance. All rounder Geetha Raju excelled with someintelligent full-court play. Rest of the railwaywomen played below potential. That even such mediocre performance was enough for a team to win the women’s national club champion title is the bane of the game in India.

The match was a big embarrassment to the game itself. A wag remarked at the end of the shoddy play: “The error-prone affair was manned by an error- prone referee.” Referee K T Jagannathan may be an international referee. But his supervising was criticised by Indian Overseas Bank, and Indian Juniors yesterday. Today too was no different, the Keralite referee did not `forget’ to call a few controversial calls.

In the third set when the winners were leading at 10-6, he awarded a point to railway women though the smash fell on the railway court. The decision clearly upset KSEB’s rhythm and looked a demoralised lot. KSEB were no where in the game after the incident and the fourth set score clearly indicate that.