FNCCI hands over cheque to NSC

KATHMANDU, June 30 (PR)- The Federation of Nepalese Chamber of Commerce and Industry (FNCCI), on the occasion of the 30th Birthday of Crown Prince Dipendra, handed over a cheque of Rs 400,500 to the National Sports Council Friday to be distributed to the medal winning players of the 8th SAF Games.

At a function held at the Chamber’s secretariat, President of FNCCI Pradeep Kumar Shrestha handed over the cheque to the Member-Secretary of National Sports Council, Binod Shankar Palikhe.

The amount, according to FNCCI, will be distributed to the players in accordance to their achievement in the Games with Rs 5000 each to 41 gold medallists, Rs 3,500 each to 29 silver medallists and Rs 2,000 each to 49 bronze medallists.

FNCCI had made the commitment to felicitate the SAF Games’ medal winners on the ‘Industry and Commerce Day’.

FNCCI President Shrestha, expressing his pleasure over the success achieved by the Nepalese, said it has lifted country’s image in the international arena.

He also assured continual help from private sector towards the development of sports in the country in the future.

Speaking on the occasion, NSC Member-Secretary Palikhe, praising FNCCI for its contribution, expressed hope that it would further regard for the players as well as influence them for greater glory.

Also present on the occasion were the officials of FNCCI and National Sports Council.

AICRI, Calcutta defeat Nepal Under-17

KATHMANDU, June 30 (PR)- The Birthday Cup invitational cricket tournament began at the Tribhuvan University ground here Friday with the visiting All India Cricket Research Institute (AICRI) of Calcutta scoring a comfortable five-wicket win over Nepal Under-17 Red.

The tournament has been organised by Cricket Association of Nepal under the aegis of National Sports Council to celebrate the 30th Birthday of Crown Prince Dipendra.

Nepal Red, after put into bat by AICRI ‘A’ scored a respectable 119 for the loss of six wickets in the rain-reduced 37-over match.

The home were reeling at one stage, losing couple of wickets as the visiting team bowlers well exploited the damp condition of the pitch.

But an affluent unbeaten knock of 47 runs with the help of three glorious sixes and a couple of boudries from Manjit Shrestha took their innings to 119.

For AICRI, Sayan Bhaumik and Santan Bauri took two wickets apiece while Sarfraz Hussain picked one wicket.

Owing to rain, the target for AICRI was rescheduled to 92 runs and 25 overs to get them, which AICRI reached with five wickets and three overs to spare.

Sarfraz Hussain topscored with 32 to take his team close towards the victory and Santan Bauri, who remained not out at 23 completed the job for AICRI to reach the required 93 runs.

Anil BK was the most successful of the Nepal Red bowlers with two wickets while Kanishka Chaugain and Javed Alam each returned with one wicket.

Birthday Cup Open Snooker

The Birthday Cup Open Snooker tournament got underway at Lainchaur Covered Hall Friday with Shree Thapa, Tshering Gyalchen and Roshan Shahi all safely through to the second round.

A total of 77 participants are taking part in the tournament, organised by Billiards, Snooker and Pool Association of Nepal under the sponsorship of Toyota on the occasion of 30th Birthday of Crown Prince Dipendra.

In the opening match, Shree Thapa of Bheri Snooker Club defeated Shanta Prajapati of Surya Binayak Snooker by 3-1 in the best of five frame. Thapa, began quite slowly missed several easy pockets in the opening frame but he got away with 43-33 as Prajapati fared more erratically. He put things together in the second and took a runaway lead to finish it at 96-53 for 2-0 lead.

He got carried away a bit coming into the third, trying some ambitious shots and ended up losing the frame 43-50. But he was quick to recover in the following frame to get the better of Prajapati by 55-37.

The other two matches turned out to be one-sided affairs with both Tshering and Shahi registering straight forward win against Jack Gurung and Rajan Manandhar.

Tshering booked his second round place with a 64-36, 97-9, 82-19 win over Gurung while Shahi held his nerves in crucial moments of the match to subdue Manandhar with the score of 46-28, 52-48, 54-50.

Earlier, the tournament was inaugurated by the chairman of the United Traders Syndicate, Gajananda Vaidya. Member-Secretary of National Sports Council, Binod Shankar Palikhe was also present on the occasion.

Demo wrestling event

A one-day demonstration wrestling matches were held at the National Sports Council Covered Hall on Friday.

The event, organised by Nepal Wrestling Association on the occasion of 30th Birthday of Crown Prince Dipendra, drew 18 participants from two schools--English Preparatory School (EPS) and Greenlance School, including 7 girl participants.

In the demonstration matches, Greenlance’s Nilesh Mishra beat his fellow schoolmate Sabin Karki in the 44kg category while Yogendra Chaudhary of EPS defeated Sunny Darshandhari in 57kg cadets class.

Likewise, Nijeeb Shakya of EPS (60kg), Prakash Duwadi of EPS (63kg cadets), Sudan Dangol of EPS (65kg junior), Bishwo Sagar Pokharel of Greenlance (34kg) won their respective demonstration bout.

In the girls’ section, Sukti Acharya of EPS beat Pratichhya Sunuwar in the 44kg class while Greenlance’s Tina Pokharel, Alija Amatya of EPS won their bout against Srijana Rai of EPS in the 48kg class and Sushma Thapa of EPS in the 52kg class respectively.

Earlier, the event was inaugurated by NSC Member-Secretary Binod Shankar Palikhe. The President of Nepal Wrestling Association was also present on the occasion.