Don Bosco deliver dozen

Defending champions Don Bosco High School (Matunga) kicked off their under-8 MSSA inter-school football campaign in style yesterday with a 12-0 win over Sacred Heart (Santacruz) at Azad Maidan.u00a0

Don Bosco's Zash Ferro (left) shoots to score against Sacred Heart in an MSSA inter-school U-8 match. PIC/Suresh KK

Skipper Harsh Palande, who finished as top-scorer of the tournament last year with 26 goals to his name, found the back of the net six times yesterday as the Bosco boys dominated the encounter throughout. Arzan Pahtaky added to the tally with a hat-trick after which Scott Rodrigues, Andrew Silveira and Zash Ferro scored a goal each to complete the dozen.

Despite the margin of victory, Don Bosco coach Leslie Machado did not wish to sound over-confident about the team's chances of retaining the title. "Except for Harsh and may be one other player, this is an entirely new team, with last year's side having graduated to the U-10 category. The boys are promising but they will have to work harder from now on as things will get tougher as the tournament progresses," said Machado.

Meanwhile, in other U-8 encounters yesterday, St Mary's ICSE beat Christ Church (Byculla) 7-0 with Arjun Jalan scoring thrice, Hriday H scoring braces and Arya Aghashe and Zal C adding one goal each, while St Joseph's (Wadala) beat Fazlani ‘A' 1-0 thanks to a Kyle Desa strike.

Birla Masters in Feb
THE 21st edition of the GD Birla Memorial Masters Badminton Tournament will be held at the Bombay Gymkhana from February 6 to 10. u00a0The competition, open to players above the age of 35 (as on January 1, 2013), features a club team event, which is a best of three doubles ties played between players with a combined age of 80+, 90+ and 100+ years.

Individual events feature men's singles 45+, men's doubles 45+, and combined age doubles of 80+ and 100+.u00a0Entry forms may be downloaded from the Maharashtra Badminton Association website at https://www.mbasso.in/gdbirla_tour2013-BG-mumbai.html.u00a0Entries will also be accepted at the Bombay Gymkhana Sports Office on telephone (022) 43223411 or 43223443, or by email at sports@bombaygymkhana.com or shirish.m.nadkarni@gmail.com.

Maheta in quarters
IT was a great day for the top three women's seeds, Eetee Maheta, Natasha Palha and Nupur Kaul, as they each enjoyed a smooth passage into the quarter-finals of the Omkar All India Ranking Men's and Women's Tennis Championship at the Juhu Vile Parle Gymkhana Club (JVPG) here yesterday.

Maheta led the way with a comfortable 6-2, 6-1 win over Victoria Chehal while Palha was just as impressive in her 6-0, 6-3 rout of Jeni Patel. Third seed Kaul, effectively playing her first match of the tournament having had a walkover in the first round, showed no sign of any rustiness as the JVPG member made short work of her opponent Shehnaz Singh, sealing the tie 6-0, 6-1.

In the men's event, third seed Rohan Gide set up a quarter-final showdown with sixth seed Saurav Sukul after seeing off Arpit Sharma 7-5, 6-0. Sukul produced a solid display as he powered past Ajai Selvaraj 6-2, 6-2.

Club 55 tennis
CLUB 55, a tennis club exclusively for senior citizens above 55 years of age, had organised a family tennis tournament at the Maharashtra State Lawn Tennis Association (MSLTA) courts on Republic Day as part of its 40th anniversary celebrations. Eight teams took part in the tournament which included three rounds of ‘best of 11 games'. u00a0Eventually, V Minhas and son Sarang emerged victorious with S Dali and daughter Shraddha coming in second.u00a0