Parsis Rule In 24th National Veterans TT Tourney

Percy Mehta led the six-member strong Parsee battalion to a record five medals at the 24th National Veterans TT Tournament held at Balewadi, Pune from 17-22 January 2017, which saw a record 950 players across 22 States participating. Xerxes Khandadia, who had won five local titles in his 70+ age category earlier this year, bowed out to an Andhra Pradesh player, but not before shocking top-seeded IG Purohit of MP, earlier. Along with his Maharashtra teammates, he reach the semi-finals in the team event.

Playing in the 60+ category, I (Hoshang Katrak) reached the pre-quarter finals where I played against top-seed and eventual gold-medal winner, Prakash Kelkar. In the doubles, my partner Bapu Katdare and I played well to topple top-seeded Purohit and Waghela of Gujarat in the pre-quarter finals before succumbing in the next round to Maharashtra’s Jagan Mohite and Avinash Joshi.

However, Percy Mehta with partner Jayant Kulkarni, powered his way to the finals of the Men’s Doubles 60+ event, trouncing Premkumar and Vidyarajan of TN, winning the gold. He also won three bronze medals, reaching the semi-finals in Teams, Mixed Doubles and Singles. Players Ronny Toddywala, Pervez Tavadia and Neville Pithawala were in good nick, reaching the third round in their respective categories.