Mohammed Lafir

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Mohammed Lafir
birthday May 27, 1929 or 1930
place of birth Grand Pass , Colombo , British Ceylon
date of death April 17, 1981
Place of death Sri Lanka
nationality CeylonCeylon Ceylon Ceylon Ceylon Sri Lanka
CeylonCeylon 
CeylonSri Lanka 
Sri LankaSri Lanka 

Mohammed Junaid Mohammed Lafir , also Mohamed Junaid Mohamed Lafir or Muhammad Junaid Muhammad Lafir , MJM Lafir for short or Mohammed JM Lafir , (* May 27, 1929 or 1930 in Grandpass , Colombo , British Ceylon ; † April 17, 1981 in Sri Lanka ) was a snooker and English billiards player from the former British colony of Sri Lanka. With his victory at the Amateur World Championship in English Billiards in 1973 , he is the first Sri Lankan to win a World Championship in an individual sport. He is considered a folk hero.

Life

There are contradicting statements about Lafir's life, especially his year of birth. There are also various details of the exact number of his titles at national championships, which can only be partially considered certain for the Indian snooker championship.

Lafir was born in Colombo on May 27, 1929 or 1930 . At the age of seven or 16 - both of which are stated by sources - Lafir learned the game of billiards from his father. Through a lot of training he was able to improve his skills significantly and in 1948 he was one of the best players in Sri Lanka. During his schooldays at Hameediah Boys English School , Lafir first developed his game on a table three quarters smaller than a normal table and later on a table half the size before playing at full size tables.

In 1956 and 1957, Lafir won the Indian Snooker Championship with victories over Chandra Hirjee . After a year break, he won the championship in 1959 with a 6-2 win over Tom Cleary . After losing to Wilson Jones in the final the following year , he regained the title in 1961 against the previous year's winner. He won his fifth title two years later in 1963 in the final against Tony Monteiro . At the end of the year Lafir took part in the 1963 Amateur Snooker World Championship in Calcutta , where he defeated both Jones and Monteiro and lost to eventual winner Gary Owen and Australian Frank Harris , so that he finished third. During the snooker amateur world championship in 1966 he defeated Hamid Karim and the Scots Bert Demarco , but again he had to admit defeat to Gary Owen. He was also defeated by the future professional world champion John Spencer and his compatriot John Barrie , so that he ended up in fourth place. In 1967 Lafir came second in the IBSF World Billiards Championship behind Leslie Driffield .

Also in 1968 Lafir took part in the World Amateur Snooker Championship . Although he was able to defeat the future professional Paddy Morgan next to Robert Flutey , but by defeat against Shyam Shroff and the eventual finalist Max Williams he only finished third behind Williams and Morgan. In the 1970 Amateur Snooker World Championship he won over Laurie Glozier , David Sneddon and James Clint , but by defeats to John Phillips and Sid Hood he finished fourth behind the Maltese Paul Mifsud , against whom he had not played. In 1973 Lafir won the IBSF World Billiards Championship , defeating Clive Everton and Paul Mifsud, among others . This made Lafir the first Sri Lankan to win a world championship in an individual sport. He also set a world record when he scored 859 points in one shot. When he arrived in Sri Lanka on December 22, 1973, he was greeted on a red carpet by several ministers, including the ministers for sport and finance. He was then escorted through the streets of Colombo, which were filled with cheering people. In addition, a banquet was held in his honor.

Lafir had to wait more than ten years for his next title at the Indian snooker championship: he only won the title again in 1974, this time against Arvind Savur . In the same year Lafir also took part in the World Amateur Snooker Championship . With only two defeats to Norman Stockman and Eddie Sinclair and victories over, among others, Shyam Shroff and Dessie Sheehan and group winner Ray Edmonds , he reached the final round, in which he was immediately defeated in the quarter-finals to the Irish Pascal Burke in the decider , who later against Eddie Sinclair should win the game for third place. A year later he met Savur again in the final of the Indian Snooker Championship and won for the second time in a row. He won his eighth and final championship title in India in 1977 in the final against Shyam Shroff.

In 1978 Lafir competed for the last time in an amateur snooker championship . Despite victories over, among others, Shyam Shroff and Kirk Stevens , he reached after several defeats, including against the later professional players Eugene Hughes and Joe Grech , only the fifth place in his group, which was not enough for advancement.

On April 17, 1981, Lafir died at the age of 50 or 51 while working for the Sri Lanka Transport Board bus company .

Honors

After his death, Colombo's former Messenger Street was renamed MJM Lafir Mawatha . The Moors' Islamic Cultural Home organizes an annual MJM Lafir Memorial Tournament in Colombo , which is played as both a snooker and English billiards tournament and is open to players from Sri Lanka and India.

successes

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. a b c d e A.YLU Marikkar, JP: MJM Lafir: The Sri Lankan Billiard Champion. Sunday Observer , June 11, 2017, accessed March 20, 2019 .
  2. ^ A b Jamie Watkins: Player Profile: MJM Lafir. Global Snooker Center, 2005, archived from the original on November 21, 2008 ; accessed on March 20, 2019 (English).
  3. a b c d Muhammad Junaid Muhammad Lafir. RKG Snooker, accessed on March 20, 2019 .
  4. a b c d e f Jamie Watkins: Global Snooker Countries - India. Global Snooker Center, 2005, archived from the original on December 23, 2008 ; accessed on March 20, 2019 (English).
  5. Ron Florax: Mohammed Lafir - Season 1958-1959 - Non-professional Results. CueTracker.net, accessed March 20, 2019 .
  6. Ron Florax: Mohammed Lafir - Season 1963-1964 - Non-professional Results. CueTracker.net, accessed March 20, 2019 .
  7. Ron Florax: Mohammed Lafir - Season 1966-1967 - Non-professional Results. CueTracker.net, accessed March 20, 2019 .
  8. a b Past Champions. International Billiards & Snooker Federation , 2012, archived from the original on April 16, 2013 ; accessed on March 20, 2019 (English).
  9. Ron Florax: Mohammed Lafir - Season 1968-1969 - Non-professional Results. CueTracker.net, accessed March 20, 2019 .
  10. Ron Florax: Mohammed Lafir - Season 1970-1971 - Non-professional Results. CueTracker.net, accessed March 20, 2019 .
  11. a b M.JM Lafir - World Billiards Champion 1973. Sri Lanka Museum of Muslims , accessed on March 20, 2019 (English).
  12. Ron Florax: Mohammed Lafir - Season 1974-1975 - Non-professional Results. CueTracker.net, accessed March 20, 2019 .
  13. Ron Florax: Mohammed Lafir - Season 1978-1979 - Non-professional Results. CueTracker.net, accessed March 20, 2019 .
  14. a b c 8TH MJM LAFIR MEMORIAL TOURANMEMT 2009. Moors' Islamic Cultural Home , 2009, accessed on March 20, 2019 .