Sharad Tilak annexes titleHYDERABAD: International Master Sharad Tilak of Union Bank of India (UBI), despite losing to IM GB Prakash of Indian Bank, annexed the title on a better progressive score (27 points) in the All-India Inter-bank chess championship. IMs N Sudhakar Babu (Indian Bank) and GB Prakash finished second and third with 25 and 23.5 points respectively. IB bagged the overall team championship with 22 points, dethroning defending champions UBI (21.5). State Bank of Hyderabad claimed third place (17.5).Maharashtra drawMUMBAI: Maharashtra barely managed a draw against Mumbai in the Vijay Merchant Under-16 Trophy league at Brabourne Stadium today. Needing 308 to win Maharashtra collapsed to 175 for 9. Sanchit Pande claimed 5 for 42 for Mumbai, but the hosts were denied the full eight points.Brief scores: Mumbai 216 & 257-6 decl (S Thakur 78, S Kukreja 60, V Indulkar 60) drew Maharashtra 167 & 175-9 (Y Bankar 61, S Pande 5-42).Mongia to leadMUMBAI:Nayan Mongia will lead the West Zone cricket team for the Duleep Trophy semi-final against East Zone, at Calcutta from December nine.Team: Nayan Mongia (cap, Baroda), Wasim Jaffer (Mum), Connor William (Bar), Nilesh Modi (Guj), Prakash Bhat (Sau), Vinod Kambli (Mum), Abhijit Kale (Mah), Niraj Patel (Guj), Amol Muzumdar (Mum), Zaheer Khan (Bar), Iqbal Siddique (Mah), Paras Mhambrey (Mum), Bhavin Mehta (Guj), Nilesh Kulkarni (Mum), Sachin Nair (Mah).Bedi bereavedNEW DELHI: Former Indian captain Bishan Singh Bedi suffered a double tragedy last weekend, losing both his surviving sisters on consecutive days.Satwant Kaur, who had been ailing after her husband's death two months ago, died here on November 20. The very next day, Anupam Sodhi succumbed to kidney failure in Amritsar, according to Bedi. Bedi's two other sisters had died earlier.Sydney no moreCHENNAI: Hockey correspondent of The Times, Sydney Friskin, died in a London hospital on Friday. He was 84 and survived by ason and wife. Friskin covered six Olympic Games, every World Cup tournament and all but three of the 21 Champions Trophy tournaments. He was the only journalist to receive the award of merit from the International Hockey Federation (FIH).Born in Rangoon and educated in India, he had the good of Asian hockey at heart and always lamented the decline of hockey in Asia. He was the author of Going for Gold in 1997, a definitive history of the game in Pakistan.Friskin worked for The Statesman and The Times of India before joining The Times.- ENS & Agencies
