Two teams fight it out at the throwball championship at Patna Women’s College on Monday. Picture by Ranjeet Kumar Dey

Patna, Feb. 14: Nine teams sweated it out for every point at the 9th Valentine’s Day Throwball Championship organised by Patna Women’s College on it’s campus today.

The championship was organised under the aegis of Throwball Association of Bihar, sponsored by Zenith Commerce Academy and co-sponsored by Double Hook, Reflection.

The tournament was a success in terms of excitement and the quality of game played by the teams. Doris D’ Souza, principal, Patna Women’s College and Sunil Singh, director, Zenith Commerce Academy opened the tournament.

S.B. Prasad, president, Throwball Association of Bihar, was the chief guest at the event.

“We have been organising throwball championship on the Patna Women’s College ground for the past 10 years. It was a year after its initiation here that we decided to start Valentine’s Day throwball championship. We have dedicated this championship to the women players and you will find most of the players fighting it out are females,” said Neeraj Kumar Pappu, secretary, Throwball Association of Bihar.

He added: “The only reason to start a throwball championship especially on Valentine’s Day was to celebrate the day of love. For us, who are associated with the game, no love can match the passion we have for our game. Thus, we decided to organise the game for those for whom the game itself is the valentine.”

Neeraj said: “This championship is different from the others as there is no age bar. Players of all age groups can participate in this championship. Today nine teams have participated from among Kendriya Vidyalaya, Kankerbagh, Kendriya Vidyalaya, Bailey Road, Patna Women’s College (PWC), Alliance Club, Patna Central School and Litera Vally Academy. The losing teams of the semi-finals would be given a second chance and they would fight it out for the third place.”

The teams were equally divided into pool A and pool B with 12 players on each side. The event was on a league-cum-knockout basis with the top four teams qualifying for the semi-finals, including the winners and runners-up from both the pools.

In the first match of Pool A, there was an interesting contest between Alliance Club and Patna Women’s College (B).

Earlier Alliance Club won the toss and decided to give the chance of passing the ball first to PWC (B) team but PWC beat their opponents in both the sets with 15-4 and 3-6 margin.

“We were very sure of our win today as we are national-level players. We could not win there but we are continuously playing against national-level players,” said Kumari Vandana, sports secretary and one of the players of PWC Pool (B)

The next league match between Patna Central School and Kendriya Vidyalaya Kankerbagh was also decided in two sets. Kendriya Vidyalaya, Kankerbagh won both the sets 6-15 and 12-15.

“Our hardship and unity among the players were the reason for our win today,” said Anvita Pandey, a Kendriya Vidyalaya, Kankerbagh player.

“It’s a game spirit. If some team is playing good, we should cheer for that team,” said Shweta, another player of PWC (B) team who were seen cheering for Kankerbagh.

The other matches were played between KV Kankerbagh (A) and Kendriya Vidyalaya, Bailey Road (B), Alliance Club and PWC (B), Kendriya Vidyalaya, Bailey Road and PWC (A).

The semi-finals and finals are scheduled for Tuesday and the prize distribution ceremony would be followed after the final round.