Lafir got Sri Lanka the first world title from Billiards

By Hafiz Marikar

FIRST SPORTS TITLE: Sri Lanka’s first sports title was in Billiards in 1973 when the World Amateur Billiards Championship was held in Bombay and Sri Lanka’s M.J.M. Lafir crowned himself as the Champion, beating India’s Sathis Mohan in the final. He also added to his crown a world record break of 859 points in one set against Erick Simons of New Zealand.

Billiards has been played in Sri Lanka from almost the beginning of the last century and people recognized this game with great enthusiasm and some caution.

This was due to several hotels with billiard room facilities, having signboards indicating Bar & Billiards inviting billiard fans to take up this sport when relaxing in a hotel atmosphere. The close association with the bar and billiards was a disservice to the game in the good old days. This sport was the first to bring a World Title to our motherland - Sri Lanka.

However, the formation of the Ceylon Amateur Billiards Association, which was the original name of the present Billiards and Snooker Association of Sri Lanka, came in May 1948. The game of billiards was a respected sport in the country. The credit of this is due to a large extent to late M.M. Thawfeeq - the former Sports Editor of the Daily News. He was the then Billiards Secretary of the MICH. It was he who convened the first meeting of Billiards playing clubs in the country. Eight clubs responded to this invitation, another two clubs assured support from Kandy YMMA and Kotahena CYMA. The meeting was held on 30th May 1948 at MICH Dematagoda.

Mention also must be made of people like Siri Perera, M.M. Thawfeeq, S. Karunarathne, Peter Senavirathne, P.H.J. Wijesekara, Col. L.C.J. Cabraal, Firose Saheed, A.M.A. Marzook, Falil A Gaffoor, U.W. Sumathipala, Jagath Sumathipala, Trevor Buultjens, D.G. Daluwatte, Capt. Sarath Alwis, Kamil Ghouse, Stanley Silva are some of the names who made the game lively. M.J. M. Lafir’s achievement was commendable to Sri Lanka at that time. It was on 17th of April 1981, one month before his 51st birthday this great man who put Sri Lanka Sports into the World Map, breathed his last while his family members and close friends were by his bed.

Lafir was born on 27th of May 1929 at Messenger Street. After his death, the Colombo Municipal Council re-named Messenger Street, as M.J.M. Lafir Mawatha, that was a tribute to him from late Firose Saheed and some of the Billiards and Snooker Association members.

Jagath Sumathipala, the head of the cue sport in Sri Lanka in 1988 was responsible in hosting the 5th Asian Snooker Championship with the help of the government, honoured the maestro Lafir by issuing a date stamp for the value of Rs. 5.75. In the early days the Asian tournament was played for M.J.M. Lafir Cup.

Cup missing

Now the tournament is in operation but the cup is unfortunately missing. This tournament came in because of late Maurice Kerr of Thailand and the late Firose Saheed of Sri Lanka.

Lafir was the son of late M. Junaid, who taught his son Lafir the rudiments of the game at the age of 16. The experience he gained by rebuilding the game and improving by handling the cue himself, Lafir mastered the art to out-beat his guides and mentors. Lafir was always a loner in his cue game. He was the only Sri Lankan to win a World Title in any sport and the only cueist to be accorded a right royal National Welcome.

There was a story that Lafir and his brothers used to play this game with brooms and marbles when they were kids. It is said that one day when Lafir’s father who was known as Vatjhiyar Junaid, found Lafir playing billiards at Hulfsdorp, slapped him and drove him off. His friends pleaded with the father and they told his father that Lafir is playing well and he will be a top player. They pleaded with father to let him go on with his game. Then the father gave in but after a few years later the Moors Islamic Cultural Home (MICH) discovered his talent and introduced him to big time Billiards and Snooker at National Tournaments and exhibition matches with overseas players like Tom Cleary, Wilson Jones, Bob Marshall, and Horace Eindruy.

He was the first cueist to win the National Billiards and Snooker titles over 30 times. At that time he was the first and the only one to win an All Indian Tournament six times. He was runner-up in 1969 and third in 1963 and fourth in 1965 in the World Snooker Championships. He won 32 titles in 20 years.

In 1963 when the first official World Snooker Championship was played in Calcutta, Lafir lost by a whisker to Frank Harris, missing the vital blue, in the final decider.’ The crowd was stunned when Gray Owen, the winner left his cue aside and embraced Lafir and said: “You are a great player although he was placed third.”

In the 2nd World Snooker Championship in Karachi in 1965, Lafir ended in the 4th place to Gary Owen of England, John Spencer (England) and Bill Barrie (Australia). In 1973 World Billiards Championship in Bombay saw Lafir becoming the champion. In that the championship, he beat every opponent - the only one to do so. He beat Clive Everton (Wales) 1410-1094, Michael Ferreira (India), 1652-1267, V. de Marco (Scotland) 2859-762, Alfred Nolab (England) 1217-1131, Satish Mohan (India) 2213-1079, Eric Simmons (New Zealand), 2189-796, Brian Kirkness (New Zealand) 2032-1002, Phil Taraquant (Australia) 1775-1281 and Paul Misfusd (Malta) 1917-1427. Lafir had the privilege of scoring the highest break of 859 and the second highest score 2,850.

In Sri Lanka, the first ever National Billiards and Snooker Championship was held in 1948. A.C. Campbell won the Billiards and M.J.M. Lafir won the Snooker. Both were from Moors Islamic Cultural Home. At that time Lafir was only 19 years of age. He won the first Billiards title in 1949 by beating M.S.A. Hassan. From 1949 to 1953 he won all events in-a-row.

So the great maestro of cue sport is no more, the man who brought fame and glory not only for himself but to Mother Lanka.

During Lafir’s playing days, late U.W. Sumathipala gave him a big hand along with so many others from MICH, Moors SC and the Sri Lanka Billiards and Snooker Association.