Also polishing off their opponents were the other seeds Prasad Patil, Anish Menon, Kashi Kishore, Rohit Bhide, Sayali Phadke and Viviktesh Agwan.

Amar Kamat of Chandrakant Patkar (Dombivli), winner for the last two years, has been given the top billing in the under-12 age category. Vaibhav Saxena, who has been a star performer for Fr Agnel over the years, is the second seed. Rohil Bhat of Abhinav Vidyalaya, the current under-9 State champion, is the third seed. They are followed by Amit Kamat of Chandrakant Patkar and Aditya Vora of Don Bosco (Matunga), Omkar Kulkarni, Varun Dattani and Nilesh Yevle, past years champions, Akash Khalwadekar BSSA Inter-School champion, and Niharika Thakkar, Entrants Division champion, are the other significant players in the fray.

The tournament has alreadyattracted more than 900 entries from over 150 schools with the u-8 category providing an element of surprise. The category which used to attract not more than 20 entries, four years ago, has touched a new high of 143.

A special feature of the inauguration ceremony was the presentation of the Vasudevan Memorial Trophy to Fr Agnel Multipurpose School (Vashi), who had won the tournament for the last three years. The rolling trophy therefore will be retained by Fr Agnel for good, and the organisers have instituted a new trophy this year.