Juber celebrates winning Carrom championship

30 May 2008

Playing the game... youngsters in the finals

A NEW champion held the cup in the air in a show of victory at the end of the annual Carrom competition at East London's Arnold Circus Gardens.

The defending champion, 10-year-old Abu Hussain, was ousted by 11-year-old challenger Juber Islam after a tense set of three games.

Juber played a cool head throughout. He had learnt the ropes from playing chess which helped him keep up his concentration.

Carrom is an Asian board game that seems a bit like 'mini snooker' where, instead of cues and balls, competitors flick chequers with their fingers into the pockets.

The contest is held each year as part of the fundraising campaign by Friends of Arnold Circus to restore and maintain the unique bandstand and gardens at the top of Club Row, behind Shoreditch Church.

The judge refereeing the game was an East End teacher, Mohamed Rahman from Bethnal Green's Bangabandhu School, who acknowledges the 'finger flicking' game is no push-over.

"Carrom is much harder than it looks," he says. "It takes concentration and finesse to win."

Tower Hamlets council has given £650,000 to help refurbish the Circus which is the centrepiece of the architecturally-historic Boundary Estate, Britain's first public housing scheme first opened in 1900.

Now the Friends of Arnold Circus are looking for ideas on what to spend the cash on when they hold their annual meeting at St Hilda's community centre in Club Row on June 12, at 7pm.