Yesterday, Bongani Maano and Chisha Chalwe bid farewell to the senior singles stage of the ongoing Hawley Cup pool tournament in South Africa. In what was billed as the final before the final, the Zambian pair fought fiercely but fell short of making it to the top eight. Maano narrowly lost 4-3 to Rashaad Hoosen, while Chalwe suffered a 5-2 defeat at the hands of Raja Naidoo. Both Naidoo and Hoosen capitalized on their home ground advantage to outclass the Zambian players. To advance to the semi-finals, Maano triumphed over Australia's Brett Pevitt in a race-to-6 game held at the Monte Casino. In his next match, Maano's opponent failed to appear, allowing him to progress to the next round by a walkover. Chalwe also delivered an impressive performance, securing a spot in the semis by defeating South Africa's Kevin Pillay 6-3. Like Maano, Chalwe had reached the last 16. Maano attributed his loss to Hoosen's time-wasting tactics, which had a detrimental impact on the match's duration. Nevertheless, he pledged to improve in upcoming tournaments on the Zambia Pool Union calendar. "The game was okay, but we ran out of time at the end, and I lost 4-3. It was a race to 6, and due to time constraints, the delaying tactics from my opponent contributed to my loss," explained Maano. "Moving forward, we need to train hard and build on what we've learned here, addressing our mistakes." With their defeats in the semi-finals, Maano, Chalwe, and Kirby Musonda will now compete in the Artistic pool segment. Artistic billiards, also known as fantasy billiards or fantaisie classique, is a carom billiards discipline where players perform 76 predetermined shots of varying difficulty, each with a maximum point value. These shots range from a four-point maximum for the easiest to an 11-point maximum for the most challenging. In this segment, there's a chance for players to score a maximum of 500 points by executing all 76 shots perfectly, although not all shots are used in every game. The governing body for this sport is the Confederation Internationale de Billard Artistique (CIBA). The minimum guaranteed prize for champions, in each category including Men, Women, Seniors, Masters, and Under-23, is Gold R25,000, Silver R10,000, and Bronze R5,000.