Erstellt am: 14. 2. 2010 - 11:21 Uhr
What the baizes is going on in Wels?
by John Cummins
John Cummins works as a journalist for FM4's Reality Check
Everyone has a guilty secret, right? Something they surreptitiously enjoy but would be loath to reveal to even their closest friends. It might be creeping downstairs during the night to finish that delicious bar of chocolate or (God forbid) cranking up the stereo when nobody’s home and indulging your passion for the music of David Hasselhof. Like everyone else, I’m not immune to these cabalistic delights. During the month of April I spend an inordinate amount of time watching Eurosport. You might assume I was watching something sensible like Champion’s League football or even the French Open tennis - something exciting and overtly masculine. However you’d be wrong.
In April, I come home, plonk myself in my comfy armchair and watch hours and hours – and then, for good measure, a few more hours again - of the Snooker World Championships from Sheffield in England. I don’t answer the phone, I don’t get much sleep, I barely remember to eat and drink and I have drag myself away to go to work.
Okay now that my dirty little secret is out, why, you may well ask, am I such a fan?
Firstly, I should point out that snooker is different from pool and most other table games. It’s played on a much bigger table (3.5m x 1.75m) and requires the players to pot red balls and coloured balls alternately and then all the colours in a special sequence.
At the end of the day it’s just a two blokes hitting coloured balls around a table, but after you watch for a while it becomes strangely compelling – and, dare I say it, addictive. Each player has his own style of play and the game is continually changing and unpredictable, in a way that pool (and football or tennis for that matter) simply aren’t. There are gritty tactical battles and free flowing matches, where the balls are potted relentlessly. You find yourself getting dismayed when a player misses an easy red, or sitting on the edge of your seat when a big break is on.
The undisputed star of the moment is an Englishman called Ronnie O’Sullivan, a 34 year old who’s widely credited as the most gifted player ever to play the game. For proof of his genius watch this clip of him performing the almost impossible feat of a “maximum break” in the ludicrously short time of 5 minutes and 20 seconds.
Oh - and did I mention that he also plays both left and right handed?
On Sunday I saw that genius for the first time live. A mate and I (yes, another snooker tragic) travelled all the way from Vienna to Wels in Upper Austria to see Ronnie O’Sullivan and three other top professionals give an exhibition. Afterwards, in state approaching something like ecstasy, I tried to describe to my mother the unadulterated joy of seeing this guy play snooker. “It’s like watching Roger Federer play tennis,” I said, “he makes it look so effortless and seems to have an almost supernatural control over the ball.” “Uh-huh.” “No, it’s like watching Roger Federer and Tiger Woods and Christiano Ronaldo all at the same time,” I added in a desperate attempt to provoke some kind of response. “That’s nice dear,” was about the best I got.
If you’re still unconvinced that snooker is cool then maybe I should point out that O’Sullivan is a tortured genius, whose glamorous lifestyle, battles with depression and playing antics (including smashing his cue during a tournament and making obscene gestures to fans) make him something akin to snooker’s Pete Doherty. Then there’s bad boy Alex “Hurricane” Higgins, who was famous for drinking and smoking during tournaments and who once punched an official after losing a match and threatened to have one of his rivals shot. Convinced now?
Anyway, snooker has a new Chief Executive, Barry Hearn, who is intent on broadening the appeal of the game outside of its current stronghold, the United Kingdom.
Austria will also be hosting its own Snooker Open in May (once again in Wels) with many of the world’s top players. Austria has a long history of table games. Carom billiards has been played in Vienna’s Kaffeehäuser for hundreds of years and pool has become increasingly popular in recent decades. The 24 year old Austrian Jasmin Ouschan is one of the world’s top ranked female pool players and other Austrians are also prominent in professional pool and billiards competitions. Will snooker catch on over here too? With better marketing and a real commitment to promoting the game in Austria and Germany, I don’t see why not.
So if you find yourself with some time on your hands in April or May, flick on Eurosport one afternoon and catch some of the action from Sheffield. Or, better still, head down to Wels and see the stars of snooker performing their superhuman feats live. Just don’t tell your friends or family about your little secret. They’ll probably think you’re slightly deranged...
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