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Dominic's Tales...

Postby Monique

http://www.worldsnooker.com/PTC1_news%2 ... tm?tid=166
Dale’s Tales
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Dominic's got a new practice base and hopes it will pay dividends this season.

Hi everyone

I flew to the UK from Vienna last week to prepare for the new season. I've signed up with Paul Mount's management stable and I'll be doing a lot of practice at his Academy in Gloucester - I played in the Pink Ribbon event there last week.

The last two seasons have been poor ones for me, and with all the extra tournaments we have got in the coming season, I knew I had to consider moving back from Vienna to the UK. I desperately didn't want to do that because I love Vienna, but after I spoke to Paul I decided it would be ideal for me to come to his Academy a few days before each event to practise.

So I will still be living in Vienna and I will do 80 per cent of my practice there, on my own. I found last season that the step up from playing on my own to playing in tournaments was too steep, and that cost me in terms of my results. Now I will have a happy medium and hopefully that will make the world of difference. I'm planning to play in all 12 of the Players Tour Championship events. My travelling costs will be higher than in previous years, but if I'm winning matches in the events then I'll make a profit.

I think it's fantastic that half of the PTC events will be in Europe. Snooker has a big future on the continent and it is time to expand into those areas where the game is popular. Germany is handy for me because there are flights every hour there from Vienna. It's important to capitalise on the potential that snooker has in Germany.

Hopefully the game is set for a massive rejuvenation and I'm a big fan of the new ideas and new tournaments. The new ranking system is wonderful, it means I could be at the Masters! Players will be moving up and down the rankings like yo-yos and it will keep us on our toes. You might have three bad tournaments and slip down, but you won't get disenchanted because you know that you could have a run of three good ones and jump back up again.

After losing in the World Championship qualifiers I had a break for around three weeks. I went to a few parts of Germany, like Memmingen and Landsberg in Bavaria. I played in a six-red Bavarian Open and brushed up on my German. By the time the Paul Hunter Classic event comes around, I hope to be reasonably fluent. Some people think that it's different to Austrian, but it fact it's very similar, there are just a few words which are different.

I also rearranged my apartment in Vienna and put some new pictures on the walls. I've expanded my collection of Marilyn Monroe photos, film stills and posters, so I framed some of them and put them up.

To be honest I've been a bit like Errol Flynn, enjoying wine, women and song! But it's time to settle down and I have been practising very hard ahead of what I hope will be a great season.

All the best for now
Dominic


and here Dominic in the pink ...
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and Dominic practising in the academy
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