Hola / Hi from Spain - bit of nastalgia

Hi there
Just found this forum. Bit of long intro, but hope it resonates with some of you!
I 'm originally from England but we moved to Ireland in 1977! (born 1965) and I started playing snooker there and was obsessed with the game from the age of about 13 to 17. Girls, booze and other distractions then took over.
At one stage I wanted to become a professional, but I couldn't get enough table time and I wasn't one of those instant talent players, so it never happened. I even bunked off school a couple of times and played adults for the bill, and brushed the tables to get free practice. I had Eddy Charlton's snooker manual to learn shots and technique. No internet then of course. By the way, the hall in Bray was owned by Pascal Burke, a little know Irish professional. https://www.rte.ie/archives/2022/0527/1 ... er-player/
I have a photo with him and once played him. He gave me an 80 start, I beat him! I tried to find the hall around the year 2010 but it had disappeared, which made me sad.

Since the beginning of the 80s I've only played on and off and once I moved to Spain in 1989 I totally lost touch with snooker and didn't see any of the 90s or early 2000s as I couldn't get British TV. I played on a table in a bar in Barcelona a couple of times, but I've never lost the love of snooker, and like many of you older guys, I'm nostalgic about the 70s and 80s. Bit sad.

So, I found a proper snooker / billiards / pool hall not far from my offices in Barcelona a few months back. 3 ok tables, a load of billiard tables with no pockets (very popular with VERY old guys) and a couple of pool tables.

Like me, you might have thought that there was no interest in snooker here. But I taught English to a guy that loved it, and it's shown on Spanish DAZN, with Spanish amateur commentators. The craziest thing is that in a documentary they've just uploaded 'snookermania', they say that snooker is their 3rd biggest sport when shown on Spanish Eurosport (by audience), around 60-70,000 watch the big games. I have no hopes for any snooker players coming out of Spain, as they are into billiards and pool, and I think Catalonia had a world billiard champion.

But, anyway, with channels like Hendry's Cue Tips, plus DAZN and the club I'm back into snooker big time!! Look forward to hearing your comments.
All the best

Simon

Welcome to the forum, Simon

Hi Simon! The best player from Spain is Francisco Sanchez Ruiz, who I would regard as strong amateur level, perhaps with an outside chance in Q School. But he doesn't seem to have played much in the last couple of years. Whether players from places like Spain get opportunities depends on tour structures - if WST keep to their 128 'closed shop' it won't be easy unless some sporadic genius emerges. But it's good to know the game is popular in Spain.

Hey Simon, great to have you here, welcome

Welcome :)

lhpirnie wrote:Hi Simon! The best player from Spain is Francisco Sanchez Ruiz, who I would regard as strong amateur level, perhaps with an outside chance in Q School. But he doesn't seem to have played much in the last couple of years. Whether players from places like Spain get opportunities depends on tour structures - if WST keep to their 128 'closed shop' it won't be easy unless some sporadic genius emerges. But it's good to know the game is popular in Spain.

Ruiz has been too busy becoming the World Number 1 pool player these last two years!

Welcome Simon,

I bailed to the Valencia region in 2019, just before lockdown, from London. Back in the UK I was playing snooker two or three times a week. When I got to Spain I stopped, and picked up pool again. I discovered a secret game during lockdown, and we played twice a week... usually around 12 hours in total. My skills have got insane. We are playing a hybrid ruleset of English and Spanish 8 ball, the main twist being that you have to pot the black in the opposite pocket to your last ball. At first I found this annoying, I just wanted the games done in the usual way, but have since grown to love this rule twist. It has made me a far, far better player. Not only have I learnt loads of new shots (three cushion blacks etc) that you wouldn't usually go for, it has also made me far more clinical in the check out - you never want it to be a black ball game. Since that time I've won the Oliva Town pool comp for the last two years running. My opponent in the final both times, Ronnie, sadly died suddenly last week.

There are snooker tables near me, about an hour away, in an upscale resort called Javea, but I haven't played there because...early last year, I took over a property with some friends to do it up (in exchange for a rent free period from the owner, who hadn't lived there for 8 years. An English guy, he had moved to Oliva town from this villa when his marriage ended.) A 12 bedroom villa by the river, it had a huge double garage beneath with... a full size snooker table.

I couldn't believe it when my friend Nika, who first visited the property, told me there was a snooker table there. I laughed and said 'you mean a pool table' and she insisted it was a snooker table. Many villas here have pool tables. Sure enough, when we moved in, there it was - a Karnehm and Hillman table, perfect condition, brought here by the owner 15 years previously - two Riley's table fitters (mates of his) drove it over in a truck and installed it in exchange for a two week holiday.

That was last Jan '22. I played it on it weekly for months until... we had to take it down. We are turning that place into a retreat centre, and we needed the big room to run ecstatic dances (sober raves basically.) It is now in storage, and I have a plan to rent a warehouse space and start a snooker / pool club and run as a cooperative - charging a monthly fee to cover the costs. But this project is way, way down my list and I'm otherwise occupied with other schemes right now.

Simon - so ace to read your post, a lovely genuine story.

SimonSpain wrote:
...
Like me, you might have thought that there was no interest in snooker here. But I taught English to a guy that loved it, and it's shown on Spanish DAZN, with Spanish amateur commentators. The craziest thing is that in a documentary they've just uploaded 'snookermania', they say that snooker is their 3rd biggest sport when shown on Spanish Eurosport (by audience), around 60-70,000 watch the big games. I have no hopes for any snooker players coming out of Spain, as they are into billiards and pool, and I think Catalonia had a world billiard champion.

...

Simon

I didn't know this!

We take in volunteer workers for our retreat centre project and they come from Germany, France, Holland, UK etc. most of them know of the game and some of them even watch it with me when the tournaments are on.

Will Simon go down in the SI vaults a one post wonder? Perhaps he hoped to spark some meaningful chats.

You were too familiar with him, scared him off

SnookerEd25 wrote:You were too familiar with him, scared him off

He went full Acesinc.

You never go full Acesinc on a newbie.

He's a one-post-wonder.

Juan post wonder

He's Gone-zales

OPW!!!

Called it.

¡Bienvenido al Crucible!

Aquí se pueden apostar, animar y experimentar muchos torneos del World Snooker Tour. En primer lugar, debería tratarse de dedicar aún más atención al deporte del snooker.

https://www.kicktipp.es/crucible/calendario