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A short piece: is it time to look to Europe?

Postby journo

I am an aspiring snooker reporter. I do hope you enjoy this piece:

That snooker is as well-acquainted as it is with Potsdamer Platz is the clearest indicator of the progress our sport has made under Barry Hearn’s counsel.

If Berlin existed in Rodney Walker’s consciousness, it was only as a child-like pipedream. Under Hearn, this February weekend in the German capital has attained such a concrete space on our calendar that it’s a test to imagine a snooker year without it. In the eyes of this unconfident reporter, the umbrella-like roof unfurled over the Tempodrom may as well be an intimidating monument to Hearn’s ambition; he hasn’t been perfect, but if he can bring us to arenas like these, and pact them out, who better to call the plays on our behalf?

Absorbing each shot as Ding Junhui struggles, once again, to suppress the nervousness noticeable in many of his recent lunges at our game’s infamously elusive finish-lines, the German crowd wilfully yields to our sport’s uniqueness. The innocent pleasure they gain from its simplest gifts, such as the chalking of a cue-tip, seems absurd to a Briton long-accustomed to the old game – but more absurd still is that, for years, we never thought to offer our sport to this community, one so clearly besotted with snooker on the back of years of excellent Eurosport broadcasting.

Even China’s premier meeting, the International Championship, is an occasion plagued by vacant seats and echoes of mobile phones filling crowd-less voids. The reasons for these empty arenas are countless – but they’re an embarrassment, nonetheless, given that we’ve long told fans of other sports that the far-east has fallen irreversibly for our beautiful game.

As Ding added the final pots to his match-winning 71, spectators chipped in the sort of virtuous cheers that gift this arena’s atmosphere distinctiveness from those of other venues on tour. The German crowds award all their former champions – including those long-dethroned, like Ding – a kind of reverence rivalled only by the respect the patrons of Crucible offer their past winners – and Jimmy White. It’s this almost childish enthusiasm that leads one to wonder: are we venturing too far east in our search for like-minded lovers of this great oddity of ours?

Our sport may now have reached a point wherein it should look to Belgium, Germany, and the Netherlands to solidify its future beyond these isles; Europe, even if one accounts for our recent divorce from its mainland, may merit further examination by the man who brought its potential to our attention.
Last edited by journo on 02 Feb 2018, edited 1 time in total.

Re: A short piece: is it time to look to Europe?

Postby TheSaviour

Anthony Hamilton, Michael Georgiou and Mark Selby must be awfully disappointed after their losses. The thing about Germany these days is that they don´t have those arrogant audiences. Which is a major problem in UK, and in many other countries as well. Which concerns almost any sport. A highly arrogant audiences are such problem that it is better that the whole audience is arrogant, instead of that the players and would be force to pick out just a few problematic persons.

Remember what happened to Ronnie a few months ago?? She was just a one out of the many. And then she couldn´t even pot a ball.

Selby would had love to play really well in Germany. To give something back to them. Georgiou and Hamilton have completely loss their forms, so it is (at least) a double-disappointment to them. Georgiou is playing so poorly that he will struggle to keep his tour card. Even when he basically is a good and solid break-builder but it won´t a matter a thing now. It is same with Hamilton. Particularly Georgiou will be dead and buried against the likes of Fernandez, Slessor, O Lines, P Lines, Wakelin, against any so called journeymen. Because they all have that pedigree to kill the frames if opponent leaks opportunities.

It is also good that the whole audience is highly arrogant because then at least they know that they are just that. Which currently is the case. Luckily even so. But they don´t have problems like those in Germany.

I have been started to think that you don´t need to relaxe. Couldn´t find a flaw while previously was asked to do so. It is only the pressure from the outside which makes you to think you should.

Re: A short piece: is it time to look to Europe?

Postby SnookerFan

Chalk McHugh wrote:As for the Saviour, i read half of a post of his once and have never looked at one since.


It is also good that the whole audience is highly arrogant because then at least they know that they are just that. Which currently is the case. Luckily even so. But they don´t have problems like those in Germany.

<ok>

Re: A short piece: is it time to look to Europe?

Postby Chalk McHugh

Although with the bar lowered so far for cheering, it's good to know that we'd all qualify on here for a round of applause in front of a large snooker audience. Never thought i had the talent but with one sharp swipe of the chalk, just let the chorus of claps make your day.

Re: A short piece: is it time to look to Europe?

Postby SnookerFan

Chalk McHugh wrote:Why don't the Chinese attend the snooker in big numbers over there? Surely it's not that expensive? And there's crazy amount of people living over there. No audience, no buzz.


Apparently it costs what an average person gets paid in a week, per ticket.

Or at least that's what they say on commentary.

Re: A short piece: is it time to look to Europe?

Postby SnookerFan

Chalk McHugh wrote:Clapping when a player chalks a cue is just plain daft.Great to see the game spread across the globe but there's something special about playing in the UK and Ireland.


Why do they do that?

What's the thinking behind it?

Re: A short piece: is it time to look to Europe?

Postby Chalk McHugh

SnookerFan wrote:
Chalk McHugh wrote:Clapping when a player chalks a cue is just plain daft.Great to see the game spread across the globe but there's something special about playing in the UK and Ireland.


Why do they do that?

What's the thinking behind it?


Who knows? But dont the Germans love David Hasselhoff as a singer? There really is no accounting for taste or bizarre rituals.

Re: A short piece: is it time to look to Europe?

Postby SnookerFan

Chalk McHugh wrote:Great to see the game spread across the globe but there's something special about playing in the UK and Ireland.


Like what?

Do you consider Barnsley to be more special than Berlin?

Re: A short piece: is it time to look to Europe?

Postby Chalk McHugh

SnookerFan wrote:
Chalk McHugh wrote:Great to see the game spread across the globe but there's something special about playing in the UK and Ireland.


Like what?

Do you consider Barnsley to be more special than Berlin?


Like London,Sheffield,York,Glasgow,Cardiff and Belfast. The old reliables. And Dublin could do with a big tournament. Yes i'd rather the home nations than Berlin.


   

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