As reported by Monique over at The Snooker Forum, a three-day exhibition over in Germany began yesterday and it sounds like a lot of fun was had on day one…
To view Monique’s thread over at TSF please click here or read on here:
It is great to be there with Perry and Sunflower and more members of ROS forum 😆 nice to put faces on the login names, meet the real people. Sunflower told me that the ownner of her hotel had to refuse 50 guests only yesterday. That’ s how big snooker is in Germany…
Before the event I went there walking to be sure to find my way in the evening and I met Ken Doherty on the way. Ken is a charming and very kind man and we had a friendly chat. He told me how good the conditions and the venue were and how glad he was to be there. Unfortunately, he said, he has to go back to UK today (Saturday) because tomorrow he has a party: his son is one year old already! Time is flying. He also confessed he didn’t like Bahrain, not the tournament, the place: better Irish rain and green than sun and desert! 😉
On the evening we got two “serious” matches first.
Mark Williams vs Chris McBreen and Barry Hawkins vs Patrick Einsle.
Both Brits went through on an identical 5-3 score. But the locals (Chris is from New Zealand but lives in Germany) made them seriously work for it!
Patrick in particular led 1-0 and 2-1 before Barry really got going and narrowly he failed to force a decider. Chris didn’t let go easily, coming from 2-0 down to 2-2 and, at 4-3 for Mark, fighting a long battle for snookers. As I was going from one match to the other, taking pictures, I´m not sure about the scores, but I think Mark made the only century of the evening in frame 2.
Next part was more entertainment. Shaun Murphy and Ken Doherty battled … in “Big Break” style. The challenges were:
1. First to pot ten reds
2. Colours on “random” spots (the audience “voted” them) and pot them all in order
3. Regular snooker but make a maximum of points in a limited time frame.
Ken came victorious out of challenges 1 and 3. Shaun went “pouting” and almost walked out 😉 … the audience didn’t let him though.
They then played three frames of snooker, Shaun clearly the best but Ken the crowd favourite 😆 It was 2-1 for Shaun … Ken taking the second frame with the help of an outrageous fluke and shameless about it.
It was a great evening, great fun. Lots of adolescent boys, enthusiastic crowd.Why isn’t WPBSA investing more in mainland Europe? I can’t get it!
Today the event is sold out, tomorrow also …
I’m looking forward to it.
Next report tomorrow…”