[Scarlet_Rider]

Hi BHPians,

While we have threads on sports like cricket, football and tennis, thought of starting a thread for cue sports like billiards, snooker, pool, etc. Probably the only sport where drinking and smoking was allowed long back! Not anymore! Please do share your thoughts on these sports.

• Do you have a setup at home / office?
• Who are your favorite players?
• Share videos of maximum breaks, excellent shots, trick shots, your favorite moments, etc.

I mostly watch snooker and pool videos on YouTube. There is hardly any coverage of these sports nowadays on most sports channels available in India. Long back Star Sports used to cover certain snooker events and pool events like the Mosconi cup, etc. But we hardly find any coverage these days.

Snooker

A sport with it's origin in India. My favorites are Ronnie O’Sullivan, Mark Selby, Mark Williams, Stephen Hendy, Steve Davis, Ding Junhui and Alex Higgins.

The fastest 147 by Ronnie

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9D2rFMPN9js

Some incredible shots

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2HpqTTrZeFc

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g-NaPrDSa2o

Funny moments

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AT4fR7pwNs8

Pool

Love watching the magician Efren Reyes and his countryman Francisco Bustamante. Their matches with players from US like Earl Strickland are great to watch.

The famous Z shot by Efren Reyes

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a6G_RnPh1yw

Playing casually

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ID_eXCOoGbU

[mayankk]

I love snooker, not pool so much. However, the madness that came about in from mid 90's to 2000s seems to have abated. I can hardly find anyone to play with, or even places with a proper table or cues. Used to be that Siri fort had decent setups, but now it's become difficult for me to get there.
Pity.

Ps: I like o'sullivan, but it's Hendry the rainman who was the Rossi of snooker for me.

[Jeroen]

I always liked playing pool. Anybody can play a bit of pool. Snooker is much more difficult.

So I always dreamt of having my own pool table. It never happened, for several reasons. A real full size pool table is not cheap, more importantly it will take up a lot of room. It’s not just that the pool table is big, you need to be able to walk around it and not hit a wall with your cue too!!

So when we moved to Kansas City, USA in 2009 and my wife found us this fantastic early 1900s house, which had a massive loft, including bar, one of the very first things I bought was a full size pool table. We moved into our home a few days before Christmas and our three kids were coming over to stay with us, in our new home for a couple of weeks.

You can get a decent full size pool table for very little money in the USA. Mine was not a professional, but it was full size and it weighted a tonnes. More like several tonnes.

It came as a DIY kit and my boys and I dragged it up two flights of stairs and put it together. Getting it exactly level was quite a thing too. After hours and hours of trying to get it level, I finally figured out my level was actually off!. So at 22.00PM, on Christmas night I ran of to the hardware store. Probably the only country in the world, the USA, where you can find a DIY / Hardware store open at 22.00PM on Christmas night!!! You have got to love the Americans.

By midnight the pool table was level and we started playing. For the next three and a half years, we had lots of fund with it. Lots of our guests, many of whom had never played pool, had a go. We had a little bar in the loft as well, and a game room, so part of our entertaining was up in our loft!

If you look closely, you can also see one of my wife’s hobbies in our loft: She collects, among others, Playmobile doll houses. For some reason we dragged them with us all over the world when we moved from country to country.






http://jeroendorrestein.com/Frances%..._in_KC.html#28

These images were taken on Christmas day, so it all looks a bit bare. We had only moved in a few days earlier.

When we left Kansas City to move to Delhi, we put lots of our stuff on Craigs-list. The pool table was the first to be bought by a young student. He came around and he was so exited about it. Really nice to have sold it to him.

I am not sure we even played by the appropriate rules, but that never mattered. We just had a lot of fun.

Interestingly enough; the pool table came with a free dart board. You could open up the cue-stand, and it would become a dart board!

Jeroen

[GTO]

I used to be big on pool as well as billiards (preferring the later) when it became incredibly popular in the late 90s. Pool parlours were everywhere and it was the ultimate evening hangout spot, before clubbing at night. But billiards was more fun & strategic. We used to go to the Juhu Club where there were a lot of serious players.

Hardly anyone I know plays pool anymore. I guess the "internet" happened and people moved on. Still, if I visit a hotel or something which has a pool table, just can't resist picking up the stick and shooting a few.

[s4ch]

My brother and I love snooker. When living in the UK in the 90's and early 2000's (we were about 10 and 8), we would watch the World Championships religiously every year.

My parents also took us to the home of snooker, The Crucible in Sheffield, to watch the World Championships. An absolutely amazing experience we will never forget as a family.

We got to see 2 semi finals, the first between Mark Williams and John Higgins in 2000, and the second between Ronnie and Stephen Hendry in 2002. I recall we met Willie Thorne after one of the matches too and had a brief chat with him, an absolute gentleman.

Having been back in the UK this year, we thoroughly enjoyed watching the World Championships - Mark Selby did really well to win, although I was supporting Sean Murphy.

To be honest, I enjoyed the seniors tournament even more, such a shame that Jimmy didn't win it this year though!

[Scarlet_Rider]

Originally Posted by Jeroen

You can get a decent full size pool table for very little money in the USA. Mine was not a professional, but it was full size and it weighted a tonnes.

Amazing setup Jeroen! Nothing like your own pool table. No need to wait for your turn like you have to if you visit a parlour. Did it also have a heater built in?

Originally Posted by mayankk

I can hardly find anyone to play with, or even places with a proper table or cues.

Snooker / pool parlours are a rare sight these days. The ones open do not have proper equipment as you mentioned.

Originally Posted by GTO

I used to be big on pool as well as billiards (preferring the later) when it became incredibly popular in the late 90s. But billiards was more fun & strategic. We used to go to the Juhu Club where there were a lot of serious players.

Never understood billiards till date. For me I mostly like watching snooker followed by pool. Due to restricted membership and strict rules, the condition of equipment is far better at clubs than at parlours. The pool table in the office where I work is a sad sight. The cloth is torn at multiple places. The cue tip is almost non-existent and the cue ball looks more like a golf ball. . If you hit the ball straight, there is no guarantee where it will end up!

Originally Posted by s4ch

My parents also took us to the home of snooker, The Crucible in Sheffield, to watch the World Championships. An absolutely amazing experience we will never forget as a family.

Wow! You are lucky to get a first hand experience at the Crucible. How is the experience watching it in person compared to watching on TV? Are there screens at multiple places where you can see close up of the shots especially when a player is snookered?

[Jeroen]

Originally Posted by Scarlet_Rider

Did it also have a heater built in?

I can’t quite remember, but I don’t think it did.

Jeroen

[AVR]

I was mad about Snooker and Billiards from 9th-12th grade. In fact, I even volunteered for assisting International players in their practice when they came to Ahmedabad for the World Billiards Championship in 1998. Geet Sethi won it and our Club was the practice venue. Remember Roxton Chapman being my designated player. Basically we had to hang around their table and watch them practice, chit-chat and help with anything they needed. The perk was we got free entry to the Championship games!

Back then I had decided I'll have a snooker table in my house. Have plans of setting one up in a house I am planning to build in the next 2-3 years.

Off late, haven't had the chance to play much but I know if I had access/more time I would get addicted again.

[Heart_Revs]

Played all the three games. However, I have hardly found anyone playing 9-ball pool.
I have got a pool table in office club and play regularly.

When it comes to pool there can be only one fav - Efren. So humble yet so talented. His planning of table is way beyond imagination of a average player.
Snooker - Ronnie, Neil Robertson, Judd trump. I also like Selby and Higgins. For more eye candy one can watch the big oldies - Jimmy white, Steve Davis etc.

[Trojan]

Thanks for starting this thread

I started off with Pool and moved to Snooker, once a snooker fan - always a snooker fan! 8 ball pool is still a good game, 9 ball feels highly overrated - anyways once you get used to playing on the big table, the smaller formats seem like child's play. In my hey days of snooker, me and my friend Mukesh (State Rank 2) used to visit pool parlors just to see how many 8 ball pool frames could we finish in 30mins, our record was 9 - with many awestruck onlookers watching us.

But I echo the sentiments shared already, it feels as if the era is dead... there are hardly any good snooker or pool parlors.

I had the good fortune of playing during the peak of this craze with some really talented blokes, between 1998-2002. Also got the opportunity to play tournaments as well.

I remember making my first trip to Delhi to purchase what became my first Cue Stick from Billiardiers at Connaught Place. My first Cue (Still with me) was a Match England one, Riley was a distant dream then.

Here is a picture of me (center) after securing 3rd Rank in the Bihar State Open Snooker Championship held in 2001 at Bankipur Club, Patna. To my left is Vishal Singh who came 1st and next to him is Mukesh Kumar who came 2nd. Vishal went on to play for Jharkhand State later on. To my right are Harsh Sharma & Shivanand Sinha - marvelous players too!



I do plan to keep a table someday, teach my kids how to play the game!

I will need to dig through old albums to get the few pics I have of those days.

From the Snooker players - its really hard not to be a fan of Stephen Hendry and Ronnie O'Sullivan! Mark Williams is way too orthodox for me!

Cheers,

[RahuKetu]

You brought old memories back when many of us used to play pool in late 90s. Since the pool parlors used to charge 50 Rs. per hour for a table, so four of us friends used to go together. We divided the money in the ratio of total losses divided by the total number of games played in one hour. It was fun and competitive at the same time.

After good 10 years when I joined a PSU and was posted in WB, then I found Snooker Table in the club. We used to enjoy on Saturdays playing snooker and partying. Still I feel to have one in my house but in present world where we have 10'*12' room sizes in our flats, this seems to be a distant dream.

[locusjag]

Might be hard to believe - but there are those of us who don't know the difference between billiards, snooker and pool!

I know foosball though.

[arindam.dino]

Many Thanks for your post, brought back so so many memories!
Won a tourney in college but till date don't know if we followed proper rules.
But it still is and always would be the Bestest best memory of college.
Wish more people knew and played the sport.

Efren Reyes and Ronnie O'Sullivan fan

[SRM]

I think the college going guys of 90s and 2000s will definitely remember pool parlours fondly. There were so many of them every few kms. Being from Bombay, there was one right behind our college and it was the most entertaining and economical way to spend your time. Most of the times these places would be full with waiting times to get your turn. Play in partners and losers pay and your whole afternoon was sorted in 50 bucks!

Also, the bowling alleys were pretty happening and in demand at that time.

Even today if I am going to a resort to spend a couple of days, I do try and check if they have a pool table, just for some fun in the evening/night! Thanks for refreshing the memories with this thread!

[rachitarora1985]

Wow. This thread surely brings back old memories. I had been a regular snooker player (not a profession player though) in my hometown. However, things changed when I moved to Gurgaon for job. I can hardly find any snooker clubs here. Any leads for a snooker club in New Gurgaon?