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Death of a sport (Long post)

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  • Death of a sport (Long post)

    It does not feel like 40 years but checking my calendar, noticing my 55th birthday cards on the mantle and admiring the slippers I received as a gift from my wife and the boys it shocks me into the realization that it is indeed 40 years.
    40 years since I first picked up a cue in anger, I remember it so well.

    There I was at Ace Billiards in Vancouver on table 3 playing with a friend I had just recently met through a mutual musician friend, we all had an interest in guitar at that time and this love of music and Billiards would continue for most of my life.

    I actually first picked up a cue a few years earlier when my elementary schools best friends parents who were expats from the UK put a 5x10 snooker table in their basement. I was about 10 at the time we played a few times and I loved the sound of the balls clicking and the thunk of the ball hitting the leather on the back of the pocket, the satisfaction of accomplishment when the ball goes in and you get another turn.

    This brush with snooker didn’t last long, as kids do we found other interests and moved on. Later when I was about 14 we had a 4x8 pool table in our own basement and I played occasionally but never really took it seriously. Then one day I was invited to Ace billiards by my friend to play a little on the big tables.

    Ace billiards was the follow up to Chenier hall after that closed. Big Bill Werbeniuks regular haunt when he was home from the UK and occasionally Cliff Thorburn or Kirk Stevens would drop by, there was always a good player in the house so it was here that I learned quite a bit about the game. There were only 4 Brunswick Anniversary snooker tables and a bar box at Ace, the game of choice in Canada had always been snooker.

    The game on table 3 went quite well that day and I remember clearing the colours to win against my friend who was a decent player at the time and that set me on the road to falling in love with the game.

    Around 1979 I decided I wanted to spend some time in the UK and having expat parents myself I went to stay with relatives for a year and ended up staying for 13 years but that is another story.

    During the 80’s snookers heyday I played and watched snooker on TV religiously. Cliff Thorburn became world champion in 1980 and Canada had 3 players in the top 8 in the world, Cliff along with Billy and Kirk Stevens were regulars on the TV. Alain Robidoux came through in the late 80’s early 90’s and was the last of the more successful Canadian professionals.
    We had some other pro's during those years with Bob Chaperon, Mario Morra, and Marcel Gavreau etc. trying to make their mark but they were faced with an upcoming generation of coached and groomed young British players that ultimately proved too strong for these aging club players, Canada also had a number of great amateur players during these years.

    The players of this era were club players and played because they loved the game, most were not coached or pushed into the game because it was not a respected sport and there was no legitimate living to be made it just happened that the game became successful and the players of the day were lucky enough to be along for the ride.

    Returning to Canada with my family in the early 90’s I found that Pool had taken over much of the space in the pool rooms, the tournaments were all pool and most of the snooker players had either quit turned their hands to pool or just gotten too old but pool seemed to be doing pretty well and there were still new rooms popping up around Vancouver so I followed suit and myself spent more time playing 9 ball.

    Over the last 5 years or so the 9 ball has dried up, lots of rooms closed, many good players don’t even play anymore and there has not been a serious 9 ball tournament around here for years. Snooker is about as dead as John Cleeses parrot, the winds of change have blown through the world of pocket billiards.

    I have some ideas on what caused this plague, could be technology and the distractions it brings to young people or a push for more active sports from the new generation, but whatever the cause or causes I cannot see any light at the end of the tunnel. I know snooker had some past issues even in the UK with the loss of tobacco money, poor management and such but Barry Hearn entered the fray and has managed to turn this around. We are now seeing growth in Europe and China and some resurgence in the UK.

    So after this brief history lesson according to me I am still left with the question of what if anything can be done to resurrect the sport in Canada.
    Keep in mind we have very poor local and national associations, well more like lame ducks really that have done nothing to promote or grow the sport in Canada and cannot be relied upon any time soon to change.
    Where do we go from here?, accept that the sport is dead and move on with our lives or put our heart and soul into something that likely will end in disappointment.

    We need to start grass roots and develop new young talent but in order to do that the game needs exposure to show that this can be a sound professional career choice with great rewards at the top or at least provide a good living as with golf, tennis or ice hockey, it needs credibility.

    Credibility that can really only be achieved with television exposure. TV exposure requires demand or at the very least proven returns on advertising investment but I suspect we are at the chicken and egg juncture in Canada with this. I don’t honestly know the answer or even where to start making progress but I do know 100% that continuing with the current trend this great sport is lost in this country and that’s sad when you look at where we were in the 1980’s.

  • #2
    Great post - I would say you do need more TV coverage and it would help to have some good young player on the tour to fly the flag and become the new torch bearer for the sport in Canada - but your association is as much to blame and the government for not backing the players more to help sponsor a player and some events over there - Why your association never employed former pro's over there and made use of their contacts and experience to help develop the game in all this time is beyond me. A wasted opportunity.

    I hope you guys sort it out sometime if you ever do produce another great player or two like you did in the 80's - it would be good to see another proper Canadian Championship and a few open events over there sponsored and contested not only by locals but by the top pro's from across the world as Canada is a wonderful country.

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    • #3
      Hi Tiger. You posted an excellent post about the state of the game in Canada. It's interesting to hear your perspective on the game. I wish I was around in those days to see Billy, Cliff, and the like playing at Ace and Jubilee Billiards. I started playing the game around 98 when I walked into Alpha Billiards in Burnaby after a bad break up with an ex-girlfriend. I instantly fell in love with cue sports thanks to the regulars at the club that welcomed me into their group. I quickly became a great potter and had a good instinct for playing the game and I played nearly every day eventually reaching a high break of 72 at the time (88 since then and a few centuries in practice). Over the past 15 years, I have kept mostly in touch with the sport apart from a few breaks a few years back and I have done OK in tournaments I have entered.

      My friends and I often think about how we can make the game more popular here. Thankfully, one of the clubs that still runs has excellent tables and an asian crowd that plays the game but the real talent of century breakers really isn't around anymore. I have probably seen a century live only a few times ever (of course many on TV/computer but that's not the same).

      Most definitely the associations here are lame ducks and have not done enough to promote the sport. The assocation in BC in particular is facing real challenges as it has been poorly run by previous presidents. One person, however, that is trying to give the game a fresh new face is Patrick from snookercanada.com. There is also a chap I met recently through Patrick, Vince, that is also trying to create some tournaments and new exposure here in BC. I'm actively in touch with Vince and hope something starts to happen with the sport again.

      One of the perspectives I have is from the computer industry. I'm a Web designer by trade so I fully understand and use social media, blogging, youtube and more. The young generation aren't really watching TV nearly as much as their parents and so if you want to reach them, the best chance is on social media, youtube and the like.

      In trying to do my part, I have been running a blog and youtube channel at www.snookerdelight.com where I'm trying to share what I know and have learned about this wonderful game. I have had the opportunity to coach and teach a few students through my site as well. I'm also working on finding out if I can change some of the local municipal laws here. The local community centres still have 5x10 tables, but they are 55+ only rooms and so the younger players never get a chance to see or play the game. As a self-proclaimed coach, it would be great if I could take some students into those community centres to teach the game.

      I think with more support, the game could have a resurgence in Canada. I am hearing that there is a lot of activity in Quebec and Ontario still. There are also so many knowledgeable older guys that still understand the game and could easily teach the younger generation a few things.

      I think if the game starts to get serious attention via Olympics (its a long shot) and Patrick's upcoming tournament makes waves, we would see a resurgence in the game.

      Tiger, I would love to chat with you about the game some time over Skype or whatever. Send me an email at mayur@snookerdelight.com or a PM through here and we can set something up.
      Mayur Jobanputra, Snooker Coach and Snooker Enthusiast
      My Snooker Blog: www.snookerdelight.com

      Comment


      • #4
        The long road back

        The concept of individual sport has over the last couple of decades has faded into oblivion.
        Schools have a mandate to promote team sports, hockey, football, soccer etc. Individual achievements are usually seen as academics or music, in fact I don’t know that there is any individual sport promoted in schools, maybe the chess club and some physical activities such as judo or wrestling but are also often in a team environment and not really viewed as a future career.

        This team concept among parents was noticeably more prevalent here than it was in the UK so I am wondering if this mindset is also a factor and you know what the lure of big money in the major league sports can do to parents, I’ve seen it on the sidelines!
        The few billiard clubs that are left seem to have little interest in development or promotion, sure they hold the odd small event now and again and hope people turn up but it’s always a half hearted attempt and I am not convinced this on it’s own is going to bring about the wholesale change required to start producing world class players again.

        I once offered a local room to start a juniors coaching and league on Saturday mornings, offering my time for free and was given every excuse under the sun why it would not work or could not work, they simply had no interest. We need the support from the rooms to get anything off the ground, even if it’s just the table time to get the kids playing.

        The whole infrastructure was there in the UK for producing players. From the working mens, labour and conservative clubs to the many snooker rooms that were opened in the 80’s. The many leagues for city and county players, the amateur championships and the lure of the pro game they had all the parts of the puzzle to produce great players.
        Currently we virtually have none of these things, the Legions of late have been taking out the 6x12’s as have many of the pool rooms and there are no leagues to speak of.

        This “UK” model I outlined is not the only approach though. China has started producing some excellent players of late through the programs they started a few years back and I think this model has some potential here as it does not require the large infrastructure to get started, what is does require though as I said before is credibility of the game for the commitment of the parents to follow, the toughest hurdle in my opinion.
        More on the Chinese model later.
        Last edited by Tiger800; 12 December 2013, 04:56 PM.

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