Any billiards enthusiast of any kind?

[Wis Redz of Silvanost]

Hi all,

I've been wondering how many of my fellow Jemsiters are interested in billiards games (snooker, 8-ball, 9-ball, carom or three cushion, other variants). I'm playing 8-ball, 9-ball and carom when I have time and am interested in playing snooker but there aren't much people who want to play it around me.

I also love watching snooker games, just an hour ago Ronnie O'sullivan has won the Masters and it was a delightful match.

So, is there anyone who plays or watches any kind of billiards game?

[ibanezcollector]

I used to play 9 ball alot.. then I sold my Muecci's and called it a day..

I still watch it on tv when I see it..

[andy7jem]

I play "pocket billiards" a lot

[newbieguitarmaker]

i was just playin yesterday, my friends got pissed cause i was like no i'm not that good and i would make insane shots hahah. I always lose the first game just to work up their ego lol

[zasam4]

Billiards is one of the most popular sport here in the Philippines!
Efren Reyes, Django Bustamante, Alex Pagulayan, Ronnie Alcano and Jose Parica just to name a few!

[TAorama]

8 and 9 ball. Love it! In fact, I have a table occupying my formal dining room at this very moment.

[scotte_za]

I spend the majority of my nights out in dodgy pool bars, cheap beer and theres always someone willing to play a lil 8 ball ^^

[Shredder87]

Big snooker fan here!

I go at least once a week to my local snooker club. Love it!

[Davey]

I'm a huge snooker fan to the point it gets me down

Seriously, I love the game so much, but at the moment there aren't any good snooker halls in the area because they've all been over-run by scallies. I'm actually quite a decent player too, my highest break is 68 and I don't even get to play that often which really bugs me. If I could play more often I'd definitely be able to stick in a few century breaks. So this gets me down because I can't play anywhere because it's full of scallies messing about and putting you off. I can't even watch it on TV at the moment because it frustates me that I can't play.

Now 9-ball, whilst being a great game I find it extremely easy. I can't watch this on TV either because I end up shouting at the TV in disgust at the lack of skill in some of the top 'professionals'. I'd honestly go for it and try to become a pro, but the game just isn't big enough in this country and the money isn't there to make it worthwhile. If I was good at snooker as I am at 9-ball you'd be watching me play in the Master's BTW, sorry if it sounds conceited I don't mean it in that way. It's just the only thing I can truly say in life that I rule at. Everyone should have something

I posted it here once if you do a search somewhere, I actually bought Steve Davis's pants off him in an auction (seriously) and he sent them in a little goody pack with some other autographed stuff. Truly a class act

[Davey]

Here's what I posted:

Ok, here is the story from the auction I won...



Originally Posted by Steve Davis on e-bay
Here's the story:
Friday 6th January 2006
I'd had a good December. I'd reached the semi-finals of the Premier League and the final of the UK Snooker Championship in York only losing out to Ding Jun Hui at the last hurdle. It was my 100th professional final and even though I didn't win the event it was a very welcome return to the snooker limelight.With that memory still in the minds of snooker fans I was looking forward to a much more relaxed exhibition match with Stephen Hendry in Taunton at the Wellsprings leisure centre.
I was travelling from Essex having left myself plenty of time for the journey to the West Country. I was singing along to the latest Magma CD in the car when from the depths of my stupid brain I got the uneasy feeling that something wasn't quite right.
Cue! no, a quick glance onto the back seat and there it was... Phew! Shirt? Cufflinks? no I remember putting them in my hanging wardrobe. Now I was digging deeper, Waistcoat? Nope, and then it hit me. As I hurtled past Membury services at 69.9 miles an hour I realised that my dress suit trousers were lounging in a kirby trouser press just outside Romford.
No time to turn around and I also couldn't play in my track suit bottoms. They were Blue and it's not right, Blue and Black together. I phoned International Rescue but with the line busy I immediately contacted the Taunton Holiday Inn. A gentleman called David (thanks by the way Dave!) went out shopping and bought me a pair of how's y'fathers. It was a rough guess on size and I had to err on large rather than small so I plumped for the 34inch waist even though I'm a 32inch. The biggest problem was length as Marks & Spencers refuse to believe that anyone has an inside leg longer than 33inches.
I tried them on in my hotel room and I thought I might just about get away with it. Trouble was, there was a trade off. They were massive and short. Of course there's nothing worse than trousers having had an argument with your shoes as this would have shown off the white socks that I'd borrowed from Welshman Mark Williams. The only way this was going to work was with some low crutch work and the hipster approach. So I forced them South and became a 33 inside leg for the night
Long term, there was no hope of a permanent relationship between us, but as a one night stand they did the job albeit with enough room down the front for all 21 balls instead of the usual two!
The trousers played quite well, making a 100 break in frame two and producing some great trick shots later in the evening. they eventually went down 4-3 to an inspired Stephen Hendry performance although some of his gamesmanship on the evening left much to be desired (shouting out "low arse" while I was on a tricky cut back black didn't really help things
I drove back with my acquired trousers and chucked them in the corner of the room. Job done, bye bye trousers
Fast Forward one week:
Andy Dillon from the Sun newspaper phones for an interview in a build up to the Masters and someone has tipped him off about the trousers so I tell him the story and he thinks it's worth a few paragraphs and I say "tell you what, I'll whack em up for auction on **** during the Masters" and he says "good idea I'll give it a plug and we'll raise some money for charity" and I think Paul Hunter's chosen Cancer charity and here you are reading this diatribe!
So here they are; A pair of trousers that have played a Snooker Exhibition against Stephen Hendry all proceeds going Paul Hunter's chosen cancer charity the NET Patient Foundation Charity Number 1092386


So he ended up sending me an awesome package with a Masters program signed by him and John Parrot, and an a signed photo! This was actually round 2 because when I was a kid my parents wrote off to Matchroom Snooker to get his autograph for my birthday and he went one better and bought me a birthday card!

So yeah, I'm a huge fan of Steve's and gutted to see him go out!

Here's a picture of Steve in the pants...

http://i23.eb ayimg.com/01/i/06/03/35/1a_1.JPG just delete the space between the b and a in eb ay.

[Roland]

Great story. There are a lot of great players on the turf right now, so it's too hard for me to pick one favourite. Ding Jun Hui needs massive credit for his age, skill and courage, however.

[jaxadam]

I used to shoot quite a bit, but haven't been playing nearly as much as I used to.

[Wis Redz of Silvanost]

Yeah Ding is a great player and if he were a bit more experienced he wouldn't have given up on the game like he did yesterday. As Ronnie said, I fully expect him to be a World Champion some time.

I'd love to play snooker with Jemsiters or any billiards game for that matter I'll give you a heads up if I ever come to England, Ibanez249

I too find 9-ball too easy. If you are playing 8-ball with a good opponent who watches/plays snooker, eveh that game can be harder than 9-ball.

[iumentum]

I love snooker too. Man, Ronnie wiped the floor with Ding in the finals yesterday.

[btangel]

I'm Taiwanese so I'm pretty much obligated to play pool. :P I don't have a whole lot of talent in the game. There was one summer where I played pretty much every other day and got decent. My skills came from pretty much all hard work. I play from time to time with my Asian buddies in here in the US and I keep up with pro 9ball competitions from time to time.

Taiwan has some of the best 9ballers in the world and I'm pretty proud about it. I remember last summer's world championship of there were 16 Taiwanese left in the 32 players bracket.