HURGHADA - The terrace of the Sunrise Garden Beach Hotel in Hurghada, at the start of the evening, on a day when the preliminary rounds of the World Cup have been played. The lady singer on the stage tries to tempt people to make a little dance, billiard players are talking about their matches and the alcohol flows freely, especially at the tables where the language is unmistakably Russian.
The joyous, smooth Ukrainian Nadya invites us for a show at the theater. It's only half past eight and the billiard room is anxious empty!! No more games, all matches closed.
Eight-thirty, you will say? Yes, half past eight, without blushing, because billiards is not an evening sport anymore.
Where are the times that billiard players in the World Cups and other major tournaments were at the tables until far after midnight? The era of boring, too long matches to 50 points or three winning sets, almost deadly for the time schedule.
Decision makers within the federations, UMB and CEB, took rigorous measures two years ago: World Cups, world championships and European championships were shortened, against the wishes although of many top players, to matches that are fixed in length and time: thirty or forty caroms, about two hours for a match.
The Hurghada World Cup is played in the hours when it's very hot outside, between eleven o'clock in the morning and half past eight in the evening. The preliminary rounds are played to 30 points, from tomorrow (Wednesday) the last qualification to 40 caroms.
With 148 players at the start on eight billiards, no complains about long waits and nightly matches and always on time for the next round.
Maybe that's what the federations have been aimed when they made the decisions, although the real billiard fans still long for the years when top players fought each other in long and high class thrillers.
The penultimate day of qualifications was launched this morning (Tuesday) with two extreme short matches: Czech Ivo Gazdos who dashed off in only 14 innings against Jin Pyo Hong from Korea 30-12 (2.142). And Swede Nalle Olsson who had a quickie in his match against Ralf Lenz 30-7 in 15 innings.
Johann Schirmbrand decided the match against Young-Chull Kim one point ahead, 30-29 in 19 with a high run of twelve. Kostas Papakonstantinou also left his opponent and compatriot Konstantinos Bartsokas one point behind at the finish.
The other heavyweights in this round:
Gokhan Salman (win over Manol Minaoglu) with 1.666.
Selim Özden (win over Apostolos Balogiannis) with 1.578.
Murat Tüzül (win over Mehmet Goren) with 1.500.
Birol Uymaz (win over Bülent Özdemir) with 1.428.
Vinh Ly The (win over Allan Jensen) with 1.428.
Ronny Lindemann (win over Hamed Mohssen) with 1.250.