my life of snooker

Team (con't)

In 2011, I found a snooker saloon nestled in HomeTeam NS clubhouse, named Space Rhythm. There were 6 snooker tables available and the charges were lower than Zone's, so I started playing there and also brought my friends there. It's very near my place in Balestier (even nearer than Snooker Zone). Then we played for their Division 4 team in the National Snooker League in the 2011/2012 season, captained by Alan, a very experienced coach for secondary schools who manned the saloon. We got 2nd that season, and all the players were invited to a dinner where the Snooker Association of Singapore announced the results, and gave out the trophies. Each player got one.

(Photo of one of our players Philip during a Division 4 game.)

For the next year, we trained hard and Space Rhythm wanted to send 2 teams for the National Snooker League to further build on its success. I was very fortunate to be asked by the boss to captain one team. We were going for Division 2 and 3. I would be captaining the lower division team, and all of the players are my friends. Only one player was a long time player at the saloon. His name was Michael. We all addressed him as Uncle Michael as he was the oldest and most experienced in the team. The time spent to design the team polo shirt was really fun. The logo design was done by Brian's brother and I did the layout. I collated the sizes as I was the one that got in touch with the t-shirt printer and collected the samples, and I got my teammates to try the shirts out.

(Photo of my Division 3 team from Space Rhythm.)

We did not have a good result for both teams in the league, but we did our best. The other players were just too strong. For this year, there's no Premier division, so the really good players were filtered down the ranks.

The lease for Space Rhythm was going to be up for the year 2013/2014, so me and my friends were very sad to leave as we had developed a love for this place. I tried to get the boss to renew the lease and worked out some package for my team players, but I failed. Hence we did something like an exodus, me and my team mates leaving Space Rhythm. That was just before I got to know Andy, a very good player introduced to me by Boon Song, another snooker friend of mine. Soon, Andy played with everyone on the team and got to know them. They all recommended him to join us in our team, as he was a really friendly person and a very good player. So in the end he joined us in the exodus.

I struck a deal with Snooker Zone's boss, basically that I will bring all my team members to Zone to play, provided the boss sent us out as a team to the league. He agreed, and even proposed to give training vouchers to the players. My aim was very simple; to let my friends be able to continue to experience competitive play in their game and be able to prepare themselves for it. This time I was successful. We were going to play in Division 3.

(Photo of my team at Snooker
Zone. From left: Brian, Michael, me, Glenn, Andy and Chee Koon.)

So our exodus was from Space
Rhythm to Snooker Zone. We trained pretty hard for this, and personally I was playing very well. But I got sick prior to the start of the season for the league, and couldn't play the first game. We got a draw for it, and we were determined to get a better result in our next game.

At the end of the season we ended 3rd in the standings. We could have gotten 2nd if we had won our last game, but we only managed a draw. It was considered a very good result already, as it was only our first season at Zone and we did pretty well and made the boss proud of the team. I was very happy for the team as well, to see the players grow individually puts a smile to my face.
After playing for Snooker Zone, I somehow managed to find a place with a very good coach who understood the game very well and had a lot of knowledge to impart to us. He was a National player for 3 ball billiards. I tried out his coaching and found it very sound and recommended my friends to join me there. I convinced Andy and Chee Koon first, they also found the coaching useful.
But Brian and Glenn got very busy so had to give it a miss. I thought it might not suit Uncle Michael too well as he was not looking to improve his game and just wanted to play it leisurely, so I didn't invite him.

It was quite sad, as Uncle Michael passed on quite suddenly and very unexpectedly. He was jogging at home on his treadmill when all of a sudden he fainted, according to his wife. Then paramedics arrived at the scene and pronounced him dead. It shocked the whole family. It shocked us at his wake too when his wife relived to us the accounts. Uncle Michael was very fit since the days we met him at Space Rhythm. Me, my wife, Andy and Brian were very fortunate to be able to have dinner at his place, and we had tea together with him and his wife at the patio. I even bought a 2nd hand car from him (Uncle Michael was a car dealer) before his demise.