National Snooker Championship Coming To Bensonhurst May 22-25
This spring — Memorial Day weekend to be exact — some of the country’s most skilled snooker players will be in Bensonhurst for the 25th Anniversary National Snooker Championship.
The three-day event, which will take place at Prince Snooker Club (6322 20th Avenue), will include special 25th Anniversary trophies for first and second place winners.
Not sure what snooker is? You are not alone. The billiards-style sport, long popular in Britain and Ireland, has recently exploded in popularity in China, but has failed to gain momentum here in the United States. Currently, only 32 players compete professionally in America.
“We wish that we had a bigger field of players,” said Michael Collins, founder and chairman of the United States Snooker Association (USSA) in a phone interview. “Internationally snooker is huge. The top snooker players in Britain earn the same amount as golfer — and you know that’s not chump change. We currently are lobbying to have [Snooker] in the Olympics.”
While there is some crossover from professional pool into snooker, the British game is significantly more complicated. Snooker requires a total 22 of snooker balls: one white cue ball, 15 red balls worth one point each, and six balls of different colors, each with different point values. Snooker tables are also significantly larger than billiards tables, measuring at approximately 12 feet by 6 feet, compared to the standard 4-by-8 foot pool table.
While snooker clubs are nearly unheard of in New York City, that is subtly changing in southwest Brooklyn, where Chinese immigrants have introduced the British sport and set up at least two Snooker locations.
“China is huge in snooker — it’s really been ginornous — and people don’t really know about it,” said Collins.
Prince Snooker Club, owned by Tommy Chen and his wife Anita, previously hosted the championship in 2009 and 2011. Last year, the prestigious event was held at Top 147 Snooker Club, which is located in an unmarked building in Bay Ridge.
Raymond Fung, who moved to Brooklyn from Hong Kong, told the Atlantic during last year’s event, “Here, we call it an immigrant game. It’s not for the local people.”
Occasionally, the creation of a snooker club has spark regional interest in the sport. For example, Embassy Billiards Club in San Gabriel, California — the first of its kind in the country — has “instigated snooker in California,” according to Collins.
“A lot of people open up snooker clubs and a lot of people fail. I don’t know that there is a secret recipe,” Collins said. “But Snooker is a game you can play with anybody anywhere in the world. It’s like music; you don’t need language.”
Collins served as the USSA’s executive director at the time of the first championship back in 1991, and he presented the trophy to the first champion, Tom Kollins, who would go on to win the Championship for a record five times and will also be competing in this year’s event.
In a statement Kollins expressed excitement about the upcoming championship in Bensonhurst and thanked the Chens, his hosts,.
“I was already a 55-year-old senior when I played in that first championship,” said Kollins, who is the current vice-president of the USSA Now. “As I approach my 80th birthday, I still have a great enthusiasm for the game and plan on being in the mix once again. With Tommy and Anita Chen as our hosts, this event promises to be among the best ever. Would not miss it for the world.”
What do you think? Will Bensonhurst become the snooker capital of America?