Year: 2014

Indian hopes Pankaj Advani and Vidya Pillai won their respective opening league matches as the Seaways-IBSF World Snooker Championship commenced here Wednesday.

Advani, holder of 12 World titles, was kept at the table for longer than expected before he pulled through 4-2 against Malaysia’s Keen Hoo Moh while national champion Pillai shrugged off a scratchy start to blank Russian challenger Anastasjia Singurindi 3-0 with a break of 49 in the third frame.

The 29-year-old Advani, champion in 2003 and runner-up in 2010, jumped to a 2-0 lead with breaks of 60 and 85, but lost focus to allow the Malaysian catch up at 2-2 before taking the next two frames to win the match.

“I started well, but I think I lost a bit of focus when leading 2-0. Keen is a tactical player and it was a tough match. I should have won 4-1, but will take the 4-2 result.

“I am happy to get the first match out of the way and yes, it was in a way good to spend more time at the table, but it was a wake-up call for me. I need to improve on my safety play which I was not happy with today,” said Advani after playing his first competitive snooker match in five months.

Pillai, twice bronze medallist in this tournament, was never really troubled by her young Russian opponent who appeared all at sea for the best part of the match, but the Indian champion took a while to settle down as she missed some sitters while looking ill at ease.

The 36-year-old Pillai, however, struck some rhythm in the third frame when she posted a break of 49 that ended when she missed a centre-pocket pink, but the run was enough to win her the frame and match.

“I was not too happy with my performance, even granting it was my first match. It will take a couple of more matches to get used to the conditions, but anyway, it’s a relief to win the first match and I hope to improve as the tournament progresses,” said Pillai.

Elsewhere, China’s 14-year-old prodigy Yan Bingtao eased past Jim Johansson of Sweden 4-1 to start his campaign in the Men’s section in fine fashion.

Though the teenager did not dish out big breaks, he gave a glimpse of his talent and potential that suggested he would go far in this tournament.

With Coaching In cue sports remaining still is very important. If you can the lower you can get down the better but if not you need to remain in the same position during the shot.
This means not moving your head, body and legs until you have completed your follow through and the cue action is completed. Keep your feet still and planted on the ground like the are glued to the ground and you’ll notice you may have been moving before.

So do you finish your stroke into your chest or are you cueing around it?

For snooker a very high degree finish the stroke into their chest area and you can also pull the cue back along it to make sure your coming back correct and following through.

If you can cue around your chest that means your stance is most probably in the wrong spot and this would also allow you to drop your shoulder and elbow. There are times some players set up for this in snooker Ronnie O’Sullivan drops his elbow on power shots and in Pool you do it for the break shot which allows the cue the follow through a much great length.

You should be locked in on three point your chest, chin and bridge.

Check out the third clip on how to open a pack using the cue ball to bounce and gain speed. Very useful when you need to create a angle and keep the break going.

Romford-based Judd Trump says he will take plenty of positives from his Dafabet Champion of Champions final defeat to defending title holder Ronnie O’Sullivan.

The 25-year-old Trump, who trains regularly at Groves Snooker Academy in Ashton Road, went down 10-7 against ‘The Rocket’ at the Ricoh Arena last Sunday.

It looked very much that O’Sullivan, the five-time world champion from Chigwell, was on his way to securing a comfortable victory, but Bristol-born Trump clawed his way back from 8-3 down to win four successive frames, with back-to-back centuries.

However O’Sullivan, the current world number four, claimed the two frames he required to claim the £100,000 top prize with breaks of 63 and 109.

Trump, who qualified for the event by winning the Championship League and Australian Open, defeated Stephen Macguire, current world champion Mark Selby and fellow Grove Academy professional Australian Neil Robertson en route to the final.

“It was a good game, I really enjoyed it,” said Trump, who is currently ranked number 11 in the world.

“It was probably one of the only games where I am not really too disappointed about losing.

“100 per cent I would have won if it was against anyone else, I would have won comfortably.

“For me, that is what the game is all about, getting that sort of opponent to bring you on and in other sports there is that kind of rivalry and I think I need Ronnie to push myself to the next level.

“I knew I was playing okay at 8-3 down but it just wasn’t going right for me. Then he missed one or two and that was it, I got a bit of confidence and momentum, got back into the game and then even at 8-7 I nearly nicked that frame and that would have been a big frame.

“The way he shut out the match was just typical Ronnie.

“I showed a lot of maturity this week. At times I wasn’t playing great stuff, but I just stuck in there, which I probably wouldn’t have done a few seasons ago.

“The way I came back under pressure, there is a lot to take and a lot to look forward to.”

Kamui tips Owner and founder visited World Cue Sports Australia on the 11/11/2014. After going over the products we settled down for a coffee and played a few games of Snooker which was different to what Masato usually Plays. Masato liked it so much and got thinking about how he could fit a table in his house! ( he stayed for over 6 hrs so i think he had a great time and also played Ian Barber)

Masato started Kamui 8 years ago and is now one of the leaders in laminated cue tips so his marketing expertise is out of this world.

As  well as the Kamui brand tips he also now has a pool room recently opened in Hiroshima Japan, and the factory employees over 20 people all of who he has hand selected with a passion for cue sports.He also has a marketing business which is his main business and you can see with what he’s done with Kamui he’s one hell of a clever marketing genius!

In speaking with Masato you can see he loves his Job and has a great passion for cue sports and it was great to meet someone that has achieved so much in building a brand from nothing into what it is now.