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What a drag!
By Peter Goff (City Weekend)
Updated: 2005-04-21 10:44
The players called it madness, insanity, a circus. A clash of cultures as the
sedate and somber world of snooker jarred with the raucous chaos that is modern
China.
China's prodigy
Ding Junhui prepares to to hit the ball during the 2005 World Snooker
China Open in Beijing April 1, 2005. Ding survives Stephen Hendry from
Scotland 9-5 to win the game. [sina] |
But with the world's most populous nation hailing their new snooker teen hero
Ding Junhui it seems the strange bedfellows are nestling in for a long-term
relationship.
Already more than 50 million Chinese play snooker on a regular basis, but
with the 18-year-old Ding quickly assuming cult status after winning the China
Open on April 3, that figure is expected to double or triple in the coming
years.
That fame translates to frenzies as voracious autograph hunters work in
packs. When the players arrived for the China Open, they were swamped by adoring
fans that threatened life and limb.
Just ask Steve Davis. The 47-year-old former world number smacked his head
off a doorframe as he tried to sidestep a descending horde of zealous admirers
just before his game with Ricky Walden.
Ding Junhui,
China, shakes hands with Stephen Hendry, Scotland, during the final
of the 2005 World Snooker China Open in Beijing, April 3. 17-year-old
Ding beat Hendry 9-5 to win the game.
[sina] |
He suffered a mild concussion and had
to withdraw from the tournament.
The standard snooker sounds - the gentle clicking of balls, the rustle as it
slides down the pocket, the referee's dulcet tones - were all but lost on many
occasions in the noisy, carnival atmosphere at the China Open.
Mobile phones provided a shrill backdrop, constantly shattering the silence
and the players' concentration.
Oblivious to the pleading and haranguing of the referees, phones were left on
and were answered with an audacity that both bemused and amused the players.
Flash photography further distracted the players and one security guard even
snored heavily through a frame during the semi-finals.
Almost every match was stopped on a number of occasions because of crowd
disruptions. The referees had to physically throw several people out of the
stadium during the course of the week.
Stephen Hendry called the atmosphere "madness," while Chris Small said it was
"a joke, it felt like a circus out there." Small's match with Adrian Gunnell had
to be held up more than 10 times.
Beijing's mayor, Wang Qishan, attended some games and was also livid at the
behavior of the fans.
He later slammed the "rude public behavior," saying the city drastically
needed to brush up on its manners before welcoming the world to the Olympics in
2008.
With the Games only three years away he said it was "a problem Beijing cannot
afford to ignore."
The organizers and most of the players feel that the problem boils down to
the fact the game is relatively new in China and it will take time before fans
become familiar with proper snooker etiquette.
"We just need to be patient and understand how things
are here and realize that it will improve with time," Hendry said. "But the fact
that snooker is taking off here and they are producing players of Ding's talent
is wonderful for the game."
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