Eric Willemsen is a Dutch journalist, who has contributed to several newspapers and magazines in the Netherlands since 1990, covering a broad variety of topics. In 2005, Eric moved to Vienna, Austria, where he is currently working as a sports writer with Associated Press. He covers the big sporting events and provides the press agency with the latest news on top sports in Austria.

Unfortunately, the American based news agency does not cover snooker, which happens to be Erics favourite sport. So, Maximumbreak now provides him with the chance to write about his most beloved sport as well.Eric first got in contact with snooker in the late eighties, as the game was still fairly unknown in the Netherlands. He learned about the rules by watching the BBC transmissions on a small black and white television in his student room. Though there was hardly any difference noticable between the green, brown and red balls on the television screen, he fell in love with the game immediately.

He got himself a small snooker table at the local toy store to practise his first shots and pots at home. In 1991, he played his very first match on a full-size snooker table, beating a much more experienced friend by 3-2.However, due to the lack of adequate coaching facilities in his neighbourhood, and the time he invested in developing as a tennis player, Eric never really raised his game of snooker to a higher level.After 15 years, he is still hoping to crack his highest break of just 30 one day. ;-)

Eric became a member of Maximumbreak on February the 2nd 2006 and we were so impressed with the articles he wrote using his editors facility that all members have, that we decided to offer him his very own home page to write about snooker in Austria.

The game is now regaining much of its popularity it had on the continent in the early nineties, and Austria makes no exception. The television plays an important role in that development. Unfortunately, the BBC is not available on cable TV in Central Europe, but Eurosport and the German sports channel D:SF, who covers the Premier League, are.

More people in Austria nowadays pick up a snooker cue, more tournaments - on all levels - are organized, and special training schedules are set up for young talented players, who probably will manage an international breakthrough which Austria hasn't had so far.Eric will keep all visitors of Maximumbreak up-to-date on the developments in Austrian snooker. He will report on tournaments and bring nice-to-know information about what's going on in the snooker scene of Austria.

We would like to welcome Eric to Maximumbreak and we wish him all the success with his new Austrian snooker section.