Austrian snooker possesses prosperous perspectives

Until two o'clock in the morning, Austria kept its hopes alive that it would soon be able to see the new world champion live in action. However, Mark Selby's remarkable comeback from 4-12 to 13-14 against John Higgins in Sheffield last Monday, finally did not prove to be enough to win the world title. But, of course, Selby still is one of the big shots to appear at this year's Austria Snooker Open. The event will run from Thursday 17 May until Sunday 20 May in Wels, a city in the northern part of Austria. Besides world championship runner-up Selby, the tournament will feature a string of Main Tour pro's, with the likes of Ken Doherty, Stephen Lee, Barry Hawkins, Ali Carter, Joe Swail, Mark King, Joe Perry, Ian McCulloch, Ryan Day, Michael Holt, and last year's winner Matthew Couch, among others. The event has grown that big in the last couple of months, that the organising team of 1. Union Wels BC around Chistof Fichtner had to move it from the initially scheduled Stadthalle to the much larger Boschhalle. For more information and to purchase tickets, check out www.snooker-wels.at/aso.html.

Back on the Main Tour?
This month's Austria Snooker Open is only one of the highlights that await the snooker scene in the German-speaking part of Europe in the near future. The German Open is reported to regain its place on the Main Tour calender next season. However, this announcement has not yet been officially confirmed by World Snooker. So far, a date for a renewed ranking tournament in Germany has not been set. But by the end of August, the Paul Hunter Classic 2007 will take place for sure in Fuerth, and organisers have set themselves a huge challenge by proclaiming that they will get ten players out of the top-20 entering their tournament.

And as if that were not enough, Austria looks forward to yet another great event. The official IBSF world amateur championships will be held in Austria in the autumn of 2008. This event will be located in Wels as well. So, the upcoming Austria Snooker Open is a kind of test case for that big occassion. In the past, Austria already proved it can successfully stage such tournaments at an international level as the 2004 European championships in Voelkermarkt were an event of the best quality.

A snooker-mad nation
Suggesting that Austria becomes a snooker-mad nation would be an exaggeration, at least for the moment. But the sport is enjoying an unstoppable rise to a higher level. In that regard, the national snooker and billiards federation OeSBV has just made a huge step forward. The team around president Alexander Pichler has managed to get snooker the status of an officially recognised sport in Austria. Snooker teamed up with other cue sports to form the Oesterreichische Billiard Union (OeBU). Which means, that snooker from now on will be represented and will have a vote in the governing bodies that rule the sports landscape in Austria, and that, for instance, decide about the allocation of financial government aid to training programs for talented young players. Which, above all, means a very prosperous perspective for Austrian snooker.

© text: Eric Willemsen [Vienna]