I won't deny that perhaps it really takes quite some skill to play this game well. Unlike the other sports, being physically strong doesn't necessarily mean you can play well. A good eyesight is probably more important. [Which reminds me, what is so fun about shooting down flying saucers or mock birds? A great sense of achievement from destroying everything you see flying before you?] Anyway, I think the fact that you don't need physical fitness probably explains the number of beanpoles I saw at the snooker place yesterday. Oh, since you'll need to bend down in order to aim, a flexible waist and back is probably quite helpful too. Which explains why the beanpoles can play better than slightly pudgy people like erm.....me....

The game is actually quite cute, the idea being to using The Stick to hit The White Ball so that The White Ball can go on and hit the other balls, of different colours to represent different points to be scored if the coloured balls fall into any of the 6 pockets around the table. There are a lot of rules, one of which is that after The White Ball has been hit by The Stick, it has to hit at least one of the other balls. And there are even rules as to which balls The White Ball cannot hit before hitting the balls that it can hit. Argh, sounds confusing right? No prize for guessing that I tend to get penalised for this, simply because as more balls have been pocketed, it's increasingly harder to hit anything at all.

I think most of the people like to play this game, [assuming there are a lot of people who like to play this game,] because one, there is a great sense of achievement from making balls drop into holes. Same feeling as when you play golf then, I presume. Two, probably because the balls look very attractive, being coloured and stuff. Notice except for the soccer ball, almost all other balls are in dull boring colours. Three, the most likely reason of all, they probably feel this is a stylo-mylo game. It helps that in the international snooker tournaments, the competitors have to wear some vest or something or they'll be disqualified. Ooohh.. When one of my brother's friends was asked why he plays like he has intense hatred for the balls, he said, "Aiyah, like that when the ball falls in, looks better mah."

There's also this very unique competitiveness in this game. When my brother failed to pocket one of the easy shots, making it even easier for his competitor, he went like," Don't go in, don't go in, don't go in..." Only short of pacing around the table in a Taoist robe...I don't like that, a little of kiasu-ism there I think...

Then there's this rule about the coloured balls, that there is a sequence at which they are pocketed. If the wrong balls falls into the pocket instead, you will be penalised. So it turns out that at one part of the game yesterday, The White Ball and three other colored balls were concentrated at this particular pocket area, where the wrong ball was blocking the way of the correct ball, so what the players were waiting for was for each other to make a mistake and pocket the wrong ball. Remember the rule about having to hit at least one ball? So you see these 4 guys crowding around that corner, taking turns to tap The White Ball lightly with The Stick so that the yellow ball can be hit but without causing the pink ball to fall in. Wow.....such skill, such accuracy, such dedication...such stupidity..sigh..

Oh yes, not to mention the blue chalk that they put religiously on the tip of The Stick. I think there is a function behind that, something like to make the contact between The Stick and The White Ball more balanced I think....but when I asked yesterday, nobody knew. Sigh...

Yes, this game is all about style, about looking cool, about putting little coloured balls into little pockets.