Pattaya City had a very rare event on Saturday night July 21st last year. The three time world champion and three time runner up snooker champion of the world graced the grand opening of the club sport’s bar at the weekender hotel in north Pattaya on 2nd road, close to Big C. You need to understand that Mr. Jimmy White is “Thee” champion snooker player among all the snooker players in the world and he has won more often and been among the top snooker players every year for approximately twenty years. Champion snooker players come and go and you never hear from them again. Mr. Jimmy White has always been among the very top players on the international snooker tours. He is the one and only champion in the very exciting world of snooker and pool players.
I asked him why did he come to “little old Pattaya”? He said that he was asked to come by his life long friends Mr. Peter Mc Carty and Mr. Dechan Lyons, owner/managers of the “Club Sports Bar” to help with the grand opening.
How lucky we were to be at the grand opening and witness the excitement, thrills and drama of the tournament that night. Hundreds of men and women from around the world traveled long distances for this tournament and the extremely rare change to play fun pool against “Thee” champ, Mr. Jimmy White from England. Mr. White played the game with his devout fans and demonstrated his extreme magical skills and his great sportsmanship.
There was one shot where the last ball to win the game was sitting in the pocket. It just had to be tapped into the pocket. It could have been a straight-in shot. It was an easy shot. Almost anybody could make that shot. Mr. Jimmy White decided to give the crowd a thrill and to demonstrate his skill. Instead of just shooting the ball straight into the pocket, he banked or bounced the ball off of two cushions or sides of the pool table. Everybody went absolutely silent. Everybody stopped breathing as the ball ever so slowly rolled, like it was being pulled by magic, across the full length of the pool table and kissed the eight ball and it fell into the pocket to win the game. The crowd went wild with applause, whistles, hoots, hollers, laughter, groans and sighs.
Another event was a game of pool between two champions; Mr. Jimmy white and Mr. Pairat Suthithamrongsawas, our very own city mayor. Mr. White again demonstrated his sportsmanship by giving Mayor Pairat some friendly suggestions on how to succeed at making certain very difficult shots. The Mayor was very successful. The game got down to two balls and the Mayor sank them both to win the game and the crowd loved it.
He is gone now. The tournament was an event to remember for years to come. “The Club Sport’s Bar” is still there, of course, and the thrills can be experienced or witnessed again and again on the big movie screen theater for all the live sporting events of the world. You might want to stop by the club and just sit and have a drink and play pool on the championship pool table “Thee Champ” played and imagine you’re playing against him for the championship of the world. Ha Ha Ha
Pattaya City is lucky to have had the World Champion visit for one day. What is going to happen next in Pattaya City? Maybe, we could host the World Boxing Championship at Pattaya’s Convention Center on the hill at the royal Cliff Resort.
|
