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Part time snooker player with full time enthusiasm

The Young Reporter (2000, March), 32(06), pp. 6.
記者: Chan King-on.
永久網址 - https://sys01.lib.hkbu.edu.hk/bujspa/purl.php?&did=bujspa0014722

Chan King-on

BEING a snooker maniac, he is one of the seven international Grade A referees with Hong Kong residency and approved to be a coach. As the Chairman of Hong Kong Billiards & Snooker Control Council, Law Chun-ying always said, “Snooker is so funny.”

“It seems to me that snooker is relevant with geometry and mechanics whenever the ball is surfing on the mat. Of course, snooker is a challenging game too,” Law said.

An irregular snooker table in a Catholic primary school made the first touch between snooker and Law when he was 9. In fact, he did not play real snooker until the age of 20. All his techniques and strategies came from self-learning such as reading books or observation in other matches. He just grasped all he got.

Even though he received no formal training, Law still had great results in his career. He recorded a high-break of 129 points during training and 117 points during competition.

“I was the first runner-up of Hong Kong Premier League 1990 and the second-runner up of the Hong Kong Open Competition twice, as well as some minor competitions,” he said.

“However, it’s a pity that I have never won a major competition,”he continued.

A two-leg match which with home and away in 1979 made Law unforgettable. “I was concentrated so hard that I didn’t know what happened around while I was playing. After that, I was told there were almost 200 people watching the game.”

However, it is surprising that such a senior and an expert in snooker chooses to be a full-time pharmacist, rather than concentrating in snooker. “I was too late to get in touch with ‘real’ snooker. Also, the background of snooker during the 60’s was really complicated, and I dared not to get involved,” he explained.

Law added that the facilities at that time were not enough, it was more suitable to treat snooker as an interest and amusement.

Certainly the facilities of snooker in Hong Kong are improving nowadays. As Neville Jeung Siu-hin mentioned, the vice-chairman of Hong Kong Billiards & Snooker Control Council, the co-operation between the Urban Council and the Hong Kong Billiards & Snooker Control Council in 1999 was a good try. Now they still offer training courses to the youths and hope that the new generation can learn more about snooker positively.

But what they have to work harder on is the image of snooker, as people still think that snooker is not a pleasant activity, even though snooker fever swept over Hong Kong when Marco Fu Ka-chun and his teammates won the gold medal in the Asian Games last year.

“Thanks to the media and those film producers, they always link the crimes with snooker, especially the triad societies,” Law commended, “This makes our effort zero.”

Law also thought that there were still plenty of scope to promote snooker in Hong Kong because it is suitable for Asians to participate, as this sport requires lesser physical ability than other sports, like basketball or soccer.

“Actually people should be aware that ‘heart’ is the most important. One should have passion in snooker, and not only focus on the results,” Law added.

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