Carom
ALKMAAR - Jim Anneveldt, a 21 year old Dutch three cushion player from Alkmaar, is one of the young talents in the Netherlands. He was in top three at the Dutch championship for juniors, played the European championship in Brandenburg and is working to develop his three cushion talents.
This young man has a typical opinion about the way three cushion is played, the systems (long distances, sets) and especially the popularity of his sport.
Today (Friday, December 20) the ‘Noord Hollander' published an article in ‘Billiards Netherlands' that billiard players should read.
Here is the text, literally quoted.
Jim Anneveldt:
,,Do you look at the World championship darts? Darts, a sport where you don't need to be a top athlete in top condition to belong to the world top, like billiards.
Why is this sport covered on television by Sky Sports and RTL 7 every day and three cushion never? You can't expect me to believe that it is because of the high speed and the big talent to throw three darts to a board, as I watch it as a representative of a large audience.
But anyway, darts has a huge broadcast on television and the sport still attracts full houses, with a result that the winner is awarded by £ 250.000. That is really unthinkable in billiards, but why?
Intrinsically, darts is not really more fascinating then trying to touch a ball with a wooden stick and hit two other balls on the table.
The answer is quite simple: TENSION and SPECTATORS.
Darts has both and billiards none of the two. Without audience, there is no spectacle and no television, like billiards at this time. Without spectators, even FC Barcelona-Real Madrid is boring, not to speak about Caudron-Blomdahl.
Why do we barely see spectators in a billiard room and do darts players always perform in a full house? One word: TENSION.
We enjoy a billiards match, even when the winner plays over two average and the opponent is far behind at the end: 50-30, or 50-20 for example. What a fantastic match, we say, what a great average. But tension? Not at all, not for one moment. That means: so deadly and boring for a wide audience.
What does billiards need to survive?
The system is really bad for this moments with long matches to 40 or 50 points. There is only one way to keep billiards alive: there must be tension from the start until the end, with hopefully penalty shots to decide the match.
There is always pressure and tension in a darts room, because they play sets and legs to short distances. The 501 needed to win a leg is just enough to keep the match exciting, the audience keeps focused.
Suppose that they made matches to 3001, let's say. We can assure you, there would be no tension, no audience, no televisions, no sponsors. Darts will never make that mistake.
Therefore, I think that we have to make a big move in billiards. We must make our sport more interesting to a wider audience.
The best solution? A set system in major tournaments. And I'm talking about five caroms for each set. We can consider ourselves, how many set wins are needed to win the match. Maybe, if it's necessary, even with penalty shots at the end.
The conclusion: that's what it lacks in billiards, tension, audience, spectacle and ambiance.
With more audience and ambiance, we will surely get television broadcasts. With television broadcasts we will attract sponsors. And with more sponsors, we are able to increase prize money for (top)players.
We can end with: there must be some change to the long distance lengths, if we don't want a painful demise for our great sport. That would be a shame.
I don't want to watch anymore matches with 50-40, 50-30 and 50-18 results. It's boring and makes me sad. Three cushion matches with tension and spectacle, that's what we need to survive. Billiards back on tv, back to the sponsors, we have to believe in it.''