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Sideline Sid Sports correspondant & historian www.sunlive.co.nz |
A SunLive article late last week grabbed Sideline Sid's attention, which saw him visit the Tauranga Citizens Club on Sunday morning to catch a little of the New Zealand Masters Snooker championship.
Snooker is one of a group of cue sports that have been played in this country, along with billiards and the very popular eight ball on the smaller table. Billiards was introduced to New Zealand in the 1880s, with the first National championships taking place in 1908.
While billiards is still played on occasion, Snooker became a popular pastime in the 1950s and 60s, with every town in New Zealand – big and small – boasting a snooker hall.
In the days of six o'clock closing of hotels, the local snooker room became a popular meeting place. Every snooker den had their local shark waiting to claim any unwary victim that fancied their chances on the green baize.
Snooker halls developed a somewhat unsavory reputation, with most rooms having an illegal bookmaker. It was also the first port of call for visitors wanting a drink in a foreign town, with the local sly grogger likely to be well-known to the locals.
The death of the snooker halls came with the introduction of 10 o'clock closing in the late 1960s and the explosion of growth in snooker tables in Cosmopolitan and Workingman's clubs throughout the country.
New Zealand has produced two international cue sport stars. The first was billiards ace Clark McConachy, who reigned supreme during most of the first half of the 20th century, while Dene O'Kane played on the highly-lucrative World Professional Snooker circuit in the 1980s and 90s.
McConachy won the World Billiards Championship in 1951 and was one of the legends of the three-ball game for over 50 years.
While O'Kane never reached those heights, he twice reached the quarter-finals of the World Championships (in 1987 and 1992) and reached a career high of World Number 18 in 1991/92.
During his professional career he captured the scalps of snooker legends Steve Davis and Stephen Hendry and was the World Snooker Masters titleholder in 2004, 2005 and 2008.
Pot Black, which hit our television screens in the 1970s, saw snooker reach its zenith in New Zealand, with a number of international stars of the sport touring the country's Chartered Clubs to showcase their skills.
Alex 'Hurricane” Higgins, who was the wild-man of the international snooker world, made a tour of New Zealand in the mid 1970s, stopping off at the Mount Maunganui RSA.
Nicknamed Hurricane because of his machine-gun like playing style, he burst onto the world snooker scene in 1972, winning the World Snooker Championship at his first attempt to become the (then) youngest titleholder.
While extremely talented, he generated just as many headlines away from the snooker table. Suspensions from the sport and assaults grabbed the headlines and while he earned millions during his carrier, he reportedly died penniless in 2010.
Hurricane Higgins was one of many world snooker stars that journeyed to New Zealand in the off-season during the 1970s and 80s, before the game declined and eight-ball overtook snooker as the cue-sport of choice.