Snooker masters in town

BACK FOR MORE: Alex Nanai, who will compete in the masters championship in Gisborne this weekend, lines up his shot at the Snooker Sun City Open last month. Picture by Paul Rickard

A field of 40 will contest the Gisborne round of the New Zealand masters snooker circuit this weekend.

The tournament at the Gisborne Cosmopolitan Club starts tomorrow and runs for three days.

Steve Wood, who has organised the event sponsorship, said $4000 of prizemoney would be up for grabs.

The masters is for people aged 40-plus and the tournament has a handicap system, giving more people a realistic shot at winning.

Wood said some people travelled in campervans to various events on the masters circuit, including to Gisborne.

“It’s good fun,” he said.

“They’re a real social bunch of people and have come from the length and breadth of New Zealand to play.”

Wood said snooker was a tactical sport — “a game of chess with balls”.

Players had to think two or three moves ahead.

Though the players enjoyed each other’s company, they would flick the switch and go into competition mode.

“It does get competitive — very intense.”

There’s free entry for people who want to watch.

Gisborne’s Pang Yee won the championship section of the handicap singles event last year.

The Cosmopolitan Club will be a busy place this weekend, as it is also hosting a darts tri-series tournament.

The KISS tournament is between the Gisborne Cosmopolitan Club, New Lynn RSA and the South Wairarapa Working Men’s Club, Greytown.

KISS takes its name from the initials of its founding members — Kevin Dearness, from Gisborne, Ivan (Stumpy) Hunt, from Greytown, and Percy (Sandy) Wilson, of New Lynn.