We visit the Sanctuary – KCC bounce back in the doubles W O RD S: G O RD O N RO BINS O N, SN O O KER@ RHK YC.O RG .HK | IM AGES: KC C
Other Sports Alfred Lau, Jonathan Collier, Marcus Tang, John Greene (KCC) Gordon Robinson, Jeff Tong, Sanjay Nainani (KCC) Scott Lau (KCC) David Fan, Kam Daryanani (KCC), Ronnie Osmund (KCC)
n 19 August six of our intrepid snooker players made their way to the hallowed premises of the Kowloon Cricket Club’s snooker room. Tucked away in the lowest level of the clubhouse, this temple to the game is understandably named The Sanctuary. Undoubtedly the best by a long way of the club snooker set-ups we have seen. We marveled at the three tables in two separate but connected areas, raised viewing seating around each; at the beautiful condition of the tables, of the glittering shiny balls; at the cue lockers and racks; the full-service bar. There’s even a glass cabinet of ancient snooker artifacts – ivory balls, brass gadgets for repairing cues – adding to the historical feel. Because, indeed, the history of KCC snooker is here writ large through the brass-plate records of the many in-house and inter-club competitions held here over the years. Appropriately, KCC provides this living museum with a full-time staff member, who is at once curator, caretaker, barman, maintenance man, score marker and will play with you if you have no partner. Not that we were overawed or cowed into early submission by all this, or by the high reputation of our opponents. Indeed, a competent display enabled us to go to dinner with a 4-2 lead after the six singles games. It must have been the copious and excellent dinner that did for our concentration, for afterwards we slumped to a 5-4 defeat by dint of losing all three doubles games. Afterwards, despite the hour, some played on into the night, so enjoyable was the occasion. We shall invite KCC to a return match, preferably before year-end, but we shall be hard put to come anywhere near returning their hospitality in kind, given our limited facilities. We need to come up with something special!
Top: General view of The Sanctuary; Above: Refuelling OCTOBER 2021 AHOY! |
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