the German Masters 2012 - in rearview mirror

the German Masters 2012 - in rearview mirror

(a.k.a. Hello world, welcome to my first blog ever - yes, really!) 
pre-scriptum: My mother tongue is German. Dont bite me for miss takes mistakes. :)

well done, Ronnie!

I just came home from the German Masters 2012 and thought i would be a nice idea if I write some thoughts about it and throw it in the infernal abyss of data, known as the Internet. It was the second time in my life, that i saw live snooker, after the inaugural tournament in 2011. As I was there for Saturday and Sunday, so I saw both half-finals and both sessions of the final.

outside the venue

you may guessed it... inside the venue

But I dont want to waste much time about the games itself. Yes it was amazing snooker, and everyone who is interested, either saw the games or he/she knows where proper summaries can be found (I highly recommend Pro Snooker Blog, Dave Hendons Snookerscene Blog and Maximum Snooker.com, but Eurosport or British newspapers should do it as well).

What I want to focus is the organisation, the atmosphere, and, of course, showing you some photos I was able to take.

So lets start with the audience. While I can't compare it to other legendary Snooker venues, like Crucible, Wembley Conferecne Centre etc., I do can say that the atmosphere was great. Almost all people I sat near to or talked with while the weekend were not only enthusiastic, but also well-educated about the rules, the players, the tactics etc. People came from far away: e.g. I met people from Bavaria (which is ~600 km away from Berlin), from Austria (even farer), one Englishmen, and according to Rolf Kalb (Master of Ceremony and THE (!) german snooker commentator) there were even people from Chile, South America in the venue. According to the commentary there were 2500 spectators, but I didnt counted to prove. in one word: atmosphere was BRILLIANT.

Trickshots by Steve Davis

The biggest improvement of the tournament in comparison with last year was the appearance of Steve Davis, who played trickshots before both sessions of the final day (around 20 minutes before the afternoon and around 35 minutes before the evening session). While the match-snooker is much about tactics, elegance and psychology (and i really enjoy that!), he added a major entertaining component, which I enjoyed as well. And on top of that he also gave autogpahes after the match, which was a nice bonus as well. Probably we won't see him on a ranking final again, but he is not only a legend, but a PROFESSIONAL (little insider for people who were at the venue ;)

So you can argue that the slightly increased ticket prizes (I think it was ~10 Euros more expensive than last year for a dayticket) were legitimate. I guess next year it will be a little more expensive again, as there were almost no empty places in the arena. Capitalism. Supply and Demand. not hard to figure out...

Steve just signs my father's cuecase.
invisible (because behind the camera): me

I already mentioned the autographs: Ronnie wasnt there (I already kind of expected that to be honest), Stephen Maguire was there even twice (Saturday and Sunday night), moreover I grabbed signatures by Michaela Tabb, Rolf Kalb, and as said above, Steve 'The Nugget' Davis. It was a large queue waiting for them, so it took a while, but the atmosphere was calm and chilled.

What really surpsied me, was Martin Gould, who lost in the earlier rounds of the tournament, but was present almost all the time at the autograph table. Before the sessions, after the sessions, maybe even while, but I was watching snooker in that time, so I cant say.

results.

Well... what else to say? It was damn f**king cold, the Mexican restaurant around the corner was pretty good and we have to state, that Rolf Kalb is an excellent commentator for television, but announcing players like boxers is not his cup of tea. But all in all it was a great weekend, and I hope I will be back next year.

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