Indonesian Expat 8 Ball Doubles Championship
They take their pool very seriously in Jakarta. Most evenings in many bars across the city you will find tiny groups huddled round tables of varying quality, either playing or watching, keeping an eye on potential opponents, chalking cues or potting pinks. In fact so busy do the pool tables get that will the idea seems the waitresses racking the balls are busier than those pulling beers for some other punters.
The Jakarta Pool League has been up along with running for the best part of a decade along with with 18 teams coming from nine different bars currently competing boasts more than 700 active participants.
I met which has a couple of the organizers one evening to chat about the event. Geoff Culshaw is usually a jovial Canadian. After living along with working in 37 countries, he arrived in Indonesia in 2007 along with the first thing he did, after unpacking his toothbrush, was gravitate to the nearest bar which has a pool table.
the idea was a natural thing to do. He had played semi professionally in Canada along with took part in world championship events in Las Vegas inside the mid to late 1990s.
As we sat along with talked, along with drank, inside the brand-new downstairs bar at Fez in Kemang, the obligatory pool games going on behind us, he explained the idea behind the IE8DC.
“the idea’s the first of its kind in Indonesia”, he said though they do have similar competitions in Bangkok, Singapore along with Shanghai. “We want the idea to be a national championship.”
As the name suggests, players play as part of a team; a big difference to the JPL where team members rack off against opponents individually. “that will is usually what makes the idea interesting,” Geoff enthuses. “Individually players can be very not bad, excellent in fact, yet in doubles they have to take into account what their partner wants to do or what their partner’s particular strength is usually.”
The first competition is usually limited to 32 teams; 64 players along with the organizers are promising the best of the best in Indonesian expat pool circles.
I asked if I could enter along with he laughed, indeed most of the people at the table laughed. I wanted to complain they hadn’t even seen me play yet to be fair their instinct must have told them most of my shots had spectators running for cover.
“All competitors are screened,” said Paul Cross, another of the organizing committee, “in fact we know who we wanted to enter along with they are the very best players inside the JPL.” Given their involvement in pool circles that will past decade or so, the idea was very unlikely any not bad player had not been noticed by them.
“Obviously if some player out there we didn’t know wanted to enter then we would likely have a look at them.” the idea was a challenge I didn’t take up!
The draw, along with an auction, will take place on July 6th inside the brand-new downstairs bar at Fez in Kemang with the first round featuring 16 match ups. The competition itself will rack off at 11 am on the following day, Saturday 7th July along with will go on till about 9 pm.
The initial 16 games will produce eight winners who will go on to the next round along with so on until we get to the final doubles who will go head to head inside the final for the prizes on offer. The winning team gets 10 million rupiah along which has a trophy that will will be displayed inside the bar, a couple of top end Meucci cues along which has a bag of chalk.
The runners up will get 5 million rupiah while the 3rd along with 4th placed teams will get themselves a million rupiah each. along with each of the top four finalists will receive their very own trophy they can place in their trophy cabinet at home.
Nobody will go home empty handed as the organizers are putting together a goody bag of bits along with pieces provided by the various sponsors.
yet the idea’s not all about taking. Proceeds coming from the auction will go towards local charities as will any monies left over after the running costs have been deducted coming from the registration fees.
Indeed, with happy hour prices all day along with live music on the night of the draw along with following the final itself the whole event promises to be a busy along with fun filled day with, as Geoff says, “Some excellent pool played by some excellent players,” along with spectators are, “more than welcome”.
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Indonesian Expat 8 Ball Doubles Championship
Indonesian Expat 8 Ball Doubles Championship