• St. Petersburg - First Impressions

    Global Snooker's Janie Watkins reports live from St. Petersburg in the build up to the 2009 European Team Snooker Championships

    WOW! that is my first impression of the historic city of St. Petersburg. We arrived in a blizzard and it's not stopped snowing since, so we certainly know we're in Russia!

    And it's another jaw-dropping WOW as we reach the venue, The Leader Billiard Club. But it's so much more than that. Anywhere in the world you can envisage your local club, or complex, but you've never seen anything like this.

    One hundred and twenty 9-ball pool tables stretch as far as the eye can see and they're in full swing today as the Russian Youth Championships are in progress.

    Beyond them are 14 full size Russian Pyramids tables, also very busy and there are several smaller size pyramids tables too.

    Alongside that are laid out twenty WIK tournament snooker tables ready for the European Team and the European Under 19 snooker championships. Each has its own modern lighting rig, so there should be no problems with lighting, that have sometimes cursed events around the world.

     

    Linked to every table is an electronic Wiraka scoreboard and EBSA's technical genius Darisz Goral has linked every board to a live scoring system for the event. Russia's Alexey Pekshev has set up all the webcasting facilities and there will be live streaming of matches also.

    The venue adjoins a superb shopping mall, full of international and local cuisine restaurants. the Irish eyes are smiling already as they've found Molly Malone's, one of three Irish theme pubs in the city.

    Also at the venue we can enjoy roller blading, bowling alleys, childrens play areas, a casino and countless bars and restaurants. It is the ultimate all-in-one venue.

    The downside will be that alarm clocks will be ringing very early in the mornings to get players and officials from the hotels. The St. Petersburg traffic is a total nightmare, bumper to bumper gridlock at most times of the day, and that's despite a massive set up of wide multi lane roads.

    One the way from the airport through the rush hour we witnessed two smashes and a lorry caught fire just alongside us!

    The opening ceremony for the event is a 20.00 hours local time (that's GMT +3 hours at the moment). We will bring you all the news and photos from that and from tomorrow check back regularly for the latest news, results and photographs from another great European Festival of Snooker.

    GALLERY 1 - First Impressions

    EUROPEAN TEAM CHAMPIONSHIP INDEX