It is with great sadness that I have to start off another article with the devastating news that another one of our fellow snooker player, Fabian Fisher, had passed away at the end of May this year. Fabian had been a long-standing member of CGSA and the Wanderers Snooker section and had represented the Association at numerous events through the years. His friendly demeanor and competitiveness will be sorely missed by his fellow league and provincial players and we will treasure all the wonderful memories he has left behind. Our deepest sympathies and most sincere condolences go out to his family and friends.
The Gert Muller Pairs Tournament was played during the first weekend in June at Innesdale Club in Pretoria. Central Gauteng and Wanderers was well represented at the event and had two teams in the Semi-finals. Fakhrie Gierdien and Craig Heath clinched a nail biter to progress to the finals, while Faraad James and Segren Naidoo narrowly lost out to the eventual winners of the event.
Bradley Richards and Munier Cassim played very good Snooker on the day and ended up beating Fakhrie and Craig in the final of the event. Fakhrie also ended up making the highest break of the tournament, knocking in a 63.
Congratulations to the 2017 champions and well done to all the players who took part and performed well. Congratulations to Innesdale Club as well for hosting a very successful event.
On the 1st and 2nd of July, Wanderers Club will be playing host to the Annual HRSCC Walker Cup, while Emperors Snooker Club in Sasolburg will host the Ibinson Cup event. Both these events consist of 6-man teams representing their provinces’ A- and B-Teams respectively. I look forward to bringing you results from these events, which have been mostly dominated by Central Gauteng over the last decade.
I would like to also remind all our social players that the Snooker Room will not be available for social play over that weekend, but you are welcome to come and watch some exciting snooker being played by the top players in the province. The Central Gauteng Snooker Association League fixtures are also running smoothly and the season is now approaching the halfway mark. The competition is very tough this year and there are still a number of teams that are in contention at this stage. I will be updating you with the latest standings in the next edition of the newsletter.
Central Gauteng and the Wanderers Club will again be hosting the SA Masters Championships from 19 – 22 July and I look forward to bringing you results from this prestigious event as well.
Yours in Snooker
Hugo Lotriet