Referees

Challenges:

Being a referee in any sport isn’t easy. It might look easy but it’s more than meets the eye. For a referee, to oversee and make sure everything goes smoothly and nobody cheats or accidentally fouls, in a pool or snooker tournament is no easy feat.

It takes total concentration for the entire length of the tournament. The referee must be able to be wary of all possible angles to cover before a player makes a shot. He must be vigilant and not get distracted for even a second. One millisecond of a referee’s eyes off the game can cost the validity of a game.

Referees sometimes have to anticipate the players’ moves, so they have to position themselves at the correct position to be able to catch a foul when the player goes down. It is vital that the referee does not move when a player is taking his shot, so positioning himself/herself before the player goes down is a challenge!

On top of that, they have to make sure no passerbys come close to the table with the possibility of knocking any players when they are down.

They also have to make sure that there are no distractions near the table. If its a timed game the referee has to check and voice out just before a player’s turn is up.

Talk about Challenging! 

If its a team event, it is all the more challenging, when there are 20 pairs of eyes watching the game and the referee has to be a step ahead of all of them!

Perks:

Being a referee, you get first-hand experience on how the game of pool/snooker is played. You get hands-on experience in other types of interesting cuesports like billiards, snooker and carom. Your understanding of the game and the physics behind it improves tremendously. You know clearly what is a foul and what isn’t.

Also, you get to meet a lot of people who are in the circuit during tournaments like ranked players, overseas players and overseas referees, and if you are lucky you get to referee overseas as well.

It’s quite a good deal to get paid to watch first hand a professional game of pool/snooker!

If you love this sport and want to experience something new and challenging, being a referee fulfills this.

Steve Chua Hock Chin

ACBS Silver