German Juniors Championships 2007

[oymyakon]

Today 8:30 a.m. started this years German Under 19 Championship, Friday will follow Under 21, both at Bad Wildungen, Hessen in a joint event with pool, carom and 5 pins.

Germans (and all other insiders), please make your prediction on the winners of both snooker events. Without P.Einsle (Main Tour) this year the competition is a little bit more open and to find an answer is harder, I know.....

[oymyakon]

Alright, after thousands of posts the voting for U19 now is closed. )
Bavarian Stefan Kasper has won the final 3:0 against Roman Dietzel from Essen.
New talent Armin Schmidt (Hessen) took third place, pool player Thomas Luettich from Hannover as well.
Congrats to Stefan & all placed ones!

If you know Stefan, do you think he'll get the double?

[Maija]

I know next to nothing about the German snooker scene, only a few names that I've snapped up here and there. There was this young fella who played one of the pros at an exhibition in Bochum that apparently is quite good, and won the Jugendmeisterschaft in some Bundesland. Yusuf Nawabi? Does it ring a bell? I just read a newspaper report, and I'm not sure really whether he played Hendry, Stevens or Ding. I think he was 15? I don't think I saw his name on the list of players for this event, though.

That's about everything I can say about the German Nachwuchsszene, sorry for the randomness

[oymyakon]

Oh, his birthday was some days ago and now he's 16. Yusuf has won some german juniors events and also one of 'german open snooker ranking'. He is actually the North Germany Juniors Champion. Don't know exactly, if and on which exhibition he played, but maybe Bochum. Do you have the right list? He plays both events at Bad Wildungen.
In Lasse's and Patrick's coat-tail there are to be some several new faces at Germany's juniors sky. Now its an interesting phase where several youth players aspire to upstairs.
Maija, for a Norwegian you know quite a bit of German juniors scene. If any then the germans here should apologise....

[Maija]

Oh, his birthday was some days ago and now he's 16. Yusuf has won some german juniors events and also one of 'german open snooker ranking'. He is actually the North Germany Juniors Champion. Don't know exactly, if and on which exhibition he played, but maybe Bochum. Do you have the right list? He plays both events at Bad Wildungen.

Oh, well, I had gotten the gist of it, if not well enough to sit a test on the subject *g* Hm. No, then I didn't see the right list(s), but I only did a very quick search whilst cooking dinner. Those open events, those are the GOSRs, or what? (I'm still learning, but always interested in picking up new information!) He definitely played in Bochum (28.02.07), and it looks like he played Ding. I cannot find the article anymore.

In Lasse's and Patrick's coat-tail there are to be some several new faces at Germany's juniors sky. Now its an interesting phase where several youth players aspire to upstairs.

I don't know about the others, but if you've got the time and could be bothered to type it up, I'd love a short lecture on the subject? Pretty please? I'll toss in a sugar-coated snooker player ontop to make it worth the hassle!

Maija, for a Norwegian you know quite a bit of German juniors scene. If any then the germans here should apologise....

Ah, nevermind me, I'm not normal

[oymyakon]

Doesn't matter. I'll try to explain.
GOSR - independent tournament series for all players with german domicile. Events run nearly every weekend in all over Germany (synchronistically several at different locations). There are 4 species of tournaments (4 different levels) with Grand Prix as the highest level ( 5 Grand Prix per season). All in all there are hundreds of tournaments and nearly 900 players including all top players. Top 4 are qualified for German Championship.

Yes, at the photo this is Yusuf.

Juniors:
3 (4) important building sites:
1) district (you said it correctly: Bundesländer) championships
2) German Championships
3) German Juniors Cup (tournament series for juniors at several venues in Germany).
(4)) some of the juniors are playing at (open) team leagues (regional or 'Bundesliga')

Armin Schmidt - age:14, district 'Hessen', Hessen-champion, participant EC U19 2007
Stefan Kasper - age: 18 i think, district 'Bavaria (Bayern)', several Bavarian juniors titles, has won 6 GOSR-tournaments season 06/07 til today, participant EC U19 2007, German juniors champion U19 2007, first century 09/2006: 114
Roman Dietzel - age: 16 i think, district 'Westfalen', several district juniors titles
Patrick Einsle - age: 19, district 'Bavaria', several German juniors titles, participant several ec's and (ibsf-)wc's, world games, main tour 06/07.
Marco Lützen - age: 17 i think, German U19 champion 2005, several North Germany juniors titles.
Yusuf Nawabi - age: 16, district North Germany, district champion U19 & U21 2006 and 2007.

Think, for a start they are the most important - hope i didn't forget anybody....

[Maija]

Thanks for the info! Much appreciated. So Germany really is all that it has been said to be (I never trust the Eurosport comments *g*) concerning snooker activity. So - is the PHC still counted as one of the GPs? From what I've read, I'd think not, seeing as the participation is restricted, according to which criteria, I have no idea.

I've heard of Schmidt, Einsle (of course) and Nawabi, but it is all quite random, as I don't really follow the German snooker forums that closely, I just pick up things 'along the road'.

Just a wee comparison to how things are up here: The Norwegian Championship will be held in two weeks, and so far 6 people have signed up for it. Last year there were 20 players. A grand (sic!) total of 44 players (2 women) signed up for different snooker tournaments last year.

Nice little conversation we've got here

[oymyakon]

Oh, whats the reason for so low interest in championships? But....it's not evening of all days yet. Look around all over the world, a lot of countries in the beginning or on and off had such problems.

PHC is a self-contained tournament besides all other events. Neither it is subject to gosr nor to other regimentations.

Norwegian commentator speaks about german snooker activities? Alright, then we are on the right way....

Do you know how many players there are at Norway? (all in all)

...very nice conversation......

[Maija]

No, I have no idea how many players there are here, but with 900 players out of your population of 82 million, and our of 4,6, we should have 51,75 players (Though maths was never my fave subject, feel free to pick on my calculations!) We're getting there *gg*

When I said that the Norwegian commentator had been talking about Germany, it was just in terms of snooker being popular there, though he might've mentioned Einsle, not sure.

I wonder if the efforts of the new snooker centre in Berlin will effct just the local players, or if it will become a national centre. Hope they'll have success, at any rate.

Speaking of öhm nothing of the kind, here is an observation about us snooker fans: "Der Snooker-Fan raucht, isst Currywurst und hat die Haare schön." I do hope that only applies to the Ruhrpott ones! Sounds rather ... proll.

[oymyakon]

I don't check the numbers and affirm that you are right
One footer all the same: Altogether in germany there are 2.500 snooker players.

Certainly the Berlins will boost their club and Berlin scene (and thereby i wish them all the best) but there's also a german community factor. Beside all competition and sporting fights, discussions and disagreements community knows about generally useful activities. In germany there are existing a lot of centres with 8,9 or 10 tables, but capacities of 13 (and later 18 and anymore) now featuring only 2 centres (Berlin and Ulm). We eventually all will take advantage of it. Or in other words: Munich and Hamburg anytime eventually also will take advantage of bigger centres elsewhere. Furthermore some things will be planned together by most important german figures.

If you want longer name, how about this one:
Snookerverein BerlinMittenahePotsdamerPlatz

( your german sentence: ) there are statements which are sweeping over my ears - and others which I completely don't hear.
....odd stuff....

[oymyakon]

For the sake of completeness this supplement...
Bavarian Stefan Kasper completed the german juniors double by winning also the U21 competition. In an identical line up as well as U19 he defeated Roman Dietzel 3:1. Congrats to him and tribute to both on german juniors predominance!

[Maija]

So Kasper won the U19 and the U21? Plus it said somewhere that he's from Austria and not Bayern? Am confused now! :/

Anyhow: Congrats to mr Kasper!

Edit: just read the snookerblog.de and figured it out.

The final was the same for both U21 and U19? I find it a bit strange that they are allowed to enter in both categories, to be honest.

[oymyakon]

I talked to him several times and he sounded like a Bavarian. Maybe he was born in Austria, but he plays at Memmingen snooker club, so in all probability he lives in Germany.
Tirol and Bavaria have a lot in commen but there's a national border in between both.

I can't find any indication of his pretended austrian provenance on this site. Where did you've seen that?

U19 - all players from 1 to 18 are entitled.
U21 - all players from 1 to 20 are entitled.
Stefan is 18 years old.

[oymyakon]

Maija, did found the post you mean (snookermania forum). As aforementioned, I don't know his relation to Austria, but I'm sure there isn't something strange. If you have german domicile and pay taxes there you are entitled to play german championships. I haven't watched the Kurt Maflin career in detail, but weren't there any discussions on his Norway belonging? I'll keep my eyes peeled for this subject, if I know more I'll let you know.

EDIT: Maybe austrian girl can help us to proceed. austrian girl, do you have details on it? Thx!!

[Maija]

Naeh, probably just some Austrian 'claiming him' due to Bavaria being so close to them. Bavaria always had closer ties to the Austrians than to the Preussians anyway... I woaß ned!

Hey, that means that I can play in the German championships, as I still have an address in Köln. I think I'd be better off playing in the veryveryvery local house championships, though.

I haven't seen any discussions around Maflin and whether he plays for Norway or for England, but as long as he's comfortable with being labelled a viking (ha ha), he's more than welcome!

U19 - all players from 1 to 18 are entitled.
U21 - all players from 1 to 20 are entitled.

What I meant is that it might be a bit unfair on the U19s that players with what borders on 3 years more experience can snatch "their" title away. Maybe it would be better for the youngster scene if they had to choose which class they were to play in? But maybe that's just my social democratic ways showing there.