The popularity of snooker continues to scale new heights with four major billiard events taking place almost in succession in major cities across China. Starting with the 2013 Haikou World Open in Hainan in February, closely followed by the 2013 China Open and the opening of a new CBSA Snooker Academy in Beijing in March. Last but not least, Guangzhou hosted the 7th Guangzhou International Billiards Exhibition (GBE2013) in early April.
Once again in both of the World Snooker events, the 2013 Haikou World Open and the 2013 China Open, Strachan cloth was chosen as the preferred playing surface. At the 2013 Haikou World Open, Mark Allen successfully defended his 2012 title by beating Matthew Stevens 10-4 in the finals while at the 2013 China Open, Neil Robertson weathered a strong fight back by Mark Selby to win 10-6. Mark Selby also narrowly missed a 147 break in the early round of the tournament when he missed sinking the final black.
“We are proud to continue a tradition which started in 1980 of providing consistent, high quality snooker cloth for World Snooker’s ranking events, that enables top players to perform at their highest level” said E J Goh, Asia Marketing Manager for the Strachan cloth.
He added, “we are also very excited and proud to welcome Judd Trump as Brand Ambassador for Strachan and we congratulate Jack Lisowski, a rising player who wore the Strachan 6811 badge on his success in making it to the quarter-finals in his first China Open.”
In early April, the China Guangzhou International Billiards Exhibition (GBE2013) once again played host to both local and overseas trade visitors from the billiard industry. The high level of activity created by up to 10,000 visitors is confirmation that the outlook for the billiard industry in China remains positive.
EJ Goh reports that in a maturing market there is a greater emphasis on high quality products. Billiard clubs and table producers recognise using Strachan 6811 will help deliver better value to their downstream customers.
