By Oleksandr HONCHARUK, The Day
Of course, many of us still recall the development of mass billiards. Almost
in every village club had a rickety pool table with broken pockets bearing
the traces of cheap unfiltered cigarettes being put out. But today, stepping
into Kyiv's Green Glade Club, with its posh tables for the game once popular
among us, old prints on the walls, and quiet luxurious interior, you begin
to understand the British aristocrats who relax in their exclusive clubs,
whiling away the time playing billiards or cards.
Green Glade's elite character is not concealed by its general director
Natalia Mahdyk who received journalists attending a press conference on
the occasion of the first international amateur billiards tournament between
the teams of the embassies and other diplomatic representations accredited
to Kyiv.
Volodymyr Platonov, First Vice President of the Ukraine's National Olympic
Committee and Rector of the National University of Physical Training, again
stressed that this game is regaining its lost popularity. As we know, he
was the first in the world to offer in his educational institution special
training for billiards umpires. He also invited to his university a well-known
expert in this field, President of the World Billiards Confederation JЯrgen
Sandman from Sweden. The game is likely to again become a mass diversion
owing to their desire and energy. The more so that, in order to popularize
the game, it is already planned to hold the European pool and billiards
championship in 2000 in Kyiv.







