It was the pub that was so quiet that patrons could only hear a ball drop.
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No shouts across the bar, nor no bawdy jokes, either.
The beers went down a lot slower than usual at the Launceston Working Men’s Club and not a drop was spilt, as all attention focused on one last game of snooker.
Late Sunday night aside, there was another reason why no coins were piled up on the edge of the table.
The Australian six-red championships may be a new format to an old game, but weary eyes knew better.
A few lucky snooker aficionados curled around the table, but others were forced to watch from the three monitors just metres away from the championship final.
Among the palpable tension, there was the odd audible moan for missed shots.
Then all of a sudden, polite applause broke out.
The name of the venue may be a working men’s club – or colloquially, the workers – but there were more silky vests hovering around the bar than flannel shirts.
And it may be a pub game, but this one was big enough for two well-dressed commentators to sit on a relocated couch, within distance of a stoking fire, to call the game streaming on the internet.
One commentator utters the word “to precision”, but his colleague corrects it with “to perfection”.
In a game like this, both descriptions appeared apt.
The final tussle between two Tasmanians was no surprise. Local snooker players were drawn to the Australian six-red championships like a moth to its table light.
Raised on pubs around Burnie, Kurt Dunham edged out his North West adversary, Cale Barrett, from Penguin, for not only a national title but boasting in the state.
Both men had been undefeated until Dunham pulled away in the last frame.
“Thanks for the final, Cale, but you gave me a bit of a scare towards the end there,” Dunham said in his speech.
“I started to fall asleep in the end and you nearly took advantage of me.”
Who could blame him after the quarter-finals started at 9:30am and the final ended exactly 12 hours later.
That certainly wasn’t lost on Dunham. “Thanks to everyone for sticking around,” he added, “it’s 10 o’clock on a Sunday night and everyone’s still here.”
Both men had been a part of the 40 round-robin games over Friday and Saturday before reaching the final eight.
To say it was a big weekend for snooker was an understatement as top-seed Dunham promoted the game to every media outlet possible.
But he knew what still mattered in a game among mates.
“On a personal note I’d just like to thank my mate, Dylan,” he said, “he doesn’t have any involvement with snooker, but he’s been here all weekend watching me.”