The Yangtze River Delta Employee Billiards Tournament brings together folk experts to compete in Shanghai and Shanghai, with international gold medal referees joining the representative team | Employees | Yangtze River Delta

After a fierce competition lasting for 5 days, the third "Shanghai Huangpu Cup" Urban Workers Billiards Invitational Tournament in the Yangtze River Delta region, jointly hosted by the Shanghai Federation of Trade Unions and the Shanghai Sports Bureau, recently concluded at the Huangpu District Workers' Stadium. In the end, the specially invited representative team of the Chaoyang District Federation of Trade Unions in Beijing defeated the representative team of the Yancheng City Federation of Trade Unions in Jiangsu Province and won the championship.

This competition adopts a mixed team format of American billiards, with 3 men and 1 woman from each team participating. A total of 14 prefecture level city trade union representative teams from Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Shanghai, and Anhui provinces and cities, as well as 3 specially invited representative teams - the Chaoyang District Federation of Trade Unions in Beijing, the Miyun District Federation of Trade Unions in Beijing, and the Yushan County Federation of Trade Unions in Jiangxi Province participated. The competition is divided into two stages, the first stage is a round robin round robin, and the second stage is a single elimination round robin. The competition is fierce, and there have been penalty shootouts in both the semi-finals and finals. In the final, the Beijing Chaoyang District Federation of Trade Unions and the Jiangsu Yancheng Federation of Trade Unions drew 3-3. In a tense penalty shootout, the Beijing Chaoyang District Federation of Trade Unions seized the opportunity and won the championship trophy.

Li Zheng, a representative of the Beijing Chaoyang District Federation of Trade Unions, holds three positions: team leader, coach, and team member. He said that although it is a staff competition, the level of competition has reached professional standards, and even more professional than some professional competitions. "Chinese billiards is very popular now, and we usually participate in some competitions. However, many Chinese billiards games in China are played in billiards rooms, while 'Huangpu Cup' is played in sports arenas. The atmosphere and experience of the entire competition are completely different."

Li Zheng sighed that there are many professional billiards competitions in China now, but in terms of national fitness and staff billiards, the organizers of this tournament, the Billiards Professional Committee of the Shanghai Workers' Culture and Sports Association and the Pudong New Area Billiards Association, have played an important role. With the help of the professional level and competition mode of this competition, Li Zheng stated that after returning to Beijing, he will contact the Beijing Federation of Trade Unions to strive to promote the staff billiards competition to Beijing.

The representative team of the Yancheng City Federation of Trade Unions in Jiangsu Province won the runner up in their first competition. Team leader Sang Jian introduced, "The team was temporarily built and not formed for a long time. We were already very satisfied with entering the semi-finals, but there were still some small regrets in the final championship and runner up finals. We did not fully cooperate, and the tacit understanding between the team members has not been established yet."

Sang Jian expressed his special gratitude to the local union for their involvement in the competition. "The entire event, whether it was reception, organization, or referee team, has met the standards of international competitions. We have also made many friends with common interests as club friends. With the help of the union, we will continue to participate in the Yangtze River Delta and national employee billiards competitions."

Although it is only a staff billiards event, in order to ensure fairness and justice, the organizing committee of this event has specially equipped a team of high-level referees. International Gold Medal referee Zhu Ying serves as the chief referee, and international level referee Shi Jialong serves as the deputy chief referee. Both have years of experience as referees in world-class competitions.

Zhuying told reporters that the biggest difference between employee billiards and top tier individual player competitions lies in the team's sense of collective honor. "Everyone communicates and encourages each other, working together for the honor of the team. One detail is that our staff will remind players who have already played games to go eat at noon to leave time for rest or prepare for the afternoon game. However, in each team, players who have completed the early stages of the game will basically not leave, stay to watch their teammates play and encourage their teammates. It can be said that the competition not only enriches the employees' leisure life, but also deepens emotional communication and exchange among colleagues."

Zhu Ying admitted that in order to increase communication among staff players, the first stage is a group round robin competition, so that participating teams have more opportunities to compete with other teams. The second stage is a single defeat knockout match. "After the difficulty increases, there are many intense scenes in the competition, which is no less than some professional games. Moreover, it can be clearly felt that staff players have a purer love for billiards, and many players say they want to book spots for next year's Yangtze River Delta or national competitions."

Previously, the 9th "Huangpu Cup" Shanghai Employee Billiards Team Tournament of the 2023 Shanghai Urban Amateur League, which lasted for 9 days, had just concluded on the same field. For a full two weeks, there have been two consecutive high-quality staff billiards events in a back-to-back "drama" style. The enthusiasm for participation and the intensity of the competition schedule have also announced that the staff billiards sport, which once occupied half of China's billiards territory, has come out of its slump and is gradually showing a trend of returning to its peak.