Novuss - interesting version of carrom played in Latvia

"Carrom" is not mispelled - it is actually a set of games which are possibly ancestrally related to billiards. It is played on a small board, with "pockets" in the corners, and you use your fingers to snap your stricker (i.e. cue ball) into the other game pieces to try to make them into holes. Carrom is thought to have originated in India or Pakistan, although surely some other similar game existed before that, just like billiards came from an indoor version of croquet or similar game. I do find it interesting that the name of the game is carrom, in my opinion very likely to be etymologically linked to the billiards term "carom".

I was in Riga, Latvia for a couple of days and while walking around the old town came upon this :

Novuss table, Riga, Latvia

Now I had seen carrom tables before. In fact I even played a bit of carrom in Germany - but what I had played was the "standardized" carrom game, which most definitely did not use a cue, and the table was smaller - more on standardized carrom on wikipedia.
Here I was at the wild frontier of cue sports, unable to play or even learn about this game, as the establishment to which it belonged was closed for the day.
I did do some basic research later when I rejoined the soothing internet bubble. The game is called Novuss, it is quite popular in Estonia and Latvia, to the point where semi-pro or even pro players exist. Fifty-five thousand practitioners? Really? That's enormous for such small countries (2.2 million in Latvia, 1.3 million in Estonia!)

I did not see any chalk around - not sure if it would be needed? Can you really put spin on the small hockey puck visible on the bottom right corner of this pic, the Novuss version of a cue ball?
Just for size reference, the table was about 3 feet by 3 feet and stood about3 feet high.





Here are a couple of facts about Riga :

• The Christmas tree was invented here
• The food is awesome and cheap
• The only pool hall I found had 8-foot tables only and was almost empty, the few people that were there were weekend bangers and a couple of shady Russians telling us to go to the one nightclub which is on the american embassy list of known Latvian scam operations (they might have gotten me there by telling me there was a 9-footer in the back of the club though)

Pics of Riga :

Party houses built in the 14th century by rich, young and single German Hansa league merchants that dug Latvia

Plaque marking the location of the first ever Christmas tree. No joke.

Normal everyday life for the pillory boy

A clean, calm and pleasant city.

$5 buffet. The sausage was spectacular.

Pork knuckle!!! Yes!

as anyone played Novuss before? How about carrom? Comments please!

The only Snooker hall in Sweden, and a good one-pocket battle

As I sit here in Vilnius, Lithuania waiting for the overnight bus that will bring me to Poland, I'd like to share with you my brief stay in Stockholm last week.
First, a brief look at the the Swedish language, which is hilarious to me.

After having been to Edinburgh and Oslo playing absolutely zero pool and billiards, I had some time in Stockholm to explore the scene a bit. Looked online and found a pool hall about 35 min walk away from my local secret headquarters.When I walked up I was happily surprised to find a snooker hall, of a different name. At the time I just figured it had changed owners and turned into a snooker hall, but after talking to the owner found out I was just on the wrong side of the building and the pool hall did actually exist as well. Two for one!

The place was nice and very well maintained. Scandinavia is not the best place for cue sports tourism in the summer, as people spend the few truly nice days of the year outside. Consequently, there were only a couple of people playing (quite well I must say) so I ordered a beer and chatted with the owner who turned out to be a nice gentleman with great command of English, as has come to be almost expected in Scandinavia in general and Sweden in particular.

Snooker sized pool balls! So Cuuuuute!

We discussed many current cue sports topic, including the precarious situation in America, the rise of snooker on the European continent and the risks involved in the billiards industry in general.
He showed me these cute little snooker-sized pool balls that he gives to the clueless customers that come in and play "pool" even though there are no pool tables in his establishment. Would have loved to watch some bangers trying to play 8-ball on twelve foot tables for a bit, but then again, it would probably be detrimental to the perceived approachability or our beloved game.

According to the owner, the first snooker table came to Sweden in the fall of 1982. He was actually there to see it installed, at a place called BilliardPalast in Stockholm where he was working at the time.
There are very few snooker players in Sweden, and again according to him, only 10 or so are capable of a century break (100+ point run in snooker), and perhaps more tellingly, only 30 or so capable of a 50+....

As the conversation meandered through discussion of various cue sport personalities, Earl Strickland came up and he mentioned that he had breakfast with the Pearl in the early 90s in Helsinki as they were staying in adjacent rooms in the same hotel for a tounament - said he was a nice enough guy and nothing of Earl's nefarious table antics transpired through their discussion.


By then, the two players had left (turns out one of them was a previous swedish snooker champion) and the owner agreed to play a quick frame with me. I am by no means a snooker genius but did manage to hold my own for a while before he trounced me when we got to the colors.

As he was closing up for the evening, I left and rounded the corner to check out the "regular" pool hall. This turned out to be a rather large drinking establishment, with many tables and also a restaurant. They also had a small pinball parlor, and I was in heaven : they had my favorite machine,, Medieval Madness. It was setup in tournament mode, so my arcane knowledge of this game's hidden cheap extra-balls turned out to be useless and I was not able to beat it (left ramp was very difficult to reach because of a weak right flipper). They also had a Family Guy pinball, one of the rare machines made after 2005. If you think the pool world is in a sorry state, you should be merciful not to be a pinball fan.

What more could you ask for?

After investing a few Swedish crowns into the troubled future of pinball, I waltzed over to the pool room itself, and it was full of bangers drinking with their friends. Except for one guy who was practicing some 9-ball patterns by himself. I introduced myself and he turned out to be a cool guy, and we played a few racks. It was getting late so we decided to meet up the next day for a more serious session.
I returned the next day and I taught him the rules of one-pocket and he took an immediate liking to the game. As some of you know, one-pocket is fundamentally different than any rotation game and it is virtually impossible even for someone with great mechanics and position play to beat an experienced player within the first couple of racks. I won 3 or 4 racks and asked if he'd like to change games as I was sensing some frustration on his part, but he declined. In the next few racks his focus was palpable and we went to one-pocket war. He took a few and I took a few and in the end a great time was had by all. My favorite part of traveling is meeting people like David, who I can relate to and make friends with very naturally. David, if you are reading this, keep in touch!

David running a rack of 9-ball

Expect more regular postings as I travel on - very soon, a post about Vilnius, Lithuania and a great place I found there!