The latest I-S Xperience: Ladies Pool Night was a blast for everyone involved, even for those of us who were shamefully bad at pool.
For this workshop headed by World Billiards champ Peter Gilchrist, we headed to snooker and pool lounge The Jockey Club. Being tucked away in a rather nondescript building along West Coast Highway, the venue seemed like quite a bit of a trek out, although it wasn’t really—Haw Par Villa MRT is just across the road, and there are plenty of cabs available. The Jockey Club’s location was apparently no deterrent to our female readers, who enjoyed peach and lime martinis and tucked into chicken karaage, spicy sausages, fruit salad and eclairs while chatting.
Charming, soft-spoken Peter then took us through a quick “pool for dummies” training session and even taught a couple of easy tricks to impress our friends with (technically they constitute cheating, but if you’re quick enough everyone will be none the wiser. We then played a few rounds, and it became apparent that some of the ladies in attendance were seriously good at pool. We, on the other hand, floundered and only managed to end a game with the 8-ball. Throughout, Peter went about supervising us and dispensing tips on how to aim our cues better.
It was obvious, though, that ladies aren’t the usual clientele at places like these, which have a bit of a boy’s club feel. Peter relates that apart from one particularly brilliant local female player, it’s pretty much the same it’s the same at pro level in Singapore. That’s a real shame—pool should be fun for everyone! (It doesn’t even require lots of strength or macho posturing.)
Though we’ve still got a long way to go before we can really get out there and strut our stuff, it was a great start, thanks to Peter and the club staff going out of their way to make everyone feel so comfortable the whole night.
