Sunday, December 23, 2007

2007 in the billiard blogosphere

Since posting "My favorite billiard blogs" almost a year ago a lot has happened in our small section of the blogosphere. New blogs have appeared while others have ceased to exist. Here's a short rundown of the year in billliard blogs:

New blogs

A number of new blogs were launched this year. Here are some of the ones I found most interesting:

Players

Grady's Place is written by legendary player Grady "The Professor" Mathews. He has just opened a pool hall in Lexington, South Carolina and gives useful insights on this process. In addition he shares some fascinating tales from his many road trips.

Unfortunately there are very few top players with blogs. Multiple world champion Thorsten Hohmann is one of the exceptions. He launched his blog in September and has so far provided some great content, e.g. from the World Pool Championship. Let's hope he keeps up the pace!

Danish pool player Bahram Lotfy could very well enter the top echelon of his sport. Unfortunately his blog is in Danish, so far too few readers will have the pleasure of following his progress, in competetive play and in practice.

News & results

greenbaize by Andrew Orange and Jonni Fulcher is predominantly a snooker blog, focussing on the major snooker events. Andrew handles the snooker posts while pool star Fulcher provides an inside view of the Euro Tour.

Another blog covering snooker and pool was launched in April. It's called Play89 Pool Blog and keeps you up to date with the essentials (and not-so-essentials) on the billiard scene. It's maintained by the folks at the Play89 online pool room.

As the name suggests NYC Grind is based in New York. It covers both the international and the local pool scene. The articles, mainly written by "Jerry T", makes for an interesting read.

The Philippines is by many regarded as the top country in pool. Billiards Philippines monitors the progress of Philippine players both in national and international competition. The reports are provided by Marlon Bernardino and Jove Sison.

If you're into carom sports and knows a bit of Spanish then Entrada51 is the perfect blog for you. Blogmaster Juan Antonio de los Reyes delivers extensive coverage of events in the no-pocket category.

Snooker Planet is another latin-speaking blog. Author Luis Alves, who writes in Portugese, covers the professional snooker scene in great detail.

Other

I must admit I prefer straight pool and one pocket when it comes to pool. Pocket Billiards therefore is right up my alley, as it deals with the above-mentioned disiplines as well as other great pocket billiard games. Blogmaster Dennis has been playing pool since 1960, but only started playing straight pool in the past few years.

If you're into the technical aspect of pool the Pool Cue News and Review might be the thing for you. The purpose of the site is to review pool cues and accessories, with a preference for products in PoolDawg store. Right now though the blogmaster (identity unknown) is trying to find the ultimate "Billiards Hottie".

Added 24 December: You'll also find some excellent Spanish-speaking blogs over at Billarnet. There are blogs on a variety of subjects, including all the major billiard games. Training Day by Alonzo has a number of interesting looking posts, making me wish my Spanish skills were up to scratch.

Dead blogs

A blog is rather uninteresting if it's not being updated on a regular basis. Some blogs have not had any new postings in 2007 and have therefore been removed from the blog roll:

Others have been closed or died:

All this leaves us with exactly 100 blogs in the blog roll to your right. Let's hope that number will increase in 2008!

Related posts
Posted by Hermund at 11:26 pm
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11 comments:

  1. AlonzoMon Dec 24, 09:11:00 am CET

    Hi!!
    I've been reading your blog since two or three months, and I wanna tell you it's great!

    I've seen you recommend several blogs, even in Spanish, so I think you could be interested taking a look to my blog in Spanish best online Magazine (Billarnet). This is de Url: http://www2.billarnet.com/view/view_mensajesblog.php?id=40

    Regards,
    Alonzo

    ReplyDelete
  2. HermundMon Dec 24, 11:54:00 am CET

    Thank you very much for the kind words!

    Your blog looks great! It's now been added.

    ReplyDelete
  3. AlonzoTue Dec 25, 08:21:00 pm CET

    Wow Hermund!!
    Thank you so much for include me in your blogs list!!
    I hope you and your readers can understand almost everything in my blog, I always try to explain every post and drill with graphics and diagrams. I've been considerating write the blog in English, but probably my english level is much more poor than your spanish :-)
    Thank you again and Merry Christmas!
    Alonzo

    ReplyDelete
  4. andyFri Dec 28, 03:53:00 pm CET

    Hi Hermund,

    Thanks for the mention!!

    Andy

    ReplyDelete
  5. AnonymousSat Dec 29, 08:48:00 pm CET

    hello, i am the author of "snooker planet". thank you for the reference but some information are wrong. my name is luis alves and i´m from portugal. To finalize, thank you one more time and your blog is great! Congratulations!

    ReplyDelete
  6. HermundSat Dec 29, 08:54:00 pm CET

    Andy: I'm more than happy to spread the word about great blogs.

    Luis: Thanks! I'm very sorry about the mistakes. It has now been fixed.

    ReplyDelete
  7. AnonymousThu Jan 03, 10:32:00 am CET

    Thanks!
    Always a pleasure reading you!

    ReplyDelete
  8. HermundThu Jan 03, 10:38:00 am CET

    Thanks!

    Happy New Blogging Year!

    ReplyDelete
  9. Juan Antonio de los ReyesSat Jan 05, 12:39:00 am CET

    Thanks for your mention entrada51.
    It is a pleasure, because I think your blog as one of the best in the blogosphere.
    I hope you contact me for what you need.

    Regards

    ReplyDelete
  10. HermundSat Jan 05, 02:22:00 am CET

    Thank you very much for those kind words!

    ReplyDelete
  11. AnonymousTue Aug 26, 10:58:00 am CEST

    This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

    ReplyDelete

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