“Good shot!” is what they say when it comes to billiards, “the most beautiful sport in the world”. At least that’s what the members of the 1924 Quierschied billiards club think. This is also reflected in the club’s chronicle, which was shown in the form of a film last Saturday in the Q.lisse to around 90 invited guests. The occasion was the ceremony to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the traditional Quierschied club. This year he is proudly looking back on 100 eventful years with many ups, but also some downs, with numerous successes and failures, with a lot of commitment and cohesion and of course with a lot of sporting passion.
In addition to numerous honorary members, representatives of the community and the Saarland Billiards Association, representatives from other Quierschied sports clubs and a delegation from the Academie de Billard Luxembourg were invited to the festival. The first chairman, Manfred Jochum, led the entertaining event, which lasted around three hours. There have been a total of just four chairmen in the hundred years.
“The very fact that only four chairmen have led this club in 100 years proves that a lot of things were right here. You can be proud of that,” said Gerd Nix in his welcoming speech, who, as a representative of the local history and tourism association, congratulated on the special occasion.
Mayor Lutz Maurer, mayor Stefan Ziegler and sponsor Dirk Daniel also took the opportunity to congratulate the club on its anniversary year.
This was followed by a review of the club’s long and multifaceted history, which reflected not only the club’s 100-year history, but also other major events in the community’s history. In the 1920s, billiards was very popular in Quierschied, with every other bar in the community having a billiard table. Back then there were significantly more inns than there are today. But billiards is much more than just a bar game. The French word “billard” was documented as early as 1399, which originally meant “small wooden stick”.
Most current theories about the origins of billiards suggest a relationship with other ball games such as cricket, croquet or golf. In order to be able to play the game even in bad weather, the action was moved to closed rooms and finally to a table there. Even though the playing area became smaller, the basic idea of the game remained the same. One of the earliest mentions of a billiard table describes that the French King Louis XI. acquired such a table from the cabinetmaker Henri de Vigne in 1470. There are up to 35 different types of billiards. The most popular of these are pool billiards, snooker, carom and bowling billiards. In the Quierschied billiards club, the game “carom”, also known as “carom”, is practiced. This is a variant of billiards that is played with only three balls in different disciplines.
In Quierschied it is the “three cushion game”. Like all billiard variants, carom is a precision sport. In contrast to pool billiards or snooker, the table has no pockets or holes as no balls are sunk here. The rules are very complex. It’s about hitting the other two balls with the cue ball according to certain rules and it takes a lot of training until you can master the good game of carom. There are currently 32 members in the Quierschieder Billard Club. 16 of them are registered as active players with the Saar Billiards Association. They play with three teams of four players each in three leagues. There is currently one team in the Oberliga and two teams in the State League.
Around 50 billiard players were present at the founding meeting in 1924. In the first years of its existence, the club found its home in the Jochum restaurant, called “Pitts Wirtschaft”. In 1931 the club moved to its new home in the Albert Bost restaurant, later the Didion house. After the Saarland Amateur Billiards Association was founded in 1929, gaming operations experienced a major upswing, as points and championship honors were now fought for. Sporting highlights in the club’s history were the “German Free Game Championship” held in 1967 and the Cadre 71/2 European Billiards Championship, held in November 1978. The best billiards players in Europe and if not the world met in Quierschied back then.
The guests at the 100th anniversary were amazed at the television reports and educational films from this time that were shown. The first electronic ball display, completed in 1977, was unique in the world and was developed by club friend Manfred Schreiner, who was also a guest at the celebration. There was even interest in this new development in America and Japan. In the 1980s, the club’s first team finally played successfully in the Saarland League and also achieved promotion to the Regional League, where they played a notable role for years. The first three-cushion team was one of the top teams in the regional league in 1999. Since 2003, the club has taken part in the “German Cup three-cushion team championship” several times, with varying degrees of success. The first team won the regional championship title twice and was runner-up several times.
At the end of 2021, an event threatened the club’s existence: after almost 50 years in the traditional gaming venue, Gasthaus Didion on the market square, it was no longer able to stay there after the property was sold. Fortunately, after some searching with the help of the community, we were able to find suitable rooms of sufficient size in the former business premises of the jeweler and optician Jakobs on Marienstrasse. With the efforts of many members and supporters, the new home was prepared to meet the necessary conditions. Moving the two tables, each weighing 1.3 tons, also required active support.
The spruced up new rooms could then be inaugurated in autumn 2022. This meant that orderly gaming operations could be guaranteed for the future, and the billiard club is on a stable basis for the next decades.
