The late postponement of the Indian Open, due to take place in October but now to be staged next March, caused all manner of disruption within the game – not least to Chinese official table manufacturers and providers Star.
Somewhere in Mumbai there are seven tournament quality tables for matchplay and practice sitting in the equivalent of a lock-up for six months, having been packed on to a container ship back in August in Tianjin.
With all the forms filled in, visas obtained, tax paid and freight bill settled and the tables already at sea, they continued along their merry way through the Yellow Sea down to the South China Sea, then via Singapore through the Malacca Strait, into the Indian Ocean and past Sri Lanka and up the west coast of India to Mumbai.
The new dates for the event are March 10-14 (Cheltenham Festival week, seriously who picks these things…) when the tables will be removed from mothballs.