Olney Christened and other tragedies

Well, I finally got my New Olney cue out and gave it a good initiation into the world of billiards. The Friday night 10-ball at Big Dogs. I eventually went 3-2, but was 2-0 to start with two quality sets against opponents that I would have to play top-notch to beat. I am still having trouble with the shaft. (I went from a Z2, to the olney shaft and the angle shots w/ english and draw still are less than 60%. I just haven't had the time to get comfortable with the cue and shaft yet. It hits like a dream in every facet and i probably can't even blame the occasional miss on the cue. I just haven't figured out how to work it yet. Probably a lot like not having the handle on a stock car.... ain't the cars fault, just the driver.

I will paste a entry off of azbilliards that more accurately describes last night. I played better than expected and the cue again performed very admirably.

So last night Brad / Brian / Tom / Matt showed up to play league at Big Dogs to
find out they had a bye. Brad was trying to match up with someone/anyone
including Jon Brown. I said lets play a 4on4 team match. And i said we would
take Frost as our handicap. Me / Justin / Jon / Frost.

After some discussion we decided (brad did) that they needed spotted 6 games in a race to 25. Anyhow they beat us 25-13, lol

We agreed to trade Frost for Mikey H and play them race to 15
giving them 3. Went hill/hill and Matt playing me. Matt missed a run out and i
didnt. We break even, except for Mike H who actually made money, lol

Frost had
made a side bet, his $80 to win his $50 back. We really had alot of fun, all of
us had a good time making a game and playing it out.

Yes -- I was the goat in this latest escapade and couldn't finish a run out to win the whole set on the hill. Needless to say, I spent the better part of this morning working on that particular pattern. I won't blame the cue, but it was my uncertainty with it that was probably my undoing.

que sera sera.

Looks as if the summer is going to shape up into a fairly good pool summer - lots of action coming and TAR will be in the house in July! Can't wait.

Later

The post tournament, spring doldrums have set in. I need to play ... soon. Practicing has no appeal lately and I need to get out and back 'in the mix'.

During my formative educational years, my favorite shirt had "Summer Wrestling makes Winter Champions"... I am hoping it works in pool too.

Here's to a summer spent in pursuit of personal development and achievement of far-off goals.

New Olney Excursion

With any luck, I may be able to take my new Olney on it's first excursion into the felt jungle tonight. a local non-handicapped 8-ball tournament with the best players in town should be a pretty good look.

I have fairly realistic expectations for performance in this usually pretty stacked tournament and it should prove to be the ideal location to break out the new cue for a few games. Maybe even a few more than that. :-)

Team finished 5/6th in the recent ISPA tournament in the Quad Cities. It was a good showing, only marred by the fact that we didn't play to our best level in the two matches we lost. Overall it was a good trip, one of my teammates was 3rd (at worst, LOL if you know how it went down) in the Open Singles 8-ball, which is a super good showing, given the over 500 players in the brackets.

I placed well enough to get paid in the 9-ball and poorly (0-2) in the 8-ball. I did play reasonably well in the team, but no where near as consistently as I could have.

My serendipitous win will aid the completion of my new Olney cue and with any luck it will be as fine as any I have ever seen. I hope that I will be able to pick out some nice stuff wood in the near future for it.

Later,

The best time of year

State Pool tournament time, of course. Now just a slim 48 hours away. 9-ball, 8-ball and teams.

In review of the past state tournaments, I hope to increase my showing, as I feel after the VNEA two weeks ago, I think that I am hitting them as good as I ever have. I just want to bring that level to the table starting Wednesday.

If I can get all my real-world concerns taken care of this week, I hope to leave with a sense of focus and see if this couldn't be a breakthough year.

Not that I am thinking of quitting, but without some type of success, it may be harder to justify this type of excursion in the future.

maybe that's just life....

Big letdown Dog

Wandered up to the Big Dog last night to see if I could get in the non-handicapped 8-ball tournament. For a whopping $7, I could get in on the fun.

Mentally stale is a nice way of describing how I played. Some flashes of brilliance, but overall, it was a frustrating night to say the least.

I did break and run out the hill-hill match with Phil. Which is saying something. A short race to 3 is tough to judge anything by as the luck and momentum shifts can contribute to the outcome more than skill and ability.

End of the year league tournament starts tonight and VNEA is knocking down the door. Hopefully things can move forward in the next week.

Some time at the practice table wouldn't hurt either.

Good vs Great

well, with the start of a new exercise program (which was sorely needed) I wonder how it will affect my game in the short term and long term. Ha, new exercise, sore... I get it... HA....

So far I have been too sore to walk this week, much less practice any. but in the long term I think that the greater flexibility and core strength will help.

Big tournament in a week and 3 days. Should be fun and exciting. I should do well and have been working to improve this year. I hope to just play my best and see what happens. The tournament is a short race and I think that will probably come into play more than once. Shorter races favor luck over skill too often and have less margin for error. I guess we will find out.

I am hoping to get out tonight to play some and test drive my game some. Sometimes I have been pleasantly surprised by good performance after a particuluarly long lay off. I wonder what the reason is? Especially after I have been practicing hard for a while, a three or four day lay-off and then when I play again, it seems to have positive effects. Things that make you go hmmmm.

Later