by Dan-cat » 02 May 2021 Read
So having had a 4 month break while being back in London, I've started to play Spanish 8 ball again here in the mountains an hour from Valencia, at our regular Tuesday 7pm game.
Getting accidentally locked down in London annoyed me for various reasons but one of the main ones is that I couldn't play pool or snooker, aside from a few games in December before they shut them down again.
So an enforced layoff from the game like most of us and I wondered how I would play. Turns out, I needn't have worried, I was at my B game almost straight away and won the session 7-3-2. Three of us playing singles in rotation.
By the next session, I faltered a bit. The long ones weren't going in, and I scraped to victory by the narrowest of margins 8-7-5 between the three of us.
So I called Roy up and suggested a Friday afternoon session, and I beat him, just the two of us this time, 27-21. An epic see-sawing battle and I was 8-3 behind at one point... at this point I tinkered with my technique, adding a longer backswing, and this helped my timing. The long ones started going in and my confidence returned. I started to feel like a pool player again.
As always with Spanish rules, we had a lot of blackball games - I try to avoid it getting that far. I want a quick and clean kill, before the opposing side get a look in. If they get to the black then it’s anyone’s game - you are aiming at different pockets, so the black gets moved around the whole time. It's like a whole second layer of the game. You can be Lord Flashheart off the break, as I often am, rail home 6 or 7 of your balls, blow the black or don't get on it or there simply isn't a shot, and my opponent Roy - great tactician that he is - will pull the shutters down, shut up shop - roll a ball over my black pocket and I just know it will be a black ball game. If my pocket is covered, and he has a lot of balls left, I will even move his into better positions (within the rules) so we can get to the black ball shoot out quicker.
It’s in the black ball games that Roy sparkles. His immense knowledge of the angles, with his engineering background, making outrageous blacks using two, three and sometimes 4 cushions. I don’t know some of these shots, but I’m watching, and learning.
It's great to be back on the baize!