Hello all;
Got in last night from SBE and had a great time. I played in the Senior Division and made it to the 3rd round and then my game fell apart. I really wished that I ran into a buzz saw player rather than buzz sawing myself but that's the way it goes sometimes. My first two matches were very satisfying, I played jam up. Everything was working real nice. Where does it go?
Some of the highlights for me were:
Earl Strickland coming back from 6-1 on John Schmidt. Tremendous effort!
SVB is a machine. His 10 ball break is phenominal. Anyone count how many times the 1 ball found the headrail left pocket. Wow!
Filet mignon at Creeds. Thanks for the heads up Spiderwebcomm!
Great room and breakfasts at the Park Ridge Clarion (formerly Sheraton) Thanks again Gian (drawman623) for arranging this room transfer to me.
The Park Ridge shuttlebus back and forth from the hotel to the convention center made it real convenient.
Chatting with many cuemakers and, in particular, Richard Chudy, whose company I always enjoy and whose artistry IMHO is second to none. Just gorgeous cues.
John Barton (JB Cases) who modified my special old saddlemaker cue case so I can carry my full assortment of weapons in one case. Thank you, John. And thanks to Jo-Ann Fabrics, too.
Joe Blackburn, cue repairman extraordinarre, is a funny son-of-a-gun. We had some bigtime laughs and he fixed my stuff up real nice.
There were only a very few downsides for me at SBE:
The pit downstairs wasn't the same fun as years past.
The bathrooms were effing disgusting - was there devil worship going on in them?
The a/c seemed only to be working upstairs in the back half of the building.
There were no table lights on any of the downstairs amateur tables - had to rely on the ceiling lights fifty feet up.
Would have liked to meet more azb'ers. Maybe next year I will spearhead an effort to make a time and place for a meet & greet.
And that's about it for the downside.
And for the funny moment of the entire SBE:
I was playing in a match and over the PA comes an announcement that people who have removed cushions from their rooms must return them immediately or they will be charged for them. They announce this two or three times. Did anybody else hear this? Were people removing cushions from their hotel rooms to make themselves more comfy at the gambling pit? LOL ! :grin-square:
So, that's my wrap up. I am already looking forward to next year.
Brian (KC)
Got in last night from SBE and had a great time. I played in the Senior Division and made it to the 3rd round and then my game fell apart. I really wished that I ran into a buzz saw player rather than buzz sawing myself but that's the way it goes sometimes. My first two matches were very satisfying, I played jam up. Everything was working real nice. Where does it go?
Some of the highlights for me were:
Earl Strickland coming back from 6-1 on John Schmidt. Tremendous effort!
SVB is a machine. His 10 ball break is phenominal. Anyone count how many times the 1 ball found the headrail left pocket. Wow!
Filet mignon at Creeds. Thanks for the heads up Spiderwebcomm!
Great room and breakfasts at the Park Ridge Clarion (formerly Sheraton) Thanks again Gian (drawman623) for arranging this room transfer to me.
The Park Ridge shuttlebus back and forth from the hotel to the convention center made it real convenient.
Chatting with many cuemakers and, in particular, Richard Chudy, whose company I always enjoy and whose artistry IMHO is second to none. Just gorgeous cues.
John Barton (JB Cases) who modified my special old saddlemaker cue case so I can carry my full assortment of weapons in one case. Thank you, John. And thanks to Jo-Ann Fabrics, too.
Joe Blackburn, cue repairman extraordinarre, is a funny son-of-a-gun. We had some bigtime laughs and he fixed my stuff up real nice.
There were only a very few downsides for me at SBE:
The pit downstairs wasn't the same fun as years past.
The bathrooms were effing disgusting - was there devil worship going on in them?
The a/c seemed only to be working upstairs in the back half of the building.
There were no table lights on any of the downstairs amateur tables - had to rely on the ceiling lights fifty feet up.
Would have liked to meet more azb'ers. Maybe next year I will spearhead an effort to make a time and place for a meet & greet.
And that's about it for the downside.
And for the funny moment of the entire SBE:
I was playing in a match and over the PA comes an announcement that people who have removed cushions from their rooms must return them immediately or they will be charged for them. They announce this two or three times. Did anybody else hear this? Were people removing cushions from their hotel rooms to make themselves more comfy at the gambling pit? LOL ! :grin-square:
So, that's my wrap up. I am already looking forward to next year.
Brian (KC)
