It's always good to start off a thread with something positive. Slipping in some negative stuff isn't hard to do even though there wasn't much to post that was negative, except maybe my level of play at times.
As most of you know, I went to the Southern Classic primarily just to play Jay Helfert, formerly known as The Ginger Bread Man (but that's already shared in another thread).
What wasn't shared is that I shared a room with MemphisBullfrog (sp?) and he was the most interesting room mate I have ever had. He was busy working all night and I was busy all day playing pool. We barely saw each other but a few minutes a day.
I arrived at the Casino on Friday, having scheduled my match with Jay for Saturday or Sunday. I planned on leaving Monday morning to head back home and not play in any events. In the process of hanging out, meeting old and new friends, getting up to speed on what was going on (and there was a lot going on), Greg Sullivan cornered me and quizzed what events I was playing in. When I told him that I wasn't playing in any events, he went into his hypnosis mode and convinced me to play at least in the one pocket event. Greg can be very convincing but I won't be so easy of a mark next time. :smile:
Too much time has already past and there was too much going on, the whole time I was at the Southern Classic for me to communicate it perfectly, so please pardon me for any inconsistencies that you might discover. My first match in one pocket was against Max Eberle. Max is a great player at all disciplines and a great ambassador for the sport. Unfortunately for him, he drew me in the first match at one pocket. I have some sort of mojo in my first match against great players. It has always been that way even when I was in the best of health. Max and I fought tooth and nail and I squeaked out a victory against him, not before hearing him wince about one pocket a time or two. :grin: Really, he was only wincing when it was his shot and there was no sharking involved. Some of our games took a while to play although we both didn't take long to shoot. It was necessary for me to play a lot of safeties on Max because every time he got an open shot, he made it. Anyway, I felt a "little" bad for Max losing his first match but the competitor in me, didn't allow that feeling to last very long. I knew I was fortunate to eke out a victory against a great player like Max and continued my journey.
I won my second match fairly easily. I think I won 3-0 against a new player whom I hadn't met before.
My third match was against Earl Strickland and it wasn't pretty. He beat me 3-0 and 8-0, 8-2 and I think 8-4. The scores are unimportant and they could easily be off but it was a shellacking nevertheless. In game two, Earl scratched and said, "I owe a ball". He didn't reach for a coin, so I did. He said, "You don't need a coin. I DON'T PLAY SLEEPERS!". I replied that I would use a coin for my reference regardless. He shrugged and went on. Earl fairly quickly, made 8 balls and I was in a daze, not being used to getting whacked quite so quickly. When Earl made his 8th ball, he barked, "It's your break!" which meant I would also be racking. I went down to the end of the table, raked the balls near the spot toward the foot of the table, when I saw the nickel still sitting on the table. I stopped and asked Earl if he spotted his owed ball. He replied something to the effect that, that was my responsibility and he was right of course but I wanted to hear a ruling by the tournament director. I couldn't help myself though and responded to Earl, that he was the guy who didn't play sleepers, repeating his words. He just replied that he didn't do anything wrong and that it was my responsibility to see that the ball got spotted. That comment about him not doing anything wrong made me think about the Shakespeare line, "Thou doth protest too much". Anyway, the tournament director and referees put their heads together and said that while Earl was culpable because he said for me to rack, the bottom line was that I was responsible for making sure that Earl spotted his owed ball and that by me raking the balls, I in essence conceded my loss in that game.
Another match right after with Chris Bartram sent me packing. Chris played like Nick Varner, never giving me much air and spanked me severely as well. No sharking, no nothing, JUST good tough play by Chris. I saw him play other players later in the event and he played some of the toughest leaves and longest matches of the event. Not really slow play, just a lot of safeties and when he had a shot bank, cut or straight, he made it and ran out well. It is his style of play and reminds me a great deal of Nick Varner. Speaking of Nick, he showed up later in the event and as soon as he walked into the room he spotted me talking with some pals and came up and patted me on the shoulder saying hello and we had some small talk. I hear that Nick and Johnny Archer may be headed down South for one of those Mark Cantrill's exhibitions in the near future. It's always good to see Nick. Nick is one of the best conversationalists around and a great commentator and as we all know, a great pool player. Nick couldn't come for the whole event but managed to visit for a couple of days and the pool world was all the better for it.
Anyway, I will try to add a 9 ball event to my trip reports before I forget the details of that portion of the journey.
As most of you know, I went to the Southern Classic primarily just to play Jay Helfert, formerly known as The Ginger Bread Man (but that's already shared in another thread).
What wasn't shared is that I shared a room with MemphisBullfrog (sp?) and he was the most interesting room mate I have ever had. He was busy working all night and I was busy all day playing pool. We barely saw each other but a few minutes a day.
I arrived at the Casino on Friday, having scheduled my match with Jay for Saturday or Sunday. I planned on leaving Monday morning to head back home and not play in any events. In the process of hanging out, meeting old and new friends, getting up to speed on what was going on (and there was a lot going on), Greg Sullivan cornered me and quizzed what events I was playing in. When I told him that I wasn't playing in any events, he went into his hypnosis mode and convinced me to play at least in the one pocket event. Greg can be very convincing but I won't be so easy of a mark next time. :smile:
Too much time has already past and there was too much going on, the whole time I was at the Southern Classic for me to communicate it perfectly, so please pardon me for any inconsistencies that you might discover. My first match in one pocket was against Max Eberle. Max is a great player at all disciplines and a great ambassador for the sport. Unfortunately for him, he drew me in the first match at one pocket. I have some sort of mojo in my first match against great players. It has always been that way even when I was in the best of health. Max and I fought tooth and nail and I squeaked out a victory against him, not before hearing him wince about one pocket a time or two. :grin: Really, he was only wincing when it was his shot and there was no sharking involved. Some of our games took a while to play although we both didn't take long to shoot. It was necessary for me to play a lot of safeties on Max because every time he got an open shot, he made it. Anyway, I felt a "little" bad for Max losing his first match but the competitor in me, didn't allow that feeling to last very long. I knew I was fortunate to eke out a victory against a great player like Max and continued my journey.
I won my second match fairly easily. I think I won 3-0 against a new player whom I hadn't met before.
My third match was against Earl Strickland and it wasn't pretty. He beat me 3-0 and 8-0, 8-2 and I think 8-4. The scores are unimportant and they could easily be off but it was a shellacking nevertheless. In game two, Earl scratched and said, "I owe a ball". He didn't reach for a coin, so I did. He said, "You don't need a coin. I DON'T PLAY SLEEPERS!". I replied that I would use a coin for my reference regardless. He shrugged and went on. Earl fairly quickly, made 8 balls and I was in a daze, not being used to getting whacked quite so quickly. When Earl made his 8th ball, he barked, "It's your break!" which meant I would also be racking. I went down to the end of the table, raked the balls near the spot toward the foot of the table, when I saw the nickel still sitting on the table. I stopped and asked Earl if he spotted his owed ball. He replied something to the effect that, that was my responsibility and he was right of course but I wanted to hear a ruling by the tournament director. I couldn't help myself though and responded to Earl, that he was the guy who didn't play sleepers, repeating his words. He just replied that he didn't do anything wrong and that it was my responsibility to see that the ball got spotted. That comment about him not doing anything wrong made me think about the Shakespeare line, "Thou doth protest too much". Anyway, the tournament director and referees put their heads together and said that while Earl was culpable because he said for me to rack, the bottom line was that I was responsible for making sure that Earl spotted his owed ball and that by me raking the balls, I in essence conceded my loss in that game.
Another match right after with Chris Bartram sent me packing. Chris played like Nick Varner, never giving me much air and spanked me severely as well. No sharking, no nothing, JUST good tough play by Chris. I saw him play other players later in the event and he played some of the toughest leaves and longest matches of the event. Not really slow play, just a lot of safeties and when he had a shot bank, cut or straight, he made it and ran out well. It is his style of play and reminds me a great deal of Nick Varner. Speaking of Nick, he showed up later in the event and as soon as he walked into the room he spotted me talking with some pals and came up and patted me on the shoulder saying hello and we had some small talk. I hear that Nick and Johnny Archer may be headed down South for one of those Mark Cantrill's exhibitions in the near future. It's always good to see Nick. Nick is one of the best conversationalists around and a great commentator and as we all know, a great pool player. Nick couldn't come for the whole event but managed to visit for a couple of days and the pool world was all the better for it.
Anyway, I will try to add a 9 ball event to my trip reports before I forget the details of that portion of the journey.
