Al,
The simple answer was the incompetentcy of the tournament director who did not know the rules they were supposed to enforce.
My bet is if you polled all the APA players around the world, my guess is 5% or less actually know the rules of play. Of that 5%, I'll also guess more than half would be the highest rated players.
So as to not enrage my fellow APA players and APA haters, I'll also add a like percentage of all league players are in the same position of not knowing the rules they play by. Pretty sad.
Lyn
i agree completely...matter of fact i have said the same thing on here numerous times concerning apa compared to other leagues. it seems my choice of words stating that fact probably offends nay sayers . i will try to do better in expressing my opinion with out offending apa haters.:grin-square:
below is an example of people not knowing rules in an in house money league.
1st a lil history on this league and the players involved in this example.
i don't know how long this league has existed but i know for a fact it has been in existence for 10 years with the same lo. i played in it 10 years ago for 1 year before i dropped out of pool for a few years.the majority of players on the opposing team in this example has been together for the last 10 years this league uses the bcapl format. these same players also played in the bcapl league back then ...as did i.
last year i decided to put together a team and rejoin this league.
during the match in this example my opponent rattled the pocket on the 8 and left it hanging. i approached the table having 2 ball left. i used side spin on the cue ball to go 2 rails to get position on my last ball. after pocketing the 1st ball i was walking around the table to pshoot my last ball. as i walked around the 8 ball fell in.
i remarked wow and went around to get the 8 out of the tray and respot it . the opposing captain said wait a minute...we won. i said nope...the 8 is re spotted back to its original location and i continue shooting.
well all hell broke lose with 5 of those 6 players stating they won. my self and 1 team mate said nope its spotted....the rest of my team mates were new and unsure of the rule along with the other teams 6th player.
i said i will go ask the lo who was sitting up front playing poker. i explained to him what happened. he said the 8 is spotted and i continue shooting.
i went back and told the opposing team what the lo said.apparently some did not believe me and some did not believe him so the whole other team went up to argue with the lo.during their argument with the lo the room owner got involved and said the same thing the lo said. after 5 more minutes of arguing the room owner went to his office and got the bcapl rule book ...brought it back and read the rule to the opposing team.
after hearing that the other team came back to where my whole team was still sitting at our table and said the lo was right. they sit down but were still griping and grumbling as i re spotted the 8 . as i got down to shoot my last ball i thought damn ...that is a long hard thin cut.
i stood up and realigned and as i was getting back into position i remarked to kind of break the tension on both teams...if i miss this shot all that arguing the last 15 minutes was for nothing. every one on both teams started laughing. well i won.
now its a damn shame when a guy who has not played in this league for 9 years knows the rules better than a whole team that has been playing in it for more than 10 consecutive years. thats right...5 of those 6 guys has been together on the same team for more than 10 years.
after that session i dropped back out due to the obvious and rampant sandbagging but that is another story for another time. i will say this....any league that locks the handicaps in for the last 6 weeks of a session leaves the door wide open for sandbagging.
uttahere: