apa and big tables

I just read on our local website that the lo is trying to start a new division played strictly on big tables. There will be 4 host locations with 3 of them having gold crowns and one has diamonds.

I am liking the ideas our new lo is coming up with and I hope this garners a lot of interest. I am interests in this myself but would probably need to drop one of the 3 nights I am already playing ....plus I have already commited to joining the new singles division he is also trying to start.

Maniac said:

The Monday night APA 8-ball league I play in is called the "big table" division, although all the host locations have oversized 8-footers. At least we're playing out of pool halls and not bars.

Maniac

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My 2 in house division plays in pool halls. The Sunday division was so large we took up all the valleys .."12" and 6 gold crowns that night. All the teams rotated playing on the gold crowns and valleys every week. My travel division plays both bars and pool and halls.

I know apa seems to be associated with bar tables only but it comes down to you play on what's available in your area.


I dont think people that are not very familiar with apa are aware of this. On the scoresheets there are provisions for marking what type of table you are playing on that night....9 footers included. what type of table your match is played on is taken into account when your handicap is calculated.

hang-the-9 said:

This is OK for local play, but then they would go to Nationals and still be on the 7' tables. I played in TAP and USAPL, both of those leagues in my area played on both 7 and 9 footers. I though it was just what was available in the area that was used. Does the APA actively avoid 9 footers even if there is a pool hall that uses them?

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I dont really believe the apa itself avoids them ....its more like the majority of players want to avoid them lol.

As I mentioned earlier... We have a division so large that we had to use some gold crowns also every week.

Our lo wanted to break that large division into 2 smaller ones with one division on valleys and the the other on gold crowns. A lot of people complained about that so.it never happened. I was one of the few who agree to move my team to 9 footers. The consensus was ....when teams play on 9 footers they tend to get done an hour later on average than when they play on valleys.

Like another poster said....you will have some lower level players have a 40 inn in match on 9 footers. It added 5 innings on average to my matches. I am sure if I played on them more often that number would go down .

Also it seems like 9 footers are more intimidating to new players than 7 footers are. Every one sees bar tables every where and are more familiar with them and have never seen a 9 footer unless they visited a pool hall.

pogmothoin said:

Our APA division plays on 9 foot gold crowns. There are other divisions in the league that play out of bars on 7 foot tables.

If I had to play out of a bar on crappy tables I'd quit. It's not so much the 7' vs 9' thing it's the condition of the tables, lack of practice tables at bars, and of course the abundance of drunken idjits, that would drive me out. We are fortunate to have a couple of pool halls to play out of in our area.

But I do think that there is an issue with getting done later on 9 footers. We routinely finish close to midnight and have even gone to 1 am on occasion. Watching 2's and 3's play 40+ innings is absolutely no fun.

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Your post reinforced my thought of the need to talk lo into holding this new division on a Friday or saturday night since I dont have to get up early for work the next morning lol.