Oh well. It's better than the alternatives.
A couple of years ago, I passed on attending the US Open to play a memorial partners tournament for a co-worker. They had a nearly full 64-team field, and after the dust settled, my teammate and I came in second making it to the finals of the winner's bracket, but losing to the eventual winner. We also lost to them after we got passed the B-side. Second place, about $400, and one of the bigger trophies we'd ever received. Yeah, individual non-league trophies still mean something to me, especially since they mean something to my kids.
Last year, I decided to go to the US Open, and although I always have fun seeing all the internet friends, I've decided that if the two coincide again, I think the memorial tournament has to come first. And this year, they coincided yet again.
The tournament is 8-ball partners (regular, non-scotch), SGDE (single game, double elimination), 8' bar tables (not 7' bar tables), normal weighted cue ball, played with a written ruleset used by the Fraternal Order of Eagles State Tournament. It's mix of APA rules and Central Massachusetts bar rules. We lose our turn if we use the other players balls in any part of any combination or carom. The 8-ball must go clean. Every detail has to be called. Etc. But, there are ball-in-hand penalties for fouls. You can play a safety without feeling like you'll get jumped. And we had to call every shot, no matter how obvious it was. So, the ruleset wasn't terrible, the dynamics of the runout and safeties changes, and remembering the rules and how to keep use them to our advantage was as big as a challenge as anything.
This year, my partner and I lost in the first round. Yikes. So, in an SGDE format, we had to battle all the way back. Which we did. Long day. Lotsa beer. We had some spectacular outs, and some very fortunate rolls. In the end, we lost to... the team we lost to in the first round. I guess that just makes sense. Second place again... Oh well. The fact that these type of tournaments are even available is very special to me.
I'll post two or three of the crucial shots in another post.
Fred
A couple of years ago, I passed on attending the US Open to play a memorial partners tournament for a co-worker. They had a nearly full 64-team field, and after the dust settled, my teammate and I came in second making it to the finals of the winner's bracket, but losing to the eventual winner. We also lost to them after we got passed the B-side. Second place, about $400, and one of the bigger trophies we'd ever received. Yeah, individual non-league trophies still mean something to me, especially since they mean something to my kids.
Last year, I decided to go to the US Open, and although I always have fun seeing all the internet friends, I've decided that if the two coincide again, I think the memorial tournament has to come first. And this year, they coincided yet again.
The tournament is 8-ball partners (regular, non-scotch), SGDE (single game, double elimination), 8' bar tables (not 7' bar tables), normal weighted cue ball, played with a written ruleset used by the Fraternal Order of Eagles State Tournament. It's mix of APA rules and Central Massachusetts bar rules. We lose our turn if we use the other players balls in any part of any combination or carom. The 8-ball must go clean. Every detail has to be called. Etc. But, there are ball-in-hand penalties for fouls. You can play a safety without feeling like you'll get jumped. And we had to call every shot, no matter how obvious it was. So, the ruleset wasn't terrible, the dynamics of the runout and safeties changes, and remembering the rules and how to keep use them to our advantage was as big as a challenge as anything.
This year, my partner and I lost in the first round. Yikes. So, in an SGDE format, we had to battle all the way back. Which we did. Long day. Lotsa beer. We had some spectacular outs, and some very fortunate rolls. In the end, we lost to... the team we lost to in the first round. I guess that just makes sense. Second place again... Oh well. The fact that these type of tournaments are even available is very special to me.
I'll post two or three of the crucial shots in another post.
Fred
