George Fels Memorial Straight Pool Challenge

[Rich93]

I saw Schmidt get to 98. I think that was his high run.

Just saw Shaw forfeit with Orcollo on 113. I know it is a fun event but I'm not a fan of guys forfeiting in 14.1.

Would I be wrong to stipulate prior to the event prize money will be withheld from anybody forfeiting or is that too serious?

Way too serious, in my opinion. I agree it would have been classier if he had let Dennis finish his run, but at that point the outcome was not really in doubt.

We're happy to have guys like Orcollo (who conceded a game last year even earlier, as I recall) and Shaw play in the event, given how busy they are with everything else happening at Derby. It's not easy for the top players to find time to do the qualifying runs (sometimes there are long waits for a table) and the tournament matches, and I think "laying down the law" as you suggest would be self-defeating with respect to their participation.

 

[dmgwalsh]

That's correct Bob, John was in with 103 and was bumped from 8th to 9th when Niels ran 161 on his very last attempt late Wednesday night. See's 107 was the lowest score.

Huidji beat Ralf 125 to 47, Lely beat Niels, Stepanav over Appleton 125 to 119. Orcollo ran 113 and needed the rest of the balls on the table to defeat Shaw 125 to 1 when Jayson conceited.

Bill

The score of the Lely match was Alex Lely 125
Niels Feijen 65. Niels was ahead 65-57 when he missed and
Alex ran 68 and out.

Huidji had a 69 ball run in his match with Ralf. Both missed relatively easy shots at the end.

In the Stepanov/Appleton match, scored by our own Rich 93, using Billiards Buddy,
Stepanov had runs of 70 and 40. He missed at 117 and Darren came to the table needing 91 balls to win it. Darren ran 84, getting to 118, made his break shot at 119 and missed a long shot with enough balls on the table to win. Stepanov got to the table and calmly ran out the 8 balls he needed to win.

Stepanov meets Huidji today and Orcollo meets up with Lely. Times of the matches will be dependent upon the nine ball draws this morning. Accustats wants the matches on their tv table and were talking about matches at noon and three today and the finals sometime tomorrow.

 

[dmgwalsh]

i m jealous :-(

want to see Alex-Niels live -_- groar.

Alex is gambling in the Action Room about 100' from me right now.

Good guy. I heard he gave one of the spectators some straight pool drills.

On the last day, he got there early, did his tries and came up short. He unscrewed and said, Oh well. I told him, you ought to give it a shot. No one else here yet. You can buy another sheet and have 4 more goes right now if you feel ok and he said what the heck and the next attempt was his 112. He later thanked me for encouraging him. It is nice to get new people in the event. He has a very smooth style.

I wish Nick Van Den Berg had gotten in, too. Nice guy. Had a 99 and 100. Very thoughtful, somewhat deliberate but good player.

Of course, we expected John Schmidt and Thorsten Hohmann, the Champions of the World Tournament and Maryland 14.1 for the last few years to make it in.

Too many good players not enough spots.

Shaun Wilkie, John Morra, Mike Dechaine all came by wanting to take a shot at it, but it was the last day, not enough time.

The boys hung around in our room between matches, shooting the breeze, watching attempts. Appleton, Shaw, Van Den Berg, Feijen, See, Lely, the young guns from the Netherlands, Schmidtty, Thorsten. The list goes on. Niels said the Straight Pool Room is like our living room where we come back to between matches.

Great time here.

 

[alstl]

Way too serious, in my opinion. I agree it would have been classier if he had let Dennis finish his run, but at that point the outcome was not really in doubt.

We're happy to have guys like Orcollo (who conceded a game last year even earlier, as I recall) and Shaw play in the event, given how busy they are with everything else happening at Derby. It's not easy for the top players to find time to do the qualifying runs (sometimes there are long waits for a table) and the tournament matches, and I think "laying down the law" as you suggest would be self-defeating with respect to their participation.

In 14.1 at that level the outcome is always in doubt until the final ball goes in a pocket. In the Crane interview he talked about a world championship finals where he was trailing Mosconi something like 147 - 15 when Mosconi scratched. Final score Crane 150, Mosconi 147.

That's the beauty of 14.1 - it truly ain't over till it's over.


In terms of it being a side event and strict rule limiting participation maybe you are correct but I think there would still be plenty of high level players willing to enter. After all, these guys spend hours trying to qualify for the playoffs. It seems like they would have another half hour to hour available to finish a match.

 

[sfleinen]

Nice run from Niels Feijen, and great commentary from Freddie Agnir (Cornerman):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CRQVO1Jo2Bo

Favorite quote? At 23:25 in the video (link cheat provided for your convenience), when Niels hits 50, Freddie says to the effect of, "I think he's on a 50-ball run now. Anymore, nobody's clapping for a 50-ball run like we used to in the old days. It's gotta be 100 or no clap. He's playing '100 or no clap'." LOL!

-Sean

 

[metallicane]

Thanks for the updates. Sounds like you guys did a great job.

 

[AtLarge]

Here’s the “box score,” inning by inning, on the championship match, with Orcollo defeating Stepanov 125-36.

(The notation “O3”, for example, means Orcollo's third inning. Scores are shown with Orcollo first and Stepanov second.):

O1: opening safety, left nothing except two difficult combinations
S1: missed a difficult 3/7 combo

O2: ran 39, played safe [39 - 0]
S2: safe

O3: ran 31, scratched on a break shot [69 – 0]
S3: ran 15, played safe [69 - 15]

O4: safe
S4: safe

O5: made 1 (a difficult kick shot behind the rack), missed a shot to the side [70 - 15]
S5: ran 3, missed [70 - 18]

O6: ran 52, missed a thin cut [122 - 18]
S6: ran 18, missed on a miscue [122 - 36]

O7: ran 3 and out [125 – 36]

 

[Vahmurka]

Thank you very much everyone involved in making this happen (wish George Fels was there in the booth side to side with Danny D). Thanks to Dennis, Bill and Rich.
Congrats to Stepanov! I hope he gets an invite to 14.1 Worlds again (like once when he participated he made it to knock-out stages). Kosta can play helluva 14.1 pool, and a run of 140 was there to prove it. Unfortunately he must have been too tired for the final, can't find other reason for him not running anything over 15 and 18.
Great there was a bunch of our guys to witness his performance.

Now what does Mr Marop does here in recourse of the final match - boasts about his new cell phone? Or a new version of scorekeeping software? :grin:

 

[Marop]

Now what does Mr Marop does here in recourse of the final match - boasts about his new cell phone? Or a new version of scorekeeping software? :grin:
View attachment 316803

Accu-Stats had a technical issue so we were on a break. Dennis O was showing me pictures of his kids in the Philippines so I was showing him my kids which are quite a bit older than his, lol

Bill

 

[Cornerman]

Alex is gambling in the Action Room about 100' from me right now.

Good guy. I heard he gave one of the spectators some straight pool drills.

On the last day, he got there early, did his tries and came up short. He unscrewed and said, Oh well. I told him, you ought to give it a shot. No one else here yet. You can buy another sheet and have 4 more goes right now if you feel ok and he said what the heck and the next attempt was his 112. He later thanked me for encouraging him. It is nice to get new people in the event. He has a very smooth style.

I wish Nick Van Den Berg had gotten in, too. Nice guy. Had a 99 and 100. Very thoughtful, somewhat deliberate but good player.

Of course, we expected John Schmidt and Thorsten Hohmann, the Champions of the World Tournament and Maryland 14.1 for the last few years to make it in.

Too many good players not enough spots.

Shaun Wilkie, John Morra, Mike Dechaine all came by wanting to take a shot at it, but it was the last day, not enough time.

The boys hung around in our room between matches, shooting the breeze, watching attempts. Appleton, Shaw, Van Den Berg, Feijen, See, Lely, the young guns from the Netherlands, Schmidtty, Thorsten. The list goes on. Niels said the Straight Pool Room is like our living room where we come back to between matches.

Great time here.

I think we have to mention Ruslan Chinakhov who had one of the smoothest deliveries I have ever seen. And that's saying something!!!

When he dogged an easy ball late in a run that was heading towards a big score, he punched the table. Really hard. That wasn't so smooth of a delivery.

Freddei <~~~ would rather punch a pillow than a ton of slate

 

[dmgwalsh]

I think we have to mention Ruslan Chinakhov who had one of the smoothest deliveries I have ever seen. And that's saying something!!!

When he dogged an easy ball late in a run that was heading towards a big score, he punched the table. Really hard. That wasn't so smooth of a delivery.

Freddei <~~~ would rather punch a pillow than a ton of slate

I am looking forward to checking out his runs on video. Rich Klein, our resident Russophile insisted on scoring all the Russians. He mentioned that Chinakhov had a very nice stroke. I heard that Bobby Hunter told someone that he had the best patterns up there. Look forward to checking out his hundred.

 

[Rich93]

I am looking forward to checking out his runs on video. Rich Klein, our resident Russophile insisted on scoring all the Russians. He mentioned that Chinakhov had a very nice stroke. I heard that Bobby Hunter told someone that he had the best patterns up there. Look forward to checking out his hundred.

Ruslan has the smoothest stroke I ever saw. It's true that I elbowed my way to scoring for Ruslan because I wanted to watch that stroke some more, hoping I could make mine as smooth. Alas ......

Although Chinakhov is the correct English spelling, Ruslan had submitted his name to Derby officials as Chinahov, without the k. The k is silent and he wanted to hear his name ending with HOFF rather than COUGH.

 

[sfleinen]

Ruslan has the smoothest stroke I ever saw. It's true that I elbowed my way to scoring for Ruslan because I wanted to watch that stroke some more, hoping I could make mine as smooth. Alas ......

Although Chinakhov is the correct English spelling, Ruslan had submitted his name to Derby officials as Chinahov, without the k. The k is silent and he wanted to hear his name ending with HOFF rather than COUGH.

That's because English-speaking people pronounce "kh" incorrectly. It's a sound not present in the English language at all, and has its origins in middle eastern languages. (Whereas English is mainly spoken and articulated with the lips, tongue, and other forward parts of the mouth; much of the middle eastern languages -- Russian included -- use the back of the throat.) To Russian ears, when English-speakers try to pronounce the "kh" sound, it's like fingernails on a chalkboard. They'd rather hear just an "h" sound -- which is much closer (although still incorrect) to what it's supposed to sound like.

I found this out firsthand in my Russian studies, when I mentioned the name "Nikita Khrushchev" in passing, using what would be normal English-speaking pronunciation. The "stinky odor face" look I got from the Russian-speakers told me everything I needed to know. I made it a point to learn how to move the pronunciation further back into my throat (which doesn't feel natural and is difficult for an English-speaker to do). Now, I can do the "kh" sound correctly, and might I say, it does make a difference.

Anyway, sorry for the long explanation, but just wanted to offer the possible reason why Ruslan preferred to intentionally misspell his last name.

Hope this is helpful,
-Sean

 

[dmgwalsh]

That's because English-speaking people pronounce "kh" incorrectly. It's a sound not present in the English language at all, and has its origins in middle eastern languages. (Whereas English is mainly spoken and articulated with the lips, tongue, and other forward parts of the mouth; much of the middle eastern languages -- Russian included -- use the back of the throat.) To Russian ears, when English-speakers try to pronounce the "kh" sound, it's like fingernails on a chalkboard. They'd rather hear just an "h" sound -- which is much closer (although still incorrect) to what it's supposed to sound like.

I found this out firsthand in my Russian studies, when I mentioned the name "Nikita Khrushchev" in passing, using what would be normal English-speaking pronunciation. The "stinky odor face" look I got from the Russian-speakers told me everything I needed to know. I made it a point to learn how to move the pronunciation further back into my throat (which doesn't feel natural and is difficult for an English-speaker to do). Now, I can do the "kh" sound correctly, and might I say, it does make a difference.

Anyway, sorry for the long explanation, but just wanted to offer the possible reason why Ruslan preferred to intentionally misspell his last name.

Hope this is helpful,
-Sean

Rich93 knows whereof you speak. I endured a few tongue lashings for my pronunciation of the Russian names. Rich demonstrated to me the proper way to pronounce their names, but I cannot say that it took.

 

[Bob Jewett]

... I endured a few tongue lashings for my pronunciation of the Russian names. Rich demonstrated to me the proper way to pronounce their names, but I cannot say that it took.

My Russian neighbor corrected me when I tried to say Rachmaninoff as if it started like "rock". It is evidently properly started as RA(sound of you clearing your throat) ...

 

[alstl]

I wasn't able to watch a lot of the 14.1 challenge but what caught my attention about the parts I watched was how much some of the top players struggled to get into the second rack. I'd be interested to know the percentage of time the pros got into the second rack.

The other thing was how many different starting break shots were employed.

 

[Vahmurka]

I'm in a hurry right away and unfortunately can't read all the pleasant posts about Russian stroke But I will definitely study them all, and for any difficulties of pronunciation you can ask and receive help :thumbup:

 

[Cornerman]

Ruslan has the smoothest stroke I ever saw. It's true that I elbowed my way to scoring for Ruslan because I wanted to watch that stroke some more, hoping I could make mine as smooth. Alas ......

Although Chinakhov is the correct English spelling, Ruslan had submitted his name to Derby officials as Chinahov, without the k. The k is silent and he wanted to hear his name ending with HOFF rather than COUGH.

Thanks Rich!

Freddie <~~~ didn't want to type in Cyrillic