So not really league play, but our local APA had an Appreciation Tournament this weekend. Nice thing that the League Operator does, and they have a little 3-person team tournament that goes along with it. The location is a Legion hall that has 8 tables, and they're all Valley or Valley clone tables. Typical bar tables, with some typical bar table issues, but nothing major. That said, one table, the one we played all three of our matches on, has a set of cushions on it that run out into the pockets far enough that the gap is only about 4". Two balls together won't even get past the points, not even close to the facings on the pockets. And those facings are parallel, and so far into the pocket, that a ball running down the rail will hit the point and miss if it is even ¼" off the rail. Every game was double or more the usual number of innings. To add to this, the location only uses the heavy mud balls for cue balls. Completely different than every one of our weekly league locations.
What I noticed is that it seemed to get into the head of higher skill level players more than lower levels. Maybe the lower levels are more accepting of a miss, or they just don't expect to run balls, I don't know. It bugged me, and my teammates and I just couldn't seem to find a comfort zone on that table. Some of the people that play their league matches there said they all hate playing on that table. It changes your shot selection, and running one down the rail is practically ruled out. But we're all playing on the same table, and the other teams missed the same ways we did.
If nothing else, it sure did show how having a positive mental approach helps, in this case by showing how negativity towards the equipment didn't help, and how accepting the conditions and playing within those constraints did help.
