F
Fred Agnir
Guest
I posted this at CCBoard as well, and I know many of you read both, but I'm too happy to care. I'm cross posting.
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I felt compelled to brag, since I had such a great time yesterday at the New Hampshire State 8-ball Championship held at the wonderful McCue's in Keene, NH.
McCue's has a full kitchen, a large bar, and two table areas. One has 4 sturdy 9' Connelly tables (Chiracahua?) separated by a wall from the bar area. The other area has 14 of the same tables, each having about 6' of space between tables. So, nobody was sitting on another table when shooting with the ball on the cushion.
The tables played with good speed, and were tight like all Connellys. The unfortunate part is that like many new Connellys, the pocket iron and the pocket leather tang spit balls out, even on medium or soft shots directly down the throat. That was pretty frustrating. Because the tables were very tight, there weren't a ton of full-table runouts until the final handful of players.
Anyway, the caveat to the "state championship" was that no pros and no Joss Tour cashers could enter. So, it's more of an amateur title, with most of the players being high handicappers from the VNEA, BCA, ACS, and APA leagues. 59 Players from NY, VT, NH, MA, CT and maybe RI and ME were in attendance.
The long and short is that although I started very poorly and could have easily gone two and out, I got stronger and stronger until I feel I was shooting in the top three. And I got rewarded for it by making it to the King of the Hill match, losing 5-4 in a thrilling match. I'll post on a particular game separately. I went to the loser's side and snuck out another thrilling one, 5-3. I then lost 5-3 in the first set of the final match to Keene native, DJ Hopkins, and that was that.
One greater thing about this tournament was that usually, when I'm in the finals of a tournament, there is virtually nobody left around to watch. But, many of the players stayed, and many of the patrons formed a seating venue, as if this was a televised match. The media was there taking photos for the newspaper. And after every game, the crowd applauded resoundingly.
Best part for me... I didn't blow up or dog the match. DJ was clearly playing the best, and I put up a good show. Many of the patrons were telling us that they never saw pool live played at that level and were amazed. Aw... shucks.
Regards,
Fred Agnir, NH State 8-ball Championship Runner-Up
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Follow up thread The Game - NH State 8-ball Championship
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I felt compelled to brag, since I had such a great time yesterday at the New Hampshire State 8-ball Championship held at the wonderful McCue's in Keene, NH.
McCue's has a full kitchen, a large bar, and two table areas. One has 4 sturdy 9' Connelly tables (Chiracahua?) separated by a wall from the bar area. The other area has 14 of the same tables, each having about 6' of space between tables. So, nobody was sitting on another table when shooting with the ball on the cushion.
The tables played with good speed, and were tight like all Connellys. The unfortunate part is that like many new Connellys, the pocket iron and the pocket leather tang spit balls out, even on medium or soft shots directly down the throat. That was pretty frustrating. Because the tables were very tight, there weren't a ton of full-table runouts until the final handful of players.
Anyway, the caveat to the "state championship" was that no pros and no Joss Tour cashers could enter. So, it's more of an amateur title, with most of the players being high handicappers from the VNEA, BCA, ACS, and APA leagues. 59 Players from NY, VT, NH, MA, CT and maybe RI and ME were in attendance.
The long and short is that although I started very poorly and could have easily gone two and out, I got stronger and stronger until I feel I was shooting in the top three. And I got rewarded for it by making it to the King of the Hill match, losing 5-4 in a thrilling match. I'll post on a particular game separately. I went to the loser's side and snuck out another thrilling one, 5-3. I then lost 5-3 in the first set of the final match to Keene native, DJ Hopkins, and that was that.
One greater thing about this tournament was that usually, when I'm in the finals of a tournament, there is virtually nobody left around to watch. But, many of the players stayed, and many of the patrons formed a seating venue, as if this was a televised match. The media was there taking photos for the newspaper. And after every game, the crowd applauded resoundingly.
Best part for me... I didn't blow up or dog the match. DJ was clearly playing the best, and I put up a good show. Many of the patrons were telling us that they never saw pool live played at that level and were amazed. Aw... shucks.
Regards,
Fred Agnir, NH State 8-ball Championship Runner-Up
----------------------------------
Follow up thread The Game - NH State 8-ball Championship
). Glad to see you are still playing well.
