Last night, I finally got to drive up to the Blue Ridge Cafe... a little roadhouse a couple of clicks north of Greenville. It had been years since I had shot in a barbox tourney in a smokehouse like that, so I was a little out of my element and it took me a while to settle in and start to visit with the locals.
Most everyone was friendly and I warmed-up on a table and quickly found out that this would be a night lacking billiards finesse. It was clear that the equipment had no lack of use from the local guys. The felt was well worn, the rails were a tad beaten and the balls... gnarly and mis-matched.
Anyway, I was looking for Ted Kaufman, as he had told me about the tourney. A local pointed him out to me right before the tourney started. I started with two wins and ended-up with Ted, who is a machine at the table, nothing too fancy, just get the job done. Ted broke, ran off 4 balls and let me to the table where I started to struggle under the pressure (haha! This is true!). I missed an easy shot, Ted got out. I shook his hand and said: "I flew 1000 miles to play you and you treat me like that?" And he was puzzled until I explained who I was.
He instantly warmed up and we talked about pool and cues and many things while he worked his way through the tourney and I went one more match and out. Haha! I had a lackluster night to be sure.
The end-up of the whole night was that I found Ted to be a really great guy with strong shooting skills (He took second because a pro (Tony) was slumming at the tourney) and I look forward to shooting with him in the near future.
Most everyone was friendly and I warmed-up on a table and quickly found out that this would be a night lacking billiards finesse. It was clear that the equipment had no lack of use from the local guys. The felt was well worn, the rails were a tad beaten and the balls... gnarly and mis-matched.
Anyway, I was looking for Ted Kaufman, as he had told me about the tourney. A local pointed him out to me right before the tourney started. I started with two wins and ended-up with Ted, who is a machine at the table, nothing too fancy, just get the job done. Ted broke, ran off 4 balls and let me to the table where I started to struggle under the pressure (haha! This is true!). I missed an easy shot, Ted got out. I shook his hand and said: "I flew 1000 miles to play you and you treat me like that?" And he was puzzled until I explained who I was.
He instantly warmed up and we talked about pool and cues and many things while he worked his way through the tourney and I went one more match and out. Haha! I had a lackluster night to be sure.
The end-up of the whole night was that I found Ted to be a really great guy with strong shooting skills (He took second because a pro (Tony) was slumming at the tourney) and I look forward to shooting with him in the near future.