Will you diagram this for us?
It has been about thirty-five years but I have given it a lot of thought, especially when I tried to duplicate the shot working several hours a handful of times. I downloaded some diagramming software a few days ago, already forgot the name and don't know how to use it yet.
The cue ball was pretty close to the midpoint of the foot rail and frozen against one of my balls. The cue ball was about one inch off the rail and going to have to hit the foot rail within about six inches since my ball was pinching it a little. Had to have some sidespin to get things started then it hit both side rails once, zee banking. It hit pretty close either side of the side pockets then again on the other side rails. Finished up coming off of the head rail and hitting the fifteen that was a bit over a diamond from the pocket and almost on the head rail. The ten balls or so on the table had to be laying about perfect to give him a path. One of his balls was at the far side pocket but I had a blocker between it and the pocket. Same deal with the head corner across the table.
I figured he could make a legal hit but no way could he pocket a ball. The crazy shot he pulled on the fifteen wasn't even a consideration for me. He spent a couple minutes holding his cue over the table back and forth so I knew it was no accident but even after I saw what he was trying I wasn't concerned until he hit the fifteen perfectly.
Johnny started our session with three called eightballs on the break that had been slow rolling in a side pocket the last two times. The whole bar had woken up and was urging me to quit him. I said I wanted to see that break again. This time the eight ball stopped within an inch of falling in the side.
I ran out that rack, broke and ran a couple three more on my home turf. In my backwoods little town I had never heard of Johnny Archer so I decided I had better let him shoot a little, didn't want to lose him! That is how the shot on the fifteen came about, funny as it sounds now I was afraid I would lose Johnny.
Johnny won three in a row, all on the break. I won the next dozen on home turf. I discovered that counting my winnings after the dealing was done. I kept trying to let him shoot once or twice a game but when he did I made sure he was locked down triple tight in these days before jump cues.
After making three eights on the break on a Valley barbox Johnny never made another ball. I didn't know how many eights on the break he could string and that shot on the fifteen remains the damnedest shot I have ever seen even today. Trick shot artists used to go eight rails around the table and try to stop on a hundred dollar bill to break a tie, I have never even heard of another eight rail zee kick.
Thinking about it, I could diagram about eight balls pretty closely, two to four more that weren't involved except as traffic would be mostly guess work. I remember the ones I thought would be involved and the ones that actually were. Two or three more balls were about halfway of the table but I would be putting them within a few inches or so.
Johnny scared my mule more with the zee kick than the eights called on the break but no denying it all had me pretty intimidated. Somebody mentions level of focus earlier in this thread. My level of focus in this match was as high as any time I have ever played.
If you know of diagramming software I will try to piece out the most important parts of Johnny's shot. No promises with strange software.
Hu
Playing percentages is the obvious secret.
