What time is too late to play pool on a weeknight?

[Gregg]

I'm know I'm becoming an old head, but my league night started at 7:30, and ended...at...11:45 at night. On a Tuesday. I have a family at home. Work.

I really don't want to be out late at night, driving around town with paperwork to drop off before heading home. And once, I'm at home, it's not like I walk in, put on my PJs and fall asleep like a rock. I need at least twenty minutes to wind down. My schedule for the next few days is full, and I'm dragging though work and whatever else.

Is it common for league nights to end this late, or is it just my particular league?

 

[randyg]

Our BCA Masters Division starts at 7:30 and we are done about 9:15-9:30...SPF=randyg

 

[BryanBpool]

My APA 9 ball league starts at 730 and ends around 11pm.

I stopped playing APA 8 ball entirely after getting out at 1am more than once on a Thursday. :-( Watching two SL3's miss balls for 2+ hours in a race to two is Painful.

 

[mikeyfrost]

Two things you can do to kind of help out and quitting should not be an option just a last resort.

1) Try to play earlier in the night and leave after you play or whenever you feel like is too late to be out at that point. (Best Solution, ppl won't get mad if you play and leave as long as it's legit.)

2) Tell the captain you can't play every week anymore because of this situation and cut down your number of matches. So if you know your schedule is jam packed a certain week just bite the bullet and skip that week as much as that sucks.

3) Don't know how flexible your work schedule is, but you could always stay late the night you have to play and come late the morning after.

Just a couple suggestions for you. I stopped playing in leagues for just about that reason, now instead of being out too late 5 nights a week, I cut it down to about 3 or 4 which is a huge difference. Along with that every night is optional. Cheers.

 

[Gregg]

Two things you can do to kind of help out and quitting should not be an option just a last resort.

1) Try to play earlier in the night and leave after you play or whenever you feel like is too late to be out at that point. (Best Solution, ppl won't get mad if you play and leave as long as it's legit.)

2) Tell the captain you can't play every week anymore because of this situation and cut down your number of matches. So if you know your schedule is jam packed a certain week just bite the bullet and skip that week as much as that sucks.

3) Don't know how flexible your work schedule is, but you could always stay late the night you have to play and come late the morning after.

Just a couple suggestions for you. I stopped playing in leagues for just about that reason, now instead of being out too late 5 nights a week, I cut it down to about 3 or 4 which is a huge difference. Along with that every night is optional. Cheers.

No doubt, some good ideas. As I get older, I have to accept that my body simply needs more rest to function, and being out past ten really sux for me. Problem is that I always have to play the good soldier, and pride myself on being the consummate team player by being present the entire match.

But yeah, taking off a week does absolute wonders, and rejuvenates my mind and my game.

I was out last night, shot last, and ended at 11:45. My main focus? Leaving. My game was secondary. I could not find any motivation to play. Sure I wanted to make the shots there in front of me, but I really could care less. This is not my game, but when I feel trapped and want just want out, this is what seems to happen.

 

[steev]

Our team has a player who has to leave for work by around 9:45. We haven't met a team yet who has a problem with letting him 'play out' if it looks like the night will run long. If I were in a league where people were dicks about things like that, I'd quit.

-s

 

[Gregg]

Our team has a player who has to leave for work by around 9:45. We haven't met a team yet who has a problem with letting him 'play out' if it looks like the night will run long. If I were in a league where people were dicks about things like that, I'd quit.

-s

Right, it's not about that at all, and a lot of players take the night off week to week on our team.

 

[steev]

it's not about that at all

Well, maybe it is, a little. You don't HAVE to leave by a time, but maybe you should start seeing it that way, if your rest means that much to you.

As far as team loyalty and 'sticking it out' for your teammates, well, you're screwed there, I guess. Maybe someday your rest will be more important.

-s

 

[poolplayer2093]

I'm know I'm becoming an old head, but my league night started at 7:30, and ended...at...11:45 at night. On a Tuesday. I have a family at home. Work.

I really don't want to be out late at night, driving around town with paperwork to drop off before heading home. And once, I'm at home, it's not like I walk in, put on my PJs and fall asleep like a rock. I need at least twenty minutes to wind down. My schedule for the next few days is full, and I'm dragging though work and whatever else.

Is it common for league nights to end this late, or is it just my particular league?

That sounds about right give or take 20 minutes. just make sure you get enough rest before hand and i think you'll be fine

 

[s'portplayer]

We usually end about 11:30 or 12:00, but occassionally it will go later.

Later, is usually the result of some lower handicapped marathon matches, where they might make one ball every 2-3 innings.

I, of course, am more than happy when it's over at 11 or earlier, but don't mind it much at midnight. Anytime after midnight and I turn into a grumpy Werewolf.

 

[budman2156]

late night

where we play apa league they have a rule matches must be split round 9 pmi if there is extra tables if the team ask you must split this helps same time

 

[Gregg]

We usually end about 11:30 or 12:00, but occassionally it will go later.

Later, is usually the result of some lower handicapped marathon matches, where they might make one ball every 2-3 innings.

I, of course, am more than happy when it's over at 11 or earlier, but don't mind it much at midnight. Anytime after midnight and I turn into a grumpy Werewolf.

True. Last night I was really wanting to just go home. Other times, 12:00 no problem. My family life has changed a lot since I started playing in seven years ago.

 

[wolfcookie]

Late night

A.P.A. Masters we start at 7:30 and out of there at 9:30 most of the time..Yall might speed things up by using the 30 second rule,which I think all leagues do but most dont enforce...

 

[APA Gene]

I'm know I'm becoming an old head, but my league night started at 7:30, and ended...at...11:45 at night. On a Tuesday. I have a family at home. Work.

I really don't want to be out late at night, driving around town with paperwork to drop off before heading home. And once, I'm at home, it's not like I walk in, put on my PJs and fall asleep like a rock. I need at least twenty minutes to wind down. My schedule for the next few days is full, and I'm dragging though work and whatever else.

Is it common for league nights to end this late, or is it just my particular league?

I require (per the APA Team Manual) my teams to split tables if they are not in their 3rd match by 9:30. This will ensure they get out by 11-11:30 at the latest.

 

[Gregg]

I require (per the APA Team Manual) my teams to split tables if they are not in their 3rd match by 9:30. This will ensure they get out by 11-11:30 at the latest.

Ha!

I talked about that at our team meeting with the leage reps. "Sure, if the other team doesn't allow it, we'll make 'em!"

Sure enough, full size tables (longer games) opposing team shows late (7:59) and starts at 8:10.

9:30, it's half way through the second match, and I call them on the rule. Show them the book. We didn't have two, but friggin' three tables going, one match and two practice. Asked them, their team was cool with it, their team capt., nothing doing. I showed them the book. Nothing. Called the reps (this is after our conversation) and they enforced nothing. I didn't get home after dropping off the paper work until 12:45. You can imagine how I felt.

 

[ScottW]

I require (per the APA Team Manual) my teams to split tables if they are not in their 3rd match by 9:30. This will ensure they get out by 11-11:30 at the latest.

I was going to bring this up as well - but in Gregg's case, they may not have a second table available for them to split *to*.

Having two tables available per pair of teams can be huge.

 

[Richardson]

I pretty much quit playing APA because of this. Now with BCA and VNEA we start at 7pm and my longest matches are done by 9:30 and normally we are done by 9.

 

[Da Bank]

forget about ever hoping to get out at a reasonable hour in APA, one of my biggest gripes.

A team that I just quit had a captain who is a 4 who would sit down every time her opponent was shooting and start chatting away, not paying attention to the game. When someone alerted her that her opponent was done shooting, she would finish a conversation, take one long last drag of her cigarette and walk to the table. This is when she "took her time" to figure out the new layout of the table and a plan of action. Her pre-shot routine down in her stance consisted of about 10 strokes, and once she finally decided to take the shot she would miss about 50% of the time... only for her opponent to do something of the same nature.

I cannot count the number of times her matches took over 1.5 hours in a race to 2 or 3. I can also not recall any instance where one of my matches (SL 6) in a race to 5, even if the match went hill-hill, took more than 1 hour.

My point is, the lower level players don't pay attention to their match and it makes the game much slower. This is probably a huge contributing factor to why they remain such low level players.

APA is awful and I do not plan on continuing it past city tournament coming up in a month or so.

 

[cigardave]

By far the best league I ever played in from a time standpoint was a corporate league that I ran on Tuesday nights.

Most sessions we had ~48 players... 12 teams of 4... playing 8-ball on 9-footers. All the teams were balanced from a skill standpoint... we did random draws for teammates at the beginning of each session.

Free practice started at 3:30 pm... league play started at 5:00 pm... and the hall/bar was close to work... w/i a couple of miles.

We were always done by 8:30 pm... plenty of time to drive home and unwind before crawling into bed. :thumbup2:

It was a good league... I just outgrew it after ~10 years... switching to a 9-ball league that was a couple of steps upward in competition level.

 

[metallicane]

I'm know I'm becoming an old head, but my league night started at 7:30, and ended...at...11:45 at night. On a Tuesday. I have a family at home. Work.

I really don't want to be out late at night, driving around town with paperwork to drop off before heading home. And once, I'm at home, it's not like I walk in, put on my PJs and fall asleep like a rock. I need at least twenty minutes to wind down. My schedule for the next few days is full, and I'm dragging though work and whatever else.

Is it common for league nights to end this late, or is it just my particular league?

It is one of the reasons I don't play in a league. I am at work at 7AM and with clients most days so I cannot be dragging all day. Plus I have three small children that would like to see me every now and then.