a man played at SUCH a high level the hope I had of winning was to wear his arm out
C.J. came to my poolroom back in the 80's. I didn't play him but I put Gary in action against him. I didn't see much of that safety play Jay mentioned, but I did see some of his firepower. He was one of very few that ever beat Gary in my poolroom for my money! Bugs tried several times and couldn't get there! Neither could Cecil Tugwell, Tony Fargo, John Brumback, Mark Jarvis, Joe Lawrence, Bucky Bell and a lonnnnnggggg list of others who tried. IIRC C.J. won about $1200 from us when he and Shanelle came through RFB Oakley in about '86 or '87. I wish he would have agreed to play some banks rather than 9-ball though. I think we would have broke him playing banks!
Sherm
I remember this match and I must say Gary was one of the toughest players in the country at that time on his home court. This was one of my specialties was playing champions on their "home court" because that's where you could generally win the BIG scores. My advantage was my game got stronger over time (using the TOI system, now could it not?
) so I liked playing long ahead sets, where concentration and stamina were important.
My "advisers" warned me that Gary would play perfectly on that table and not to expect him to give away a single game. As you said, he had beat just about everyone that ever tried to play him there and some by convincing margins.
We started the match and I started evaluating Gary's game, sizing it up for "weaknesses".....hmmm, an hour goes by and I didn't see any. I could tell he was NOT going to miss a ball, and his position play was flawless. hmmm
After two hours I figured he didn't have any "playing weaknesses," however his stroke used a bit to much "energy" (moving parts) it appeared (I'm not sure if that was correct, I was just trying to find a
'nick in his armour'). So I found my strategy, I would wear his arm out.....hey, it's better to have an unusual strategy than no strategy at all.
About 8 hours into the match a long draw shot came up and Gary's stroke hitched slightly and he rattled that ball. I jumped up from my seat, knowing this was the chance I'd been waiting on, his arm was getting tired!!!
From that point on I must have beat him the next 15 out of 17 games to win the game/set/match. I believe that's one of the few matches I played with that scenario, where a man played at SUCH a high level the only hope I had of winning was to wear his arm out. 'The Game is.....extremely tough sometimes':thumbup:
