I figured I would revive this, the first thread I ever started on SI, after I saw the Liang Wenbo thread:
viewtopic.php?f=624&t=6949Liang Wenbo would fit perfectly into my club. In fact, he would very probably learn a few new tactics.
Following is a rant....don't bother reading unless you want a little chuckle. Like many of my posts, it's a long read. Don't bother complaining; you have been warned. I had a crap week at work, at home, and (resultingly) on the table so I figured I would vent a little.
For any who remember my introduction to the forum, my little club still exists in nearly the same state it always has; that is to say, barely existing. The highlight, if you have followed the soap opera, is that my kid has really taken a shine to the game and we get a good 4 to 6 hour session of phenomenal snooker in nearly every weekend which helps keep me sane. However, he has missed the last two weekends due to activity with friends one week and being under the weather this weekend. I do play other snooker another 4 to 6 hours a week with other club members as detailed in previous posts, but it is not very fruitful or useful, mostly just banging balls around as detailed above. My game play with my kid is very useful and I am very happy with where this has brought my game. I'm no pro and know I never will be but my table does play tough; I take pride in the pockets being cut to proper template and with the heavy club cloth, there is plenty of nap roll with which to contend. Several club members have made claim that they have run centuries in the past (on other tables), but beside one player, I have not seen others making that claim run more than 40 at my place.
As for my game, I am content but of course, I wish to continue to improve and for me, that mostly means to solidify my potting, and that mostly means controlling my mental game. These days, I will run a 20 some break every second or third frame and break into the 30's about every 5th or 6th frame. 40's and 50's still elude me as their occurrence is documented by a calendar which will need the page flipped a couple of times. 60's and above still only come in line up practice.
I have a new dog who loves spending time at the shop/snooker club. He is 2-1/2 years old but still very much a puppy, loves to jump around and play, and bring a ball to fetch. I keep a door open so he can come and go as he pleases out into the nearby woods to chase animals and bark and whatever else he may get up to that I don't want to know about. (We are way off the beaten path, no streets/traffic around, so he is safe to roam the property.) So while we are playing snooker, the dog will come in, go out, move around, bark, chew his bone.....whatever he wants to do. The striker might even be crouched and ready to shoot, the dog can hear something outside, then zoom to the door, straight under the striker's cue like it is a limbo stick. The dog has no etiquette. But he doesn't bother me in any way with his shenanigans as I have just come to expect the unexpected.
Sadly, this is how I am trying to manage to deal with my Liang Wenbos...think of them exactly the same as the dog. Don't be bothered by anything that may happen because, hey, anything can happen, he just doesn't know any better.
Table time with my kid is serious, but really fun snooker, and we both absolutely want to win our matches. He usually does win, probably about three out of four weekends but while I do extend a generous handicap to him, I am always trying my darndest to win the frame against him. No so with the other club members. With them, I am regularly trying to clean up very scrappy tables, get balls back into play, move a frame along so it doesn't get bogged down in repetitive safety battles, and practice mental yoga for myself playing at shots that I know are not the correct shot for the game situation, but I want to try it just to see if I can. Honestly, I don't care about the frame scores too much. These guys are traveling a long way, often driving an hour or more, just to play snooker at my place (you guys probably have a hard time comprehending the utter lack of snooker facilities here in the USA) and so, it is not my position to try to crush them every frame, and bury them in baulk, and not even allow an opportunity at a shot. That just wouldn't make sense. Instead, I just play social snooker, if I leave balls available, so be it, go ahead and make a few pots on me.
On the flip side, all the guys that come to my place are playing absolute tournament snooker. Whatever it takes, win the frame. The only game they know is the internet stream of a professional match and so
that (they believe) is the way to play every frame. I honestly don't think anyone even knows what I am talking about when I use the term "social snooker". When 3 players end up in the club at the same time (a rarity), we play round robin, NOT winner stays on the table, so each player will play 2 of every 3 frames no matter what. The two frames I play in are 20, 25 minutes....you know, just social snooker. The frame I sit out will be no less than 40 minutes, sometimes pushing an hour. It really is quite a spectacle.
So, with that background and also the many posts above, I give you the latest edition of "Whatever It Takes"; finally, the actual reason why I am writing this post. One of the regular players in this weekend, incredible potter but usually poor positional play so a good break of more than four balls is rare. Generally, when we have a session, scoreline comes in around even steven. (See above...while it's not important to me to win every frame, nor am I going to roll over and lose them either.) Well, for some time now, he has had the misfortune of playing against me shortly after my session against my kid. And that means I have been pretty prime and potting well and psychologically in the right place for Snooker. And I guess I had been winning quite a few more frames than usual. So this session, I happened to be up 2 frames and 1, no big deal of course, and on to the fourth frame. I put together an nice standard break, 31, 3 Blacks and a Pink. I go to put it up on the scoreboard so a cursory glance at the current score, 14-13, about even, so up go my points. Well, back and forth a few shots and I managed to pick up another Red and Blue for six and there are two Reds left. So I look at the scoreboard and now I notice my mistake.
Respectfully, I just wait for the opponent to finish his stroke, then say, "Sorry, I zoned out. I put that 31 up on the wrong side so I am going to flip the scores where they belong."
"What do you mean?"
"I had that 31. I forgot I was on the bottom and put it on top."
"Why do you take it so serious? We are just playing for fun! The score is whatever is on the board."
Really? A 62 point flip? (I am losing 31, he is picking up 31.) That is how you play Snooker for fun?
"OK."
I took it as a personal challenge. With the two Reds left, I better pick up at least one colour and need to run the final sequence. I had chances with both Reds, but in both cases, rattled the jaws and left them as sitters for him. So a couple of breaks of "1" later, I failed my challenge and had to admit concession.
I couldn't be mad about it, way past that. I just shook my head and had to smile which actually made the crap week I have been having a little bit better.
That was a new one so I figured I would share it with you. I don't think Liang could get away with that though.