Category: Bar Billiards

This is the final bar billiards table in the Norwich league that I haven’t played on, with the exception of the table out in South Walsham. It’s the table at the Rose and since Zak was planning to practice and Nick had a game from the singles competition at the pub, this felt the ideal time to try it.

Before Nick’s match, we had time for one game, and it transpired that neither of us had ever played at the table. He won, but not by many.

I did have a couple of victories in the evening and here’s Nick after beating his opponent 3-0. He now gets to play Oscar, who annoyingly beat me a few days ago…. Sub-optimal, I could have beaten Nick and I might have mentioned that to him 🙂

This was the second singles tournament game I’ve refereed in a week, I’m hoping that some of the talent will come to me via some form of osmosis.

Anyway, back to the table, it’s a robust arrangement and it’s quite fast off the back cushion. The pockets aren’t very forgiving, it requires some accuracy to get them in. It feels like a relatively low scoring table, I think it’s hard to build big breaks, but it’s nicely looked after. It’s the only table that’s £1 a play in the league, although I suspect the others will catch up at some point.

And, the Rose is a really lovely pub, a suitable range of cask and keg beers, friendly staff and it was also good to see my friend Emma over there, now back brewing Boudicca again.

I might be out of this year’s competition, but I felt the need to go and watch Zak play at the Cottage yesterday. And, it was against Mick, which knocked me out of last year’s tournament, but I no longer hold a grudge about that…..

After some masterful refereeing from me, which was mainly because that was the only person that was getting a seat, Zak managed to win 2-1 in a very close game. It was also a lot busier than this photo suggests, there was quite a crowd towards the end.

And, to no doubt entirely surprise and delight everyone, Pete has suggested some “Table Treks on Tour” expeditions around the country. And, this time, with more snack content because I feel that’s what the series was crying out for.

Incidentally, the refereeing was top notch. And thanks to Zak for driving me to the White Lion afterwards where I managed some more of my unique refereeing where I could be ruder without the confines of it being a proper tournament game.

It all came to a head on Saturday at 12:00 at the VR rooms in Norwich…. Oscar and I had both won two games, my first at the White Lion and then my second at the King’s Head. This surprised and delighted me since I’ve hardly played in four months, although, to be fair, I’m not sure I’m any better after playing more anyway as I play solely with muscle memory and pure delusion.

It was my first time in the VR rooms, so I wasn’t sure what to expect. Here’s the table, which is on free play, but you just buy drinks from the bar instead. I very much liked the table, it was slower off the back than I expected which meant I fell short on a few shots, but it was a bit wider than the King’s Head table which I liked. The pegs are very delicate indeed though, they blow over easily.

I don’t think that Oscar will mind me saying, but he turned up looking dead to the world as if from some zombie movie and I was secretly very pleased about that as I hoped he’d fall over or similar to distract himself from the game. However, at heart, I know that Oscar is a master at performing even when feeling terrible, so I wasn’t very confident.

We had some VR action behind us, but in the excitement of our game, I mostly forgot about them as I was locked into my own tragedy. As an aside, we had no scorer, so we had to do the adding up ourselves which was challenging as Oscar kept scoring large breaks. The first two games were relatively close, but Oscar won them both, so that was the end of that for my amazing run in the competition. I also lost the third frame, but by more, but I had rather lost the killer instinct by then….. And, let’s face it, Oscar is a very good player.

Anyway, that’s that now, I’ll just have to watch the other games to see who wins in this fine competition. And, maybe I might even get to reach the hallowed quarter finals next year. But I might need to practice more and also hope that I don’t meet Oscar in the 2027 competition.

For anyone concerned about his well-being, I’m pleased to note that Oscar was in good shape again in the pub in the evening, but I ignored his comments about victory because it’s not about the winning, it’s about the taking part. Unless I win, then I upload videos and blog posts all over the place. And, I confess, if I’d won, half of Norwich wouldn’t be able to open a social media app without seeing a slow-motion montage of my genius.

And, also, lovely people at the VR rooms, I hope to be able to play some games there in the future, a really nice set-up.

And thanks to Pete for videoing the conclusion of the final game of this match…..

After the first round a few weeks ago, it was time for the second round of the Norwich bar billiards cup singles last night, with Oscar playing his game before it was time for my second round game. After three games, which were very well refereed I thought, Oscar was triumphant but there was a lot of surprising and delighting going on.

Then for my three games….. The first one went well for me, despite my struggling somewhat with this table as it’s narrower than the White Lion table. Quite a high scoring game, it’s positive to get the first game in.

The second game went to the final ball part of the proceedings, played differently in Norwich to some other areas. This one involves going off the side cushion into the 200 hole and I promptly missed it…. I didn’t get a second chance, so that was 1-1 on frames.

I slid behind by quite a margin on the third game and it looked all a bit forlorn. To cut a long story short, some fortune and a decision to play the second final ball concluding game quickly meant that I managed to win the final frame.

It was a really close game, so many thanks to Rufus, although it was all a bit tense for my liking, especially when there were about 12 people watching. I know that it’s not exactly the San Siro stadium with its 80,000 seats, but it felt a bit like that at times.

My third round game is against Oscar at the VR rooms….. Whatever happens now, I’ve got further than I expected. The results will go on https://www.norwichbarbilliards.co.uk/Singles at some point.

Today was the excitement of the first round of the Norwich Bar Billiards singles tournament. For anyone interested, the results will be at https://www.norwichbarbilliards.co.uk/Singles. Oscar calmed my nerves with some sensible beer selections and managed to miss all my great shots, but I didn’t say anything.

Thanks to Oli and Emma for their scoring assistance. This is an unusual cluster of balls all where I didn’t want them…. And I’m still surprised I went for a very difficult 200 shot, which went in, at a critical point in the game. As I said to Zak, I’m crediting him with teaching me how to be brave. I don’t think I’ll be being brave again for a while, I’ll go back to my 10s.

OK, I didn’t expect a 3-0 win, but I’ll take it….. My aim is to score 1,000 in each game and I was surprised and delighted to achieve that. Thanks to Katie for a great game and I am sort of looking forwards to the second round in late February.

I’m not normally one for video, as it reminds me that my hairline is receding faster than is entirely ideal, but a few months ago Zak and I had a really rather good idea that we’d play at every bar billiards table in Norwich. The twist is that we’re only filming the first game at each venue, because Zak famously takes a while to warm up. It’s like giving myself a tiny glimmer of hope before he inevitably demolishes me. Zak has been my official bar billiards trainer since 2023 and I will one day be able to see some of the shots that he can pull off, let alone actually play them.

Pete has heroically taken on the role of cameraman for the series, and he’s done a marvellous job filming the first instalment. The next one will be along soon, assuming I can handle more video evidence of my sub-optimal playing technique. And just to be clear, it’s not meant to be a competitive series unless, of course, I happen to win. In which case, it very much is.

I had decided this year not to play in the Norwich bar billiards league, but just to loiter around a couple of games and go to the international events in Sudbury. I’ve decided international games are really the future for my natural bar billiards talents where I continue to aspire just not to come last. However, sometimes, a hero is needed and as the Serengeti team captain Roy couldn’t find one, I agreed to play for the team once again. I got to the White Lion a little early to calm my nerves and I went with the landlord Oscar recommended Racing Pigeons from Electric Bear Brewing Company of Bath. As an aside, many things from Bath are a bit exceptional and this was a decent hazy, light, stone fruit packed little number. Anyway, pint in hand, nerves only partially frayed, I was ready.

The draw was completed and I always hope to not be drawn third or fourth as that means the food might be brought out and my game play is heavily impacted. First is handy, it gets the game out of the way although last isn’t great as it might be the deciding game and I might crack with the pressure of it all.

Right, we’re off. We were playing the team from the Artichoke and my opponent was playing her first league match, which is something that’s usually a curse as beginner’s luck and all that.

I’ll take that, but I must admit to feeling the pressure a little and had a fair few rather sub-optimal shots for a while. I always think that playing first is a bit like doing karaoke sober, although to be fair, I’ve never done karaoke but I’ve listened to other people screeching. There’s a choice between grinding in the 10 and 20 shots to try and build up a steady score, or going for some of the bigger shots. I went for a few bigger shots, but only a couple came off, so I reverted to my more normal boring play. But, there’s a job to do, it’s not meant to be pretty.

Then watching the next few games and I’d note that this is a sub-optimal shot to have to play. The Serengeti lost the second and third singles games, but there was then a flurry of excitement as the team won the next five matches.

And the main event is now here. This year things have changed so players pay £2 each for the food which is provided, but that seemed more than agreeable to me as Oscar does provide a generous spread. Fortunately it was sufficiently generous for me to get two plate fulls (and I would add that I didn’t take these two plates at once) so I was suitably surprised and delighted.

Incidentally, I did ask John, the Artichoke’s captain, if his team wanted to have a go at the food first. However, I think he knew that I hoped he would say no, which meant I was the ready volunteer to test matters.

The two team captains, John and Roy. Both really wonderful welcoming people and a credit to the league.

The pressure was off at this point so I got a Black Stag from Peak Ales, a coffee and chocolate stout with some liquorice evident in the taste.

After the five wins in a row, it was time for Guy and I to see what we could do in the final game, although the pressure was now off us. The father and son team of John and Jack were just too strong for Guy and I, but their win was well deserved. The end result was 6-3 to the Serengeti, but there were several close games and it could have gone either way. We did miss Emma shouting about “it’s a timed game” which normally pierces the air like a bar billiards air-raid siren but we did miss her! I’m intending to go back into retirement now, just turning up to a few games to watch and to see if there’s any food going spare….

And, as another aside, I’ve really enjoyed this whole league thing and there are a record number of teams in the league this year. It’s a way that people can be brought together and hopefully there will be more people engaged and interested with the process, with maybe even more teams next year. Pete has a Youtube bar billiards channel going at https://www.youtube.com/@NorwichBarBilliards and there’s a chance, if he isn’t scared off by editing several hours of me missing 50 shots in a row, then Zak (my official bar billiards trainer and spiritual tormentor when he’s in good form which is nearly always) and I might just embark on a tour of every table in the league. The goal? For me to finally beat him somewhere, anywhere even if I have to tilt the table slightly in my favour. But that’s a saga for another post. Watch this space.