Does bar billiards get any more decadent than this? A couple of weeks ago, it was the world championships in Sudbury. If I’m being honest, I’m not always the best prepared at this, and was for a while reliant on young Oscar, the landlord of the excellent White Lion, to use his reserve cue. But, I managed to acquire my own cue in a fit of organisation, albeit still requiring Oscar to bring that one along anyway. He’s a bit like Alex Higgins in many ways is Oscar, I’m more like Terry Griffiths in terms of playing style. Many thanks to John and Pete, both from the new Artichoke team, for working out how to get me to the event and that was hugely appreciated. I’m fully engaged in pre-match gossip and that got me in the right frame of mind to start the day off. Yes, that was a cleverly worked in pun there.
Very regal. There are nine tables at the world championships and this year there were 81 entrants in the competition, which is growing in popularity every year. There were players from a few Norwich teams who were taking part in the event to add some extra excitement to proceedings. Even Oscar reminding me at the start that my hairline is receding in a way which isn’t ideal at all didn’t diminish my day’s aspiration and target to just not come last of the 81 players taking part. I had set my expectations quite low in that regard as it’s best to be realistic.
The first round of the competition involved groups of three and I was selected to play against Nancy and Lee. The anticipation was palpable, the air thick with the scent of polished wood and the faint clinking of anticipation from the players who had started. Anyway, with the tension racked up, I promptly lost my first match to Nancy so that was bloody sub-optimal, but she deserved the victory. To my slight surprise, I managed to beat Lee which meant that I came second place in the group as Nancy also beat Lee. Also, note the racked up pun in that paragraph. This was also when I heard that Dave Brewer, one of the leading lights of bar billiards in Norfolk, had managed to lose both his first round matches. I thought that if talent of that quality wasn’t winning then the standard must be high.
The intricacies of the tournament structure then came into play, with the highest-scoring second-place finishers granted passage to the coveted main event. I had someone explain it to me twice before I understood it, but it’s a well thought through system which lets everyone have several games during the day. I then went on to referee several other games including one where Lee H from one of the Norwich teams was playing (who reminds me of Judd Trump, but he won’t read this, so I can write anything there) and I managed to get distracted for the first time when refereeing but the players managed to forgive me. They showed commendable sportsmanship which was handy, although my little lapse was relatively minor. Lee H also hasn’t forgotten a little error I made in a game last year in the team tournament, but he added that Pete (the formidable Danish talent and I can only compare him to Kurt Maflin who I know is Norwegian, but I don’t know any Danish snooker players) from his team had done the same in the singles, so that made me feel slightly less incompetent. It was then time for a rest before the next stage. For the snooker lovers, they’ll hopefully acknowledge that quality pun even though it isn’t relevant to bar billiards…
The next stage was another group of three people and I somehow managed to come second in that group, but with a high enough score to make the next round. A quick shout out to the ebullient Pete B from Norwich as well, he’s creating some videos which are phenomenally well made and really show bar billiards in a positive light. I was fascinated by the processes he has to get the score onto the videos, it would all be beyond me, but it’s skilfully done. I might one day appear in one of his videos!
That score of 1,620 was a bit of a shock to me as well as I normally bank any break of more than 20. Thanks to Fraser who came to referee the game and also to Julian who came all the way from Norwich to supervise me in case of any bar billiarding drama. Incidentally as some gossip, Julian (who I compare to Joe Davis since for reasons unknown I seem to be doing some snooker analogies here) has played three games of bar billiards now in his lifetime, two of them in recent weeks and the other about 60 years ago or something. I wouldn’t be surprised to see him in the frame for next year’s competition, although I won’t tell him that leaning dramatically over the table to miss an easy shot doesn’t quite count as cardio.
Yes, I recorded the score. I’m like that…. Sometimes luck is just on your side though.
As an athlete of some measure (and walking 27 miles on Saturday is testament to how I can switch from one sporting activity to another), my completely unexpected continuation in the event meant that I had to rush to Aldi to buy some snacks. And another beer. Actually, on that point, they had three different real ales available, all from Mauldons and they were reasonably priced and well-kept.
Unfortunately, although I was close, I didn’t chalk up a victory against Pete M in a relatively low scoring game, but he deserved not only that victory but indeed he went on to win the plate. Note another pun there. I’m not normally one for puns, but I’m on a roll here. Actually, that pun reminds me that I was one of the players who didn’t bring any chalk, but I had remembered the cue so that’ll do.
This is a really marvellous event, it’s a fun day out and although there’s of course an element of competition, it’s informal and designed to be about having a good time. I was pleased to get as far as I did, so I’m looking forward to having quite a punchy world ranking later in the year. That’ll be going on this blog I can tell you. It’s the team championships later in the year at the same location and I hope to take part in that, although I’ll have to find some people willing to go along with me….. Thanks to all of the organisers for doing what they did, I very much enjoyed it and am very grateful for those who supported me, got me there and cheered me on during the day. And managing to just not come last was the icing on the bar billiarding cake. Did someone mention cake?
