Blair Dreyfus
I hope everyone is excited about surviving another monsoon season and the near end of the triple–digit temps. I, for one, am eager for the oppressive heat to leave as this old man doesn’t deal well with the heat. Just drains what little strength I have left and even the walk from the parking lot to a store can be discouraging. I guess that’s one of the reasons that I started playing more pool a few years ago. It has ballooned into quite a few small club tournaments, several matches a month with other 55 and over communities, and now three nights a week in two different pool leagues. This has helped keep me indoors and out of the heat.
You’d think that with all the pool I’ve been playing that my game would be at a higher level than it is. Alas, not being able to practice (which is essential to a good game) as much as I would like to do and need, has held me back. One of the more important parts of a game is closing out a game. When playing 8-ball many players struggle with the end of a game and leave themselves with tough shots on that final ball. Being a little selfish I changed one of our regular full rack 8-ball tournaments into a “short-rack” 8-ball game. This form utilizes only 4 solid and 4 striped balls along with the 8–ball. This is meant to simulate the END of a rack of 8-ball. It has become a very popular tournament, and I hope it has helped others as much as it has helped me with my end game.
This brings me to some exciting news. Our past president, Johnny Henson, a much accredited billiards instructor, asked me what I thought about holding a skills tournament for our members. He noted that during the times that he had played with our group, he noticed that on many occasions he saw a shot that could help an opponent finish out a run but they couldn’t “see it” or saw it but didn’t shoot the shot correctly. His idea was to set up different Kicks, Caroms, and Bank Shots that, when done properly, should help those players finish up games or get themselves out of jams.
He beta tested it at one of the 55 and over communities that we play against and received some very good feedback. He was asked to come back and run another one—SOON! Our club has a Friday afternoon 4-6 p.m. time slot that is usually set aside for 10-ball, but has not been very well attended. So, as club president, I have given Johnny the time slot to conduct that skills tournament here. As of this writing, I hoped to see a lot of our members on Aug. 21 for our first one. I am confident that it will help my game and yours!
Here are the winners of the July tournaments.
Monday noon-2 Short-rack 8-ball: Blair Dreyfus(3), Mike Finnegan and Jim Padgitt (1)
Tuesday 8-ball 8 a.m.-noon: Lynn Warren (3)
Thursday 9-ball: Lynn Warren(2) Blair Dreyfus and Rene Lefebvre(1)
Friday 10-ball 8 a.m.-noon: Lynn Warren (2)
Player of the Month: Lynn Warren
Congrats to all the participants and winners!