Into the arena....

Luke at the Pool Bar has recently instituted a Monday night pool competition.

I'd felt a bit bad about failing to support the event in its first two weeks (for no other reason than that my metabolism, suddenly deprived of the 50% or so of its daily carbs that it usually gets from beer, slumps into catatonic torpor, and I struggle - for the first few weeks of a spell on the wagon - to find the willpower to haul myself off the sofa); and, since last night was to be the last of my current run of 'sober Mondays', I thought I ought - in a spirit of scientific enquiry - to test out my long-held hypothesis/superstition that I can't hit for shit without a few drinks inside me.

Last night, alas, furnished further evidence in support of the hypothesis.

Well, actually, no. Last night I was very relaxed, feeling reasonably confident, seeing the balls well. I was just woefully out of practice. I haven't played much at the Pool Bar this year (well, haven't played much anywhere - but only the Pool Bar really counts), and when I have, my confidence has generally been dented by severely disappointing performances. A lot of the problem has been a wrenched shoulder muscle (that I picked up playing Wii tennis with my nieces last summer!) which caused me persistent discomfort for getting on for a year, and was inhibiting my cueing action. I think - touch wood - I finally seem to be over that. Now - I just need to put in a lot of hours on the table to try to get my form back to what it was a couple of years or so ago.

I'm not sure that I'm ever going to make much of an impact, though, in this sort of company. And I don't want to be regularly reminded that there are least 15 players better than me in this city!! The Pool Bar has always attracted some very fine Chinese players, and this competition is starting to draw even more out of the woodwork (the two best players last night I'd never seen in there before). It seems we're already reaching the point where the 16 spaces in the draw fill up fairly quickly, and we may have to start signing up well in advance to be sure of getting a spot.

Next Monday - well, no, maybe not next Monday, or the Monday after that; but one Monday very soon - I'm going to see if I fare any better with a reasonable number of beers on board to take the edge off my nerves.