[POOL] Last night's results

[John Valdes]

We played Michael Sprung's team.  It was a rough night...

It started well enough: BrianT faced Richard in a 3:5 which Brian won
handily, 3:1.  I didn't see the game, but I assume Brian shot well as
usual.

After that, we collectively played 29 more games, and didn't win a
single one.  Craig faced Henry in a 2:6 but was shut-out 0:6 (I missed
that game too, so I don't know how it went).

Roger and BrianR then started their matches simultaneously.  Roger
faced Michael in a 1:10 while Brian faced Liz in a 2:6.  Not much can
be said about Roger's match other than, well, he was playing Michael;
it was entertaining to watch Michael play, but despite a valiant
effort and a couple of opportunities in games 6 and 7 (or so), Roger
went down 0:10.

Brian's match against Liz was a long, tough battle, with Brian coming
close to winning a number of games, but alas, he also got shut-out, 0:6.

I was up next against Jim, in another 2:6, and following the fine
example of my teammates, I proceeded to lose the first 5 games (giving
up ball-in-hand 3 times in the 1st game didn't help...).  By some
miracle, I won the next game, finally breaking our oh-for-29 streak,
but in the last game, I lost whatever momentum might have carried over
and was quickly down with 5 of my balls on the table and Jim shooting
on the 8.  As luck would have it however, my balls proved to be a
tough obstacle for Jim to navigate, and thanks to some good (and
lucky!)  defensive play on my part (and probably overly "offensive"
coaching on Michael's part...), I managed to get Jim trapped on a rail
behind the 8 and one of my two remaining object balls, which he
conveniently broke up for me, allowing me to easily pocket the rest of
my balls and the 8, winning the game and the match, 2:5.  Woo! :)

So in the end, despite the rough night, we ended up winning 2 and
losing 3; not bad at all considering we played the winners of the fall
session (iirc).

John