Monday Night is FIGHT night! Well, it was.

"You're fit you're fit but ya dan't na what a do wiv it!"

Happy memories from last week's match against the Ampleforth pub in Headington as poor Laura was trying to take her shot in the first frames of the evening. The rest of the team just sat there wondering if the guy was playing some psyche-out tactical manoeuvre for when he played one of us later.

I was up next, but not against the chuffing chanter. After I lost a close first frame half way into the second the chanter came back and started on my opponent who ended up having a fisty-cuffs with him right there in front of the table. A hat went flying over the table, a few balls shifted position on the table as bodies were wrestling around it (*add your own double-entendre).

The fight was eventually taken outside and our team looked bemused but making jokes about whether the ruckus meant 'loss of frame'. It wasn't long before my opponent returned unscathed but perhaps a little flustered. He politely gave me the frame, apologised for the fight (the guys was just a random and nothing to do with their pool team) and we played a decider. I played well but not perfectly and was impressed that my opponent cleared his balls away so well under the circumstances. Obviously fighting during play doesn't ruffle him that much. Perhaps it was the Jaeger-bombs him and his team were doing before-hand that calmed his nerves. I congratulated him and bought him a well-deserved pint of lager.

So, we ended up losing 3-2 last week, not a shameful loss against a team who were drunk and in fights.

The return fight, sorry, MATCH was this evening at the White House in Oxford. I was drenched on my bike on the way over from Cowley Road, it decided to pour down with rain on my way over. I was soaked and so was my cue, so I had to use Jo's. I asked to play first so I could go home early. I won 2-0.

Next up was Hazel, who played very well, but against their best and very good player, she lost 2-0.

Next up was John-boy Kinsey-man, he put in his usual glittering talent and won 2-0.

Emily used-to-be-blonde Middleton was up next and wowed the crowd with her shots against a whacking-the-ball opponent who was SO jammy snookering Emily all the time, but she got out of them and rightly won 2-0.

So, no pressure for Jo, as we'd already won, but we still need points... Jo put in an amazing few frames against the sparing partner I played against last week, another 2-0 for the team. Jo played exceptionally well, especially when John said some magic words which seemed to rile her up good. Jo was a great challllenger to play tonight.

No, I didn't go home early in the end.

Thank you, team, for a fun night tonight.

Thanks, Conny, for loving the Blog so far and for everyone else who's been reading it and enjoying it.

Can anyone write to me about what's gonna happen on the condiment-pool night on Wednesday 'coz I'm gonna miss it!?

First county players meeting/social.

I really didn't know what to expect today other than administration stuff being sorted, paying for t-shirts and hoodies and finding out when are matches are. I didn't expect the pool hall to be filled with county players already drinking the ciders and beers at 11am (it was really 10am 'coz the clocks went forward last night), I thought that I was just meeting with the other girls in the team and having a knock around for a couple of hours but the men were there too and the youths, the place was busy.

After my coffee had been spilled over me and my trousers and pool case it was announced that everyone was going to be randomly put into teams of one girl, one youth, one senior and one men's player to play in a tournament. Amazingly, John and I were put in the same team. John did not look overjoyed when I saw him at the bar grimacing and put his head down into his hands. We spend enough time together with him coaching the girls Uni club AND we play Monday night league too, but I was happy to get the chance to annoy him. The rest of the our team was made up of 11 year old Elliot and seniors player Steffan. We didn't play so well and lost a few sets, but somehow, many of the teams weren't doing so well either averaging just a total of 10 points. we scraped into the semis and then found ourselves suddenly in the final playing against V's team who had beaten us 4-1 earlier.

Young Elliot was first to play. By this time most of the county players had gone home, it was 6.30pm-ish and everyone was feeling tired. Kenny, Elliot's opponent, cleared most of his balls away from the table in his first visit so putting the pressure onto Elliot. Elliot played some awesome safety and tactical shots and held in there until he played some beautiful shots to win the game.

Next up was Steffan against V. It was a tense game and there were some tense pressure shots from both sides, but Steffan 'held his own' and won the frame.

John was the third to play. He was a touch scrappy, but I think the sleepless nights were adding the weight on his shoulders because his 'touch' was a bit off. Dave, his opponent put up a good fight but it just wasn't enough for him to beat John. At one point I thought I was going to have to play after John, but thankfully, no. He went on to win and we won the tournament. Incredible, but true.

I'm looking forward to our home match tomorrow night for the Monday night pub league. I'm wondering if I should start drinking Jaegermeisters from when I go to the Crown to practice before hand or wait 'til I get to the White House pub. Either way, I'm ready for a fight.

Next county match in May.

Filling in the holes.

The reasons for this blog is to help those of my friends and family keep abreast of all the pool goings on in my life. There's a lot of pool played and for various reasons.

Below is a message I sent Louisa who couldn't make it to BUCS (British Universities and Colleges Sports) annual competition.

Louisa and I were in the 2nd team for Oxford uni last year along with Conny (who was the captain of the 2nd) and Ally, who also couldn't make it this year. Last year Louisa and I got through to the semi finals of the singles tournament and had to play each other for a place in the final. I can't remember the score, but Louisa won and went on to win the singles gold medal. Our 2nd team also got to the semi finals of the team play-offs where we had to play the Oxford 1st team (Nicki, Dr. Ceri Jones and scary Rachel, that was very hard (I nearly puked on the table when I played against Nicki!). We lost to Oxford 1st team but they went on to win gold, so no hard feelings.

OK, so onto this year; this is what I reported back to Louisa...

"You were missed at the comp.
Wasn't like last year. Less people but the quality of play was a lot better, which made it more interesting although the atmosphere wasn't so good on the first day and a bit scrappy on the second coz there were normal punters using the tables as we were playing. Odd.
Conny played text-book pool in her semi and final knock-out, and even the ref said it was the best pool he'd seen. Couldn't be more proud of her and so pleased for her after all, she's worked so damned hard.
It just wasn't my year, what with a VERY bad stomach and 'stuff' (you know) and I was shot to pieces with nerves, something that I'd never experienced before, it was ridiculous, I felt like such a girl, anyway, I got some of my play back, but not enough to beat the girl in the quart finals -a very close 2-2 with a final frame for the win- the girl went of to play Conny in the final. I played better on the second day as everyone seemed to. After Conny 'wowed' everyone we had to finish the team quarter finals and after beating Durham 4-0 that morning, we had to play them again and flippin' lost 4-1, they went on to beat our 2nds team girsl to a decider play off and then Manchester, who we've managed to get very pally with, and then Durham won the team event, taking away our trophy, FINALLY. It'll be a lot better next year coz I think more people will enter thinking they might have a chance. Cambridge didn't really feature at all; scraping together something for Varsity, but I don't think it'll be that good a comp."

I went on to say a bit more but that's the brunt of it. It is a little worrying that Cambridge haven't got much of a team 'coz it's our turn to go to Cambridge this year for the annual varsity match. I hope they get enough players for us to beat. :)

This coming Sunday is the first meeting for the Oxford County Women's Team. We all got back form BUCS on Sunday morning and then spent from 2pm trying out for the County team, as if playing for the uni wasn't enough! A bunch of us uni team girls got in so I'm really excited about this years' events.

I want to write more about the Pub league I play in on a Monday , but I'll just have to wait to talk about jaeger-fighting pool.

BUCS last years' photos and review.

http://www.upc-pool.org.uk/womens8ball0809review.htm

It's all in a name

Now I've come up with a decent title for my BlogSpot I'd better write something as witty as it hopes to be.

I can't. I need to get up for work and it's already gone 1.30am coz it felt like a great idea to practice a few frames after losing (not horrifically) in the pub league this evening.

I can play pool. I play pool. I pool. Pool.