Playing Pool in Gibraltar

Gibraltar Seniors Team at EBA European Pool Championship 2018, Bridlington It's been a mad hectic couple of weeks travelling, playing pool, then trying to settle down to normality afterwards. There's always a build up to an international tournament. Besides being caught up with league matches, the GibOil Cup and Plate tournaments coming to a head and trying to fit in extra practice, there's the tension and the anticipation at playing some of the world's best players. The chill, the grey skies and cold rain of the Yorkshire coast did not dampen our spirits as the Gibraltar team headed for the venue that first morning. We had left behind blue skies, temperatures well into the twenties and a city making its first moves to the annual beach season, but we shrugged off the chill of a typical British spring morning and strode into the opening ceremony heads held high, proud to be waving the Gibraltar flag. The excitement ran through all the players like a current o...

It may be Easter and that may mean a bit of chocolate and a few indulgences here and there, but we are on countdown to the EBA European Pool Championship 2019, so, once today is over, it's down to pre-tournament preparation. I guess every pool player has his or her own particular routine that they use to get ready for a major tournament. I had a chat with some of my pool playing buddies and had a trawl round the internet to see what preparations seemed most popular among players. Here are the most common ways that players seem to like to prepare for a major tournament: Think about what goes in           Intake of food and drink is key to how your body performs in any circumstances, and in            particular in stress situation such as competitive pool playing. Eating well - not too little, not             too much - helps you to stay focused and keep up your energy level...

The Royal Oak pool player - winners of the 2019 GibOil Plate. A great team with which I was privileged to play. Let's celebrate the victory first and foremost. And what a match it was: 5 - 4 to the Royal Oak who battled it out in the final against the Hackney Carriage. Reaching the final of this annual Gibraltar pool competition is an achievement in itself; it is the result of several months of regular matches against some pretty good teams. Gibraltar's is a small community and the pool family just a tiny part of that small community. We all tend to know each other and at some point in the year we are likely to play each other. We can get to know each other's games quite well. This in itself poses quite a challenge, especially in your individual competitions - you can get complacent, or, on the contrary, you can feel a bit intimidated if you're up against a player that you feel is more skilled than you are. The Gibraltar Seniors team at the EBA World Cup at B...

Photo "Male Thinking" by David Castillo Dominici, courtesy of www.FreeDigitalPhoto.net It's often been said that pool - among other sports - is as much a mind game as they it is a game of skill and strategy.  With only days to go to the EBA 2015 Nations Cup of Pool in Killarney, Ireland, now is as good a time as any to get going with the thinking. The problem many players have when they think ahead to a competition, especially an international tournament is that it makes them nervous.  Now, nerves aren't good, not in most situations, unless you are about to be attacked by a bear, in which case it is a wonderful thing for the fight or flight nervous impulse to kick in. Photo by Stuart Miles, courtesy of www.freedigitalphotos.net Being nervous before a major competition is pretty natural and everyone I know suffers from nerves to some extent.  Some players are really good at coping with them, at controling them, at using the energy of feeling nervous ...