Playing Pool in Gibraltar

A different kind of pool! Image by  Pexels  from  Pixabay Yes, I am having a break this summer. Not so much a summer holiday - just a couple of weeks off towards the end of August to chill by the sea is planned - but a break from pool. That does not mean I'm not playing pool, it means I'm taking a break from intense practicing, or playing in tournaments. The only pool I'm playing at the moment are the ranking series of matches twice a month. And that is enough for me during the summer. Come September, I'll be stepping up the preparation for the competitive league tournaments, cup tournaments, and, of course, the EBA Nations Cup in Cyprus in November. I do wonder if I might come in for some criticism by not being at the table as frequently as I can, practicing shot after shot, and sometimes I confess to feeling a bit guilty that I'm not. But the way I see it, you don't have basketball players running around the courts all day every day, or football playe...

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...

Friday afternoon. Sunshine and showers and a howling gale tossing the boats in the Marina about their moorings. A rush to the venue after cutting short my work day and before I had much time to think, the doubles match, postponed from a few days ago, was under way. It was a tough match. Later, Her Ladyship Indoors, who had come along to watch and lend her support said (expletives deleted): "It was like watching you mix concrete with a teaspoon." Always direct, Her Ladyship. But that is pretty much how it felt. Every shot was an effort, every movement felt as if I had a steel reinforcement bar shoved up my jumper, or across my shoulders. I struggled to position the white, every pot was a bonus rather than a given, and even my legs (quite handy for steadying you into perfect balance at your chosen position) felt as if the knees and ankles had seized up with rust. I had been alright half an hour earlier, or so I thought. My doubles partner was not faring muc...

Gibraltar was the venue for the Betway Gibraltar Open tournament, a ranking event in the World Snooker Tour. Snooker was my first love as far as cue sports go. I played all the time as a teenager and by the time I was in my early twenties I was playing on the semi-pro circuit. I had potential, but not quite the essential mix of skill, dedication, determination and opportunity that combine to create a pro, let alone a champion of the callibre that we see on these tours. I had planned to go and watch the Gibraltar Open - what an opportunity to spend time watching some of the world's top players showcasing your favourite sport (besides pool!). Then Her Ladyship Indoors dislocated some bone or other in her foot and I ended up with the housework, shopping and dog-walking, as well as running around after the Teenage Tyrant. Damned domesticity getting in the way of life again! So, I watched it on TV instead - thank you Eurosport - and I thoroughly enjoyed seeing Stuart Bingham rai...

Gibraltar Seniors at EBA World Championship 2018, Bridlington, photo courtesy Shaun Rumbado It's been a while since I've posted on this blog. And since I've played pool well. 2017 was a washout - too much on my mind to focus. And 2018 was an unmitigated disaster as far as playing any really decent frames were concerned. I tottered through two European Championships, one Nations Cup and one World Cup and emerged mostly feeling let down by my own relatively poor standard of playing. In fact, last week was the first time I played a proper match for months - I had toyed with the idea of simply giving up, but I enjoy the game too much! Age hurts - along with my fifties have come all those niggling little ailments, and those aches and pains: the joints creak almost audibly, especially during late matches, and the old lumbar twinges as I stand . And the eyes! Good grief, I used to have superb eyesight until what seems like only a few months ago. Now I bend to the table...

Dave Anderson and Dad (John Anderson) proudly wearing the Gibraltar national team tops at Bridlington We are here again: Bridlington, the European Blackball Championship.  I have to admit to feeling a bit dazed at being here, so much has happened in the past 12 months, most of it a distraction to playing good pool, so this year I have  a huge challenge ahead of me. This year has been full of personal distractions.  I started my own business and had to put heart and soul into getting that off the ground.  Playing pool was almost a form of relaxation rather than training for international games. Then, at the start of 2017, along with the joy of becoming a grandfather again with the birth of our first granddaughter, came the devastation of losing my mother to cancer.  It's hit me hard.  Suddenly, playing pool, training, competition, didn't seem so important.  It has been hard to pick up enthusiasm the past couple of months. My Mum and I ...

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 ...

Let's talk about growing older!  Photo "Did you know?" by Stockimages courtesy of www.freedigitalphotos.net So, it was quite something to be placed in the seniors by dint of just arriving on the cusp of being a veteran and not yet ready to be put out to grass.  It sounds pretty prestigious, doesn't it, being a Senior?  It reminds me of being at school and looking up at seniors who were older, cleverer and infinitely wiser.  And as for moving up to the Masters - well, that sounds even better.  A Master, eh?  It must mean that we have mastered our sport, are ready to pass on those skills and that wisdom to the younger players.  Doesn't it? Well, as I muse the matter, the answer is yes...and no.  Many of us in the Masters age group - 50 plus - have graduated there after years of playing in competitions, semi-professionally or professionally, are teaching, coaching or mentoring and still have a bit of an edge to our game that can take us succe...

Photo "Stress on Dynamite" by Stuart Miles courtesy of www.FreeDigitalPhotos.net ....At playing pool? Well, not so much getting better and better, but at least playing a bit more.  No, I'm referring to the fact that I'm getting better from a bout of sickness I didn't know I had until I ended up wired up to machinery in A&E.  Sounds dramatic, but what they suspected at first was a heart attack was actually a panic attack brought on by a protracted period of stress, which was caused by anxiety caused by goodness knows what, but contributed to by a very demanding period of work. Photo "Stethoscope and ECG" by cooldesign courtesy of www.FreeDigitalPhotos.net In fact, until this point, I had not realised I was a stress victim - and I don't use that term lightly any more, because I really was unwell, and recovering from this is taking a fair while.  Not only that, I'm generally quite an easy-going person and I don't usually get work...