Playing Pool in Gibraltar

Image courtesy of GPA I've been sorting out my packing, passport, cue and kit this week, getting ready for the trip to the EBA European Pool Championship in Bridlington next weekend. Looking forward to it, I certainly am, but it would be all too easy to let the event get on top of you or affect nerves. So, along with making sure my team tops and trousers fit comfortably and that my new shoes aren't going to rub my feet to shreds (I am a great believer in being totally physically comfortable when playing a match), and getting in some extra practise in between work engagements, I've been doing lots of relaxing. Ok so some of my favourite ways to relax is watching the game. This weekend, it is the  World Snooker Championship at The Crucible in Sheffield, and there's been some cracking matches. I watched James Cahill showing Ronnie O'Sullivan the door, something that still has the pundits twitching. It was a brilliant match to watch and if there was someth...

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...

Photo: "Skills Definition Magnifier" by Stuart Miles courtesy of www.FreeDigitalPhotos.net The only way to develop skills in anything, from potter to pianist to pool player, is to practise.  Stephen King, whose work I admire greatly, memorably said: "Talent is cheaper than table salt.  What separates the talented individual from the successful one is a lot of hard work." Okay, so I'm not sure how to quantify talent, and I'm not sure if as I've grown older I can regain that youthful confidence in my own talent I once had, but since pool is something I enjoy playing so much, I'm more than happy to put in the practise.  I've yet to take that quantum leap from practise matches to hard work, but as I reorganise my life - and we can't get away from the fact that if you are committed to something you have to make your life work round that thing and not the other way around - I am beginning to make time for more practise.  This week I played i...