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 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...

Photo "Eight Ball Pool" by ArtJsan courtesy of www.FreeDigitalPhoto.net It's over.  The summer, I mean, not my pool playing days.  Not only have the heavens opened to provide us with a long-overdue clean up of the streets, but the glamour of travelling to international competitions of the late summer is now over.  The pool playing season has started, and here we go, head down, cue lined up and...shoot. It was, though, if you can hold with my reminiscing a moment, a bloody good summer.  The EBA 2015 Nations Cup in Killarney was a brilliant event.  The location couldn't have been more perfect: what a lovely place Killarney is, and what friendly, welcoming people.  The venue was superb and what all competing pool players need when travelling is their physical comforts made easy so they can concentrate on their game. I couldn't fault the Gleneagles Hotel, nor the organisation of the tournament.  And then there was the fun.  I met some genuine...