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The road to Ally Pally: late 2021 pool

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    The road to Ally Pally: late 2021 pool

    Having said on the snooker thread that I'd get a rolling 'cue sports that aren't snooker' thread going for 2022, I thought I might as well start as I mean to go on and get the balls rolling, so speak. The Mosconi Cup (pool's answer to the Ryder Cup) is held in Alexandra Palace in December and we already know that US number 1 and greatest currently competitive* player Shane van Boening will be on the US team and that Austria's reigning world 9-ball champion Albin Ouschan will be on the European side. The other spots are yet to be announced. I'd expect Skyler Woodward and Billy Thorpe to be two of the States' other players, while the German Joshua Filler and the Albanian reigning world 10-ball champion Eklent Kaci have to be good shouts for European spots. Personally I think the organisers (Matchroom) should think about mandating that each team have at least one woman playing, but at present that might be seen as tipping the scales somewhat in favour of the Europeans, for whom England's Kelly Fisher, Russia's Kristina Tkach and Austria's Jasmin Ouschan (Albin's sister) would all be eligible. I can't name a top US woman at the moment.

    Anyway, that's a couple of months away still. Right now, in the wake of the US Open 9-ball event won by the Philippines' Carlo Biado, the tour continues with a bunch of less presitigious events which this thread will aim to force me to keep more or less up to speed with. As the previous paragraph hints, most of the really big events of the year have already taken place: the world 9- and 10-ball and the US Open, as well as the World Cup of Pool and the World Pool Masters, have all finished. One good thing for newcomers though is that there's always stuff of a high standard to watch for free on YouTube. Right now I'm catching up on the final of the Michigan Open 10-ball tournament, which was played on Saturday. As I type beaten US Open finalist Aloysius Yapp is 2–0 up against Roberto Gomez in the final. And at this point it occurs to me that a rundown of the main games and one or two terms used might be useful, so it follows in the next post (because I've gone over the character limit while drafting this one!).

    And while I've been typing all of the following post, on my TV Aloysius Yapp has won the Michigan Open 10-ball (as stated above he actually did this a couple of nights ago). His first title, and he's done right after losing the US Open 9-ball final and (if I remember rightly) reaching the semis or the final of the World 10-ball Championship a couple of weeks before that. Lovely stuff. As I've said, there is absolutely loads of good pool on YouTube all the time, so if you're interested let me know and I can either share links to channels or embed a few videos of classic matches/shot/player compilations for you.

    *The asterisk is because while Efren Reyes has basically retired but for the odd exhibition, Earl Strickland is still playing professionally even though he doesn't bother the bookmakers' title odds these days. Van Boening, as I think I mentioned on the other thread, is often touted as a candidate for third greatest ever behind those two.
    Last edited by Sam; 28-09-2021, 08:06.

    #2
    Sam's pool glossary (part 1 of an ongoing series)

    English pool (blackball or English 8-ball)

    First a clarification: when I say 'English pool', here and everywhere else, I mean this game. So 'an English pool player' refers to a player (of any nationality) who plays the game known in most of the world as English pool (or blackball or English 8-ball).

    Now, I'll be honest: I do watch this sometimes but I don't know as much about it in terms of who the top players are (if I get a video up I recognise their names immediately, but I can't recall them off the top of my head). There are some enjoyable events shown live on YouTube, though, and in particular any match featuring Chris Melling is likely to be worth your time. The commentators are fond of calling him the best English 8-ball player of all time, and in fact he's also a very, very good US-style pool player. Most of you know the drill for this sport: it's the one we've all played in pubs in the UK. The main difference for the professional version is that it's played on a 7-foot table rather than the 6-foot table us British amateurs will mostly be familiar with. The shot clock tends to be pretty unforgiving, and in the competitions I watch on YouTube is often running on a per-shot and a total-match-time basis. Often it'll be something like 20 seconds per shot and the match will go on for twenty minutes with whoever's ahead on frames when the final buzzer goes declared the winner. This can make for some ridiculously entertaining stuff with players literally running round the table late on in matches (or, if they're winning, deliberately playing slowly while having to not fall foul of the 20-second buzzer per shot), and some of the players are rapid enough that you literally can't look away for ten seconds if you want to keep track of how a frame is going.

    American/global pool
    I'll just call these 'pool', since that's what the word means in most of the world. These games are played on larger tables – bar tables will be 7 or 8 feet with forgiving pockets, while pro tournaments are on 9-foot tables and very occasionally 10-foot tables with, increasingly these days, noticeably tighter pockets. As mentioned on the snooker thread in response to Rogin's 'pockets like buckets' comments, the balls are significantly larger and heavier than English pool/snooker balls (2.25 inches diameter; Matchroom seem to have led a shift to 4.25-inch pockets, and at the World Pool Masters in 2019 and this year 4-inch pockets were used), and combined with the faster cloth on American tables, and more reactive cushions ('rails') this makes for a game in which the cue ball is generally hit with much more spin ('english' with a lower case 'e') and power than English pool or snooker players are used to. This of course means cues are thicker and heavier than English pool or snooker cues – my cue is a 13mm shaft because I'm an amateur who bought a more expensive cue than my level really merits, but pros tend to play with 11.5mm or 12mm tips, compared with a typical snooker cue which will be 8mm or 9mm.

    There are three main varieties but a few rules common to all three of the main pool variations:
    1. The break must be a hard hit. Different tournaments judge this differently but a typical rule is a three- or four-point break, meaning that a total of that many balls must either be potted or driven into the kitchen (or baulk in British English). At a bar where a good rack is harder to guarantee the rules will be less harsh: at my local, for instance, the rule is that at least four balls must hit a rail. This rule, by the way, is basically the same in English pool.
    2. 'Major' fouls result in ball in hand: one visit, but the incoming player can pick up the cue ball and place it anywhere on the table, shooting in any direction.
    3. If a ball isn't made (potted) then a ball must hit a rail after cue ball–object ball contact – so while safety is a big part of these games, 'English-style' snookers where you just roll up behind the blocking ball can't be played, most of the time.
    8-ball
    Probably the US pool variant people are most likely to have played, and the most similar to English pool. You'll have spots or stripes and the object is to pot all your balls and then pot the 8 to win the game. This is a call-shot game: if we're playing a game then after the break, you have to tell me which ball you're going to pot and which pocket you're aiming to get it in. Failing to pot it isn't a foul, but if you pot it in the wrong pocket it's loss of turn, and if you fail to pot it and pot one of my balls, I come to the table with ball in hand. Potting your own ball in the pocket you've called and also making one of mine is allowed. The same goes when you're on the 8. (These rules can be very different when you're playing in a bar, so it's always best to check! The last three sentences aren't true if we're playing in my local, but I'm describing official competition rules here.)

    9-ball
    The game we were all watching at the US Open, and will be watching at the Mosconi Cup and any other Matchroom events. Widely televised and wildly popular because it's such a simple concept. Played using the balls numbered 1 to 9 (the 'spots' plus the black 8-ball and the yellow striped 9). Unlike 8-ball, this is not a call-shot game: you can pocket with fluke shots ('slop shots' in US parlance) and continue playing. The balls are racked in a diamond with the 1 always at the head, the 9 always in the middle and the others all random (in any halfway serious competition it's not permitted to rack the 2 and 3 immediately behind the 1 in the second row of the rack, as this makes it ridiculously easy for anyone who's spent a bit of time practising their break shot to run out quickly). This is a rotation game, meaning the basic rule is that you always have to play the cue ball into the lowest-numbered ball currently on the table. The first person to make the 9 wins the rack. So you can make a ball on the break and, if you get a lucky break, play a combination (BrE 'plant') to hit the 1 and use it to pocket the 9, and you win. In practice it's rarely that simple, of course (and any halfway decent breaker can learn to regularly make the 1 on the break – I can do it about half the time with an 8-ball rack on my local table, and I'm rubbish – which is why the aforementioned ban on racking the 2 and 3 right behind the 1 is common).

    10-ball
    The purists' choice. I don't say this because it's my favourite to watch (although I think it probably is): I say it because it is apparently the version of the game that most of the top pros privately reckon is the biggest test of their skills. Like 9-ball, 10-ball is a rotation game, which 8-ball is not. And like 8-ball, it's a call-shot game, which 9-ball is not. So, you have to hit the lowest-numbered ball on the table, and the aim is to be the player to make the 10 – but on every shot you've got to call which ball you're putting into which pocket. The extra ball doesn't sound like much of an extra challenge, but it makes a big difference to the rack: breaking a diamond-shaped 9-ball rack results in very predictable patterns (for the top players who train to have a reliable break) and a very regular occurrence of one of the wing (side) balls going in a corner pocket (on the same side the breaker is hitting the cue ball from – if you were following Matchroom's YouTube highlights of the US Open go back and look at any of those videos at random now if you don't believe me), but 10-ball is racked with a triangular rack (like 8-ball but with one fewer row of balls) which blocks those routes to the pockets off. This tends to result in a much higher proportion of 'dry' breaks (where the breaker doesn't make any balls) and a far harder-to-predict spread of balls on the table.

    It's worth clarifying that when watching 8- and 10-ball tournaments you won't often see or hear players actually call their shots; this is because most shots are very obvious so there's no need. But if they're playing a bank ('double' in BrE) or combination then they'll make it known to their opponent or the referee in some way. Pro tournaments, as with English pool, are normally played with a shot clock (although there are exceptions). Obviously the larger tables mean a bit of extra time is required: the standard is 30 seconds per shot and I'm not aware of any tournaments which enforce the English pool-style limit on total match time.

    One exception to the 30-second shot clock is immediately after the break in 9- and 10-ball, when the shot clock is set at 60 seconds. On the first shot after the break, and only the first shot after the break, the player is permitted to call a push out. This is to mitigate for the fact that sometimes you'll make a ball on the break and end up completely fucked on the 1 ball (or the 2, if the 1 was the one you made, or the 3 if you made the 1 and the 2, and so on). A push out can be called by the player who's just broken and made a ball, or by the player who's coming to the table if the other player broke and didn't make anything. What the player pushing out wants to do is put the cue ball somewhere on the table. They can roll it a milimetre or play it all around the cushions; they can even pot a ball if they want (if said ball is the 'money ball' – the 9 in 9-ball or the 10 in 10-ball – it's spotted). Crucially, control of the table then passes to the other player, who also has 60 seconds on the shot clock and can elect to either play from where the cue ball rests or put the player who's just played the push out back in. So when pushing out the top players are trying to put the cue ball in a position relative to the lowest-numbered ball on the table where the incoming player thinks 'no bugger that for a game of soldiers' but where the player who's put the ball in that position fancies their chances of doing something – perhaps a spectacular pot, perhaps a safety from which they can win control of the table.

    Comment


      #3
      Hi Sam, thanks for the thread.

      Mark Selby was on Freesport last night playing English pool in a team with his brother in law. The in law, whose name escapes me, was described as multiple Chinese 9 ball champion. I've had a look but cant really see what Chinese 9 ball is. It looks like it is a bigger table but any other differences aren't clear to me. Any ideas? Cheers

      Comment


        #4
        A quick google reveals something I didn't know: that Selby's brother in law is the very appropriately named Gareth Potts. He's a very successful Chinese 8-ball champion. I have to admit I've never heard of Chinese 9-ball, although if you've not misheard and it does indeed exist I'd expect it to be a 9-ball variation of Chinese 8-ball, which broadly speaking is as follows:

        Similar rules to 'American' 8-ball, but played on a 10-foot table with a napped cloth (like snooker and English pool) and with snooker-style pockets and cushions (rounded jaws rather than the pointy ones found on American tables; slower, less reactive cushions). Crucially, while the pockets are much tighter, it's played with balls that are similar (though I don't think absolutely identical) in size and weight to the global form of the game. In other words you're aiming to pot balls into pockets that only just accept them. There are a few players who play Chinese 8-ball events from the world pool tour (apparently Jayson Shaw played a tournament quite recently; he was talking on US Open commentary about how uncomfortable it is playing in that humidity wearing snooker players' getup), and others from the UK pool and snooker tours who join in sometimes, but Potts is just a full-time Chinese 8-ball player, and earns huge amounts of money from the game in China even though no one's heard of him outside (almost as if the Chinese market was basically a world in its own right ...). I happened across him and the game because he's got a sponsorship deal with a home gaming store based in Bristol, and when I was looking at cues online ahead of visiting my parents a few years ago (really decent cues for reasonable prices being very hard to find in Argentina) I went down a bit of a rabbit hole on their website. There's actually a pool club in Bristol which as well as several English and US pool tables and snooker tables has what I think is a Chinese 8-ball table (well it's basically just a 10-foot snooker table; it amounts to the same thing).

        Importantly, don't look at the rules for Chinese 8-ball on Wikipedia. Some American who's clearly never heard of the actual competitive sport by that name has created a Wiki page all about some variation played in his local bar, which has nothing to do with the game Potts plays.

        Anyway, thanks for the heads-up! I'm now going to check out whether the Ultimate Pool Pairs Cup (the tournament they seem to be playing in) is on YouTube.

        Comment


          #5
          Thanks, it is very possible, indeed almost certain, I misheard. I thought they put a caption up so also misread. Chinese 8 ball sounds interesting, will need to look up some videos.

          I hope I've not spoilered any catch up but The UPPC, as only I call it, had an interesting way to break a 3 way tie. Perhaps other pool tournaments do the same.

          Comment


            #6
            Was it the speed shootout? I love it when they do those.

            Ultimate Pool has a YouTube channel (I searched and realise I'm subscribed to it) but hasn't got any videos of this particular competition up yet. They have regular stuff streamed live and sometimes post videos of matches after the event is over, though, so I'll keep an eye open and link if I see Selby and Potts doing their thing. Here's Chris Melling taking part in their speed pool challenge.



            And here's the Michigan Open 10-ball final I mentioned last night (full matches from a large chunk if not all of the tournament, and from the World 10-ball of a month or so ago, are available on the same channel). Played as best of three sets, with each set being a race to 4.

            By the way, can't remember if it came up in this match but I was watching an instructional video earlier and realised I forgot one rule of 10-ball last night: because you can only call one ball on each shot, if you make the 10 without having called it it's spotted (and you either keep playing if you also made the ball you called or end your turn if you didn't).

            Comment


              #7
              It was a 6 red team speed shootout. Alternative shots while previous object ball still moving.

              Its on Ultimate Pool's twitter page. No idea how to embed tweet.

              Comment


                #8
                Just watched it. Fantastic stuff!

                If you click 'Quote' under this post now, you'll see how I've embedded the tweet.

                https://twitter.com/ultimatepool_/status/1442775716202958853

                Comment


                  #9
                  Time for a bit of an update, and a curiosity I stumbled across tonight.

                  The 10-ball season for 2021 has now come to an end with the Ohio Open event held by Predator (an equipment manufacturer, in case you're wondering; you'll see their logo at a lot of events besides their own). The whole thing was streamed by the same YouTube channel that showed the Michigan Open, but I'll just give you the final, between Austria's Mario He and the Philippines' Ricardo Gomez, which begins in ridiculous fashion.



                  The Predator tour also included a European event for the first time this year – the Austrian Open, which was held the week before the Ohio Open. That was streamed on a pay-per-view service, but there are highlights with some decent summarising commentary from Dutch great Alex Lely. Here's the final day, which featured the semis and the finals of the women's and men's competitions.



                  In non-competitive news, one of the bigger stories in US pool this year was the news in February or March that Jeanette Lee, one of the most famous female players of the 1990s and 2000s, had been diagnosed with stage IV ovarian cancer. It was reported to be terminal and she'd set up a GoFundMe for her kids' future, but shortly after the US Open ended she said on social media that she's completed chemo and is returning to play. For the moment just in exhibition events because she's not at anywhere near the level she used to be. A couple of weeks ago she played a couple of matches, the second of which was against her good friend and fellow hall of famer Alison Fisher (who in spite of being English and a similar age is no relation to Kelly Fisher, who won the women's Austrian Open embedded above). That match is here, should anyone want to take a look. Fisher's wearing a top with Black Widow branding, which is a nice touch – it's Lee's nickname and brand.



                  And finally, one for the UK fans ... I was scrolling along the YouTube app on my TV tonight while my girlfriend was out and did a double take at one of the pool videos suggested. Tonight I learnt that snooker (and US pool) referee Michaela Tabb used to be an English 8-ball player! Here she is playing in the final of the 1998 European Women's Championship. Not every frame is included, sadly, but it's a decent match. Wouldn't see a soft break like the one she opens with in today's game, though. Minor content warning for some unintentionally sexist commentary, particularly during the first frame. I do like the way the commentators can be seen on the side camera angle sitting right there on the bench as they talk, though.

                  Last edited by Sam; 23-10-2021, 05:57.

                  Comment


                    #10
                    Oh, and one of the great things about pool is how close the players feel to the fans. Several of the top European players have their own YouTube channels where they upload videos of playing tips and practice drills. In the Austrian Open 10-ball, the shot of the championship came when the Netherlands' Neils Feijen hit a near-length-of-the-table kick* shot onto the 2 to then pot the 10 (which he had to call in the pocket, remember!) and win the rack. A few days later he set the shot up on his table at home and tried to recreate it for his YouTube channel. Turns out it's quite hard!



                    * A kick shot is when (normally because you're snookered) you play the cue ball off a rail in order to hit the object ball. Something still has to be driven onto a rail after cue ball–object ball contact.

                    Comment


                      #11
                      The Mosconi Cup is normally jolly good fun. Do they still have doubles matches where each team have to play alternate shots during each visit (not take alternate turns to visit the table, as might be more common in a pub pool league match over here)? I've heard that called 'Scotch' doubles (so another pool term borrowing a nation's name).

                      Comment


                        #12
                        Yep. That's the standard format for doubles matches in pro competition, at least since I've been watching (so the last three or four years) – the World Cup of Pool is a whole tournament of it. And it is indeed referred to as Scotch doubles. I'm not sure why.

                        I learnt the other night why 'english' is used for 'spin' in the US, though. Billiards (or possibly just pocket billiards) was invented in England as a way of taking croquet games indoors in bad weather, and was originally played with croquet mallets; once cushions were introduced, when the ball was near one, players would turn the mallet round and play the shot with the end of the handle. This gave way to the first billiards cues, which were just croquet mallet handles with the mallet bit removed. At this point in its development the game got spread around the world, and become particularly big in the US. Some time later back in England, someone had the bright idea of adding a leather tip to the end of the stick ... and maybe filing down the totally straight cue to give it a slightly tapered end ... and before long the new standard equipment in Great Britain became something that looked much more like a modern pool cue and allowed for far greater accuracy and, crucially, for all sorts of spin to be applied to the cue ball, because obviously you can't really do that if you're just hitting it with what is basically a broom handle. After that some big shot player went to the US and played a bunch of exhibition matches and the locals were wowed by his fancy tapered cue with its leather tip and they were really wowed by how it allowed him to do wild things like curve the path of the cue ball or vary its angle as it came back off a cushion. 'He's playing the English way!' they'd say. And before long it stuck, and that's why Americans (and now players around the world outside the UK, at least when they're talking in English) refer to spin or effect as 'english'.

                        Comment


                          #13
                          A heads-up for Mosconi Cup fans who didn't catch last year's contest: the Matchroom Pool YouTube channel are uploading the matches in order, one each (week)day at about lunchtime UK time. They've had to cut to silence for some of the walk-on and between-racks music they obviously don't have the rights to, but otherwise it's the full TV broadcast coverage from last year. It begins with a team match (all five players of both teams take it in turns to play one rack each, then start again if the match goes beyond five racks), then a doubles match and right now I'm (re)watching the first singles match, which was uploaded earlier today. As hinted in the first line of this post I'm guessing they're only uploading on weekdays because the last few nights at this time, the next game has been showing as 'Premiere' in a few hours' time, and right now there's nothing showing as a premiere on Saturday. The channel is here (and will also be useful for potted highlights when this year's Mosconi starts).

                          Comment


                            #14
                            Mosconi Cup teams have now been confirmed (actually a few days ago; I missed the memo).

                            Team Europe (captained by Alex Lely of the Netherlands): Vice-captain Albin Ouschan (AUT); David Alcaíde (SPA); Jayson Shaw (SCO); Joshua Filler (GER); Eklent Kaçi (ALB)

                            Team USA (captained by Jeremy Jones): VC Shane Van Boening; Skyler Woodward; Earl Strickland(!); Tyler Styer; Chris Reinhold

                            If you're watching last year's Mosconi on YouTube through the link in my previous post, the USA's Chris Reinhold is the guy who played last year as Chris Robinson. He changed his name this year as a way of thanking his stepdad for the part he played bringing him up. Strickland's the most surprising name on either team by a distance; as I've mentioned before he's one of only two serious nominations for pool GOAT status, but he's also 63 years old.

                            Some ranking stuff. First, Matchroom's rankings. These only award points for four Matchroom 9-ball events, so they're not really the best indication over the year, but Matchroom's big events are the world's biggest 9-ball events (the US Open, World Pool Masters and World Championship in particular), so they're not irrelevant. Team Europe's players are ranked 9.8 on average in those rankings, while Team USA's average ranking is 56.8. This at least partly reflects the fact that Matchroom's events are much more geared towards players around the world and American players don't tend to travel as widely, it must be said. A better indication are the WPA rankings. In those, the average ranking of the European players is 12.4, while the USA average is 38.8, dragged way down by Strickland who's ranked #114. The other four players on Team USA are ranked WPA #20 on average. In both Matchroom and the WPA's rankings, Europe have the world #1: Ouschan. The USA have two in both top tens, but not the same two – Van Boening and Woodward in the Matchroom top ten, Van Boening and Styer in the WPA one.

                            Max Lechner, Fedor Gorst and Alex Kazakis can all feel a bit unlucky not to be there for Europe, though when the event's run by Matchroom and held in London there's obviously always going to be at least one Brit playing, and that was always going to be Shaw, given Chris Melling's standing has slipped somewhat lately. It's odd that Billy Thorpe isn't there for the USA – he's by a distance their most consistent performer on the Matchroom circuit after Van Boening and Woodward, and he gets on really well with Woodward and forms a very good doubles partnership with him.
                            Last edited by Sam; 08-11-2021, 20:44.

                            Comment


                              #15
                              Originally posted by Sam View Post
                              Personally I think the organisers (Matchroom) should think about mandating that each team have at least one woman playing, but at present that might be seen as tipping the scales somewhat in favour of the Europeans, for whom England's Kelly Fisher, Russia's Kristina Tkach and Austria's Jasmin Ouschan (Albin's sister) would all be eligible. I can't name a top US woman at the moment.
                              Revisiting this from my opening post of the thread. The WPA women's rankings consist of 80 players, not a single one of whom is from the USA. Kelly Fisher (UK) is #1, Jasmin Ouschan (AUT) is #5, Margaret Fefilova (BLR) is #12, Kristina Tkach (RUS) is #13, and every other player in the top 20 is Asian (mostly Chinese and Japanese). I've also made the fascinating discovery that the WPA's 27th-ranked woman is Argentine. So yeah, given Matchroom want to break the US market it's not likely we'll have a mandated women's spot on Mosconi Cup teams any time soon ...

                              Comment


                                #16
                                Just in case anyone's watching the 2020 Mosconi on YouTube but is sufficiently behind the uploads to see this in time: today (Wednesday) they initially uploaded the wrong Jayson Shaw v Shane Van Boening video. They then uploaded the correct one, but left the wrongly uploaded one up – so if you've watched Albin Ouschan v Van Boening, the next one you should watch is the Fans' Choice one. Don't watch the one uploaded before that, as it was played much later in the event and you'll get a major spoiler of the scoreline if you don't know what happened!

                                Comment


                                  #17
                                  In case anyone fancies some action that's not year-old Mosconi replays, US Open champion Carlo Biado often records his own matches on a camera and uploads them to his YouTube channel after the event is over. I won't spoil the fun by telling you any results, but his second round match from the recently concluded Abu Dhabi Open, against Mohamed Eljeffrey of the UAE (not a player I've seen play before, but a name I've seen come up once or twice), is here. I'm posting this only having half watched the first two racks, as I've got to go to bed now ...

                                  Comment


                                    #18
                                    A quick post to give fans of English pool who are in the UK a heads-up that BT Sport have done a deal to broadcast Ultimate Pool tournaments next year. That's the promoter whose event Mark Selby and his brother-in-law Gareth Potts played in a month or two ago (see upthread).

                                    Comment


                                      #19
                                      So the Mosconi Cup gets underway tomorrow at 6pm UK time. Matchroom announced the equipment being used the other day, and – hope you're reading this, Rogin! – they're going down to 4" pockets (which hopefully will be a precursor of things to come for next year in the wider tour. Europe's vice captain and head cheerleader Karl Boyes has been saying for a while he'd like to see the top players play with 4" pockets). Earl Strickland tells Matchroom he reckons the Europeans will struggle with this change, which would seem like the most transparent bit of gamesmanship he'd ever come out with (everyone plays on the same tables at the same competitions year round, after all) if it weren't coming from Strickland, a man who very rarely seems to lose a match other than when there's a problem with the table, or the air conditioning in the venue, or the crowd, or ...

                                      Tomorrow's opening team match (which I think is the only match tomorrow, but I might be mistaken because the official site has the schedule laid out in a rather confusing way) is preceded by a women's doubles exhibition between Kelly Fisher and Kristina Tkach for Europe and two women I can't remember the names of for the USA. See my post four above (8 November) for an unscientific study of the relative strengths of the European and American women's games. That one could be decidedly uncompetitive, but unfortunately I don't think Matchroom will be streaming it anywhere, so it'll only be for those in the venue to enjoy.

                                      Prediction time, then: probably a fair few misses in the first three or so matches until everyone gets used to the pockets (each team has a table identical to the match table in their in-venue practice room, but until today they've just been training at a pool club somewhere in London with standard equipment, so unless there's a practice run today, tomorrow will be the first time they play on the properly specced table). The Americans are obviously hoping one or two of the Europeans will have a 'shit, I'm playing against Earl Strickland' moment at some point, but I'm not sure the gamble will pay off. It'll be less of a marmalisation than the 11–3 scoreline last year, but the USA are still too reliant on Shane Van Boening. Europe to win with something to spare.

                                      Comment


                                        #20
                                        Watching the press conference from earlier today on YouTube. The matches will be on Sky Sports Main Event and Arena in the UK.

                                        Strickland has had to withdraw due to 'possible COVID exposure' according to the Matchroom head of press. He's been training at close quarters with the rest of the US team for the last few days at least, with video evidence of this on Matchroom's YouTube channel, so I'm not quite sure how the others don't have to pull out, but OK. (He's fine but has to isolate in his hotel room, apparently.)

                                        US captain Jeremy Jones is stepping out of playing retirement to take Strickland's place. Jones is 50, will be playing in his eighth Mosconi Cup as well as captaining for the second time after last year's defeat (he won five as a player), won the US Open 9-ball in 2003 and was World 9-Ball Championship runner-up in 1999.

                                        Albin Ouschan has just raised some laughs after being asked about the pocket size. The players got a chance to have a go on the Cup-spec tables on Sunday. 'It was a little bit scary when we got down from the practice tables to the arena and we were like "where are the pockets?!"'

                                        Comment


                                          #21
                                          Originally posted by Sam View Post
                                          Tomorrow's opening team match (which I think is the only match tomorrow, but I might be mistaken because the official site has the schedule laid out in a rather confusing way)
                                          I said it was confusing! The layout had the team match at the top of the listings, followed by today's date, then three more matches. Given the event started today I interpreted this as them for some reason listing the date below the matches to be played, rather than above. The team match has just been played and the broadcast now has three more matches listed in today's order of play. Matchroom's streaming service is picking up Sky Sports' coverage for it, which means that like any of you watching in the UK I've been enjoying Niels Feijen explaining what's going on. He seems like one of the nicest people in the game, and (as I already knew from his YouTube channel) does a great job of giving those who already know the game well something to listen to while also explaining to complete newcomers what's going, why a player just did what they did and what they're likely to be doing next.

                                          USA won the team match 5–2, the highlights being Jeremy Jones growing into the rack to beat Eklent Kaçi (the commentators made the point that Jones made his Mosconi Cup debut the same year the 22-year-old Kaçi was born!) and a cracking sixth rack between Jayson Shaw and Shane Van Boening that saw a bunch of tactical exchanges before SVB was able to finish it off.

                                          Lowlight: the crowd at the Mosconi are always good fun but there's some dickhead yelling 'EXTENSION!' in a silly voice every time a player asks for a time extension.

                                          Ouschan and Kaçi v Reinhold and Styer now, with Kelly Fisher in the co-commentary spot.
                                          Last edited by Sam; 07-12-2021, 21:14.

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                                            #22
                                            Do you think the person screaming, "extension" in the crowd took it so far that he felt he couldn't back out? I am flicking between the pool and the football so I have no idea if it is continuing but I would be tempted to chuck him out for being annoying.

                                            It was disappointing news about Strickland. He is a wonderful pantomime villain and may have had a word with the extension wailer.

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                                              #23
                                              Originally posted by multipleman78 View Post
                                              Do you think the person screaming, "extension" in the crowd took it so far that he felt he couldn't back out? I am flicking between the pool and the football so I have no idea if it is continuing but I would be tempted to chuck him out for being annoying.

                                              It was disappointing news about Strickland. He is a wonderful pantomime villain and may have had a word with the extension wailer.
                                              It seems to have spread to other members of the crowd now, annoyingly. There's a group who keep shouting 'boring!' whenever a push out or safety shot is played, too. I get the impression a fair portion of the crowd either don't know anything about, or don't especially like, pool. Which given the cost of tickets is really odd.

                                              I've just found the answer to the Strickland mystery, and it explains why Emily Frazer (Matchroom's press person) was so reluctant to answer a question on it in the presser: someone on the flight tested positive after landing. Strickland has tested negative ... but isn't vaccinated. I found the phrasing odd yesterday, given the above-mentioned video evidence of him having been in close, unmasked contact with his teammates over the last five days, but that explains it. Just one more thing add to my list of reasons Earl Strickland is a dick.

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                                                #24
                                                Cracking first day ends 2–2. USA followed up the team win in match 1 with a 5–4 win for Styer and Reinhold against Ouschan and Kaçi. Kaçi, who made an error in the team match, made another two or three in that match. Ouschan looked a little out of sorts as well. But Joshua Filler, while he strikes me as someone I probably wouldn't get on well with, has pure ice running through his veins. He got Europe's first point on the board with a 5–2 win over Van Boening, before the final match of the day exposed why this competition is seen as a big mismatch: everyone had to play at least once today (not including the team match), and that meant the final doubles match pitted Skyler Woodward (a very good player) and Jeremy Jones (retired from playing several years ago) against Shaw and Alcaide. 5–0 to the Europeans, who barely broke a sweat.

                                                Day 2 starts at the same time tomorrow with the fans' choice singles match (which you can vote for at mosconicup.com). Then it's singles, doubles, singles, doubles, with every player having to play at least once in those four matches, and the singles matches not allowed to feature the same player from either team. The captains can repeat players from the fan's choice, so if the fans' choice is, just for example, Shaw v Van Boening there'll be nothing to stop the captains naming those two in either the very next match or the fourth match of the day.

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                                                  #25
                                                  Just let a random pool match autoplay on my TV's YouTube while marking a student assignment. It was a women's EuroTour match from earlier this year with Earl Strickland providing commentary. He was being his usual self: often discussing how he'd play the shot a player was about to play, then comparing it with how she'd played it, often complaining about the camera angles he was being offered (he does these commentaries after the fact from videos he's sent, rather than live in the venue) and so on. Then about two thirds of the way in he comes out with some praise for the EuroTour organisers for how clean they keep the tables, because 'there's a pandemic going on'! And starts to slag off tournament operators in the States for not cleaning the tables enough between matches and not being serious enough about the fact that there's a pandemic going on! The video will be a few months old at least (the EuroTour ended for the year just after the US Open), but hearing him say that with the knowledge we now have that he refused to get vaccinated was a pretty weird experience, especially as he went on about it for a good two or three minutes.

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