APA Billiards League - Austin, TX

We play 5 matches and the goal is to win 5 - 0 against the opposing team, which is difficult. A 3 - 2 win makes my night and we consider it a win for the team.

I played the first match tonight and won by just a hair. It was double hill and he was on his last ball before the 8 ball and I was on the 8. I shot at it twice and completely missed the pocket - poor execution on my part. I got lucky and had the opportunity to shoot at it one more time, and finally sunk it on the 3rd try to bring in a win. I love games that go double hill - it means both players played a great game for it to get that far.

I forgot to mention that I lost the lag, so my name is on the "bottom" frame of the score sheet since the person that wins the lag is on the "top" frame. This is important and it comes into play by the time I finish writing this.

Our 2nd player goes up and wins the lag and is the "top" of the frame. He plays an excellent match, but the opponent wins.

Our 3rd player goes up and wins the lag and again, is the "top" of the frame. He plays a great match, but the opponent wins.

Ok, halt for a moment. I'm staring at the score sheet and I see that the person that wins the lag, loses the match on the past 3 matches. Statistically, that means I can forecast that whoever loses the lag will bring in a win.

I whisper jokingly to my other two teammates before they play, "be sure to lose the lag and you'll win the game." They just laugh at me...and I would do the same if someone said that to me. They both lose the lag, not because I said it, but it just happened. Guess what? They both shoot lights out - solid, very solid and win their matches.

So, all players on the bottom frames won their matches. Who says it's always better to be on top? Sometimes losing a small something brings you great rewards. Funny how it happened.

Summing it up, team did wonderful and we went 3 - 2 for the night. Good shootin'and let's do it again next week! They were tough matches tonight and we pulled it off! If this game was easy, we wouldn't be fanatics about it and keep bringing us back. *smiles*

Time to get some rest, daylight will be here soon.