Eight-Ball or Blackball?

Some useless information for you!

There isn't much to do in Aber most nights of the week, so for some time I've been trying to get my work mates to join me in a couple of games of pool. This evening I finally succeeded - only, the game they were used to calling pool was not the game I call pool.

Now as far as I was aware, there were only three games you could play on a Billiards table: Billiards, Snooker and Pool.

Billiards and Snooker are the same game both here and at home.

Billiards is the game where you have two cue balls and a red ball and you score up to 12 points depending on whether you can get just the red ball in, or the red and your opponents ball in... I think. I never really understood Billiards, and I think I always thought that Billiards was actually Snooker, but when I think about it, I do know the difference.

Snooker is the game where you have one white cue ball, 15 red balls worth one point each, and six balls of different colours; those being yellow (worth 2 points), green (3), brown (4), blue (5), pink (6) and black (7). You have to pocket a red ball first and then you can pocket a coloured ball and the coloured ball gets replaced after the score is recorded until all the red balls are done and then you pocket the coloured balls in order... or thereabouts. This was the game I learned to play with my friend Nick Burden back when I was 9 or so - he had a table in his back room, and was Brilliant at it.

The game of Pool however, is a completely different kettle of fish. There is not one, but two games played under the name of Pool: Eight-Ball, an American game which is what is known as Pool in most of the rest of the world, and Blackball, which is the English version of the same game.

No wonder I was confused. The rules are remarkably similar, but the table and the balls are not.

The game I know is the American game. It has a white cue ball, the black 8-ball (logically so called 'cause it has the number 8 on it!) and then seven striped and seven plain balls of various colours with numbers on them. You are assigned either the striped or plain balls, and win when you have first pocketed your seven balls and then successfully pocketed the black. I spent many enjoyable evenings with Amy, Marty, DB, Jase and others at the Norwood pool hall playing this - which I always called pool.

The English version of the game has a white cue ball, a black ball and seven red and seven yellow balls. The balls are slightly lighter and slightly smaller than their American cousins and the balls aren't numbered. The tables are also slightly smaller, and have smaller pockets - just larger than the balls - which are hard edged, rather than the softer ones we often see at home. I played this for the first time the other night at a farewell do - but I don't remember what we called it... the evening was sober for me, but not for my companions. I don't think the name came up actually... :D

From the discussions we had tonight, I believe that the rules are pretty much the same. Fouls, when you pocket the white ball or your opponents ball, or when you miss a shot, lead to a double shot for the other side seem to be the same. You still have to pocket all your balls and then the black to win and if you pocket the white after the black, you still lose. But as with any game, the 'House' rules also apply.

Anyway, all this was leading to me learning a few things and having a great evening. I taught the English guys how to play 8-ball pool, and then proceeded to get walloped for the first three games. I thankfully won my last two, thus saving myself from complete disgrace, but will have to pick up my game if I'm to have any hope of a reasonable reputation. Next week we're going to play Blackball and I expect to get even more soundly walloped... but them's the breaks. :)

GTHBA.

Oi Vay! And on a school night too...

I had intended on going to see the new version of Rent on Monday night. Jase was available and Nick is in town – it seemed a perfect opportunity. I failed to take into account the dismal reception of this re-vamped musical however. It was so unpopular and so badly attended that it closed…last weekend. Crap. Damn, botheration, and just…well…Bugger!

So, instead of a night of music, Nick, Jase and I met up with 3 of Nicks friends and went out to dinner instead. The venue was Sitaaray, a Bollywood inspired Indian restaurant, complete with photos of famous Indian actors crammed onto every available wall space and televisions playing selected dance sequences from undoubtedly famous movies. I haven’t seen much Bollywood, so I’m not sure I can comment on that part. The food however, was really good and the company was excellent, so the meal was a success. Replete with endless curries and more than a couple of beers, we moved on to find better opportunities for conversation…

We met up with J’s better half, K, at a wine bar called the Cork and Bottle. Here, a selection of very smelly cheeses were had, accompanied by a couple of bottles of a Coonawarra sparkling red, and as previously stated, lots of conversation…lovely.

A little more unsteadily now, someone decided that it was time to head home but that we’d just go for a night cap to polish off the evening, so we moved on to Camden. Here we met up with J’s flatmate James at the Oxford something, and K and I had a couple of Whisky and Gingers (another great invention of the English – Ginger Ale takes the edge off the whisky and makes it so much easier to drink…?!?) whilst the boys had more beer and more whisky... The end result of which was that we closed the bar. By this time Nick was singing loudly in French and it was about four hours past my bed time and I am still not up to full strength, so I dragged our carcass’s home and crashed.

It was a really fun evening. I enjoyed catching up with the boys and girls and the food and company were both excellent… the only problem being that today I couldn’t stop yawning, and I wanted to go to sleep so badly… I think I will do that now in fact. G’night.