The first five teams in the Chiang Mai Pool League took
winning points in last week’s matches, with La Villa victims to Half
Moon’s backlash, The Wall returning to form and Chiangers and Bangers,
Blue Sky Bar and The Local trundling on relentlessly.
F
of Out Back trying the masse shot.
After two consecutive defeats, league leaders Half Moon
Pub bounced back with a vengeance by whopping the “Pizza Boys” from La
Villa 8-1 and maintaining their two point lead at the top. But Chiangers and
Bangers kept in contention with a home win over Out Back.
A hopeful Out Back side soon found themselves 0-4 down
and although they took the last two singles, lost the match to a strong
Chiangers side in the first doubles. Blue Sky Bar made short work of beating
Rock Hard Bistro away 7-2 and The Wall was equally impressive in a 6-3 win
against Blue Sky Garden.
However, The Local can count themselves a little
fortunate in overcoming a resistant Happy Bar 5-4. There’s a saying that
one should always nominate a pocket for the black no matter what the
situation. Being snookered on the final ball in the third game, Happy’s
Aum clearly stated no bag before proceeding to cleverly escape the snooker,
only to see the black disappear down the only hole available. We live and
learn.
Elsewhere, Friend’s Corner hauled their side up two
places to sixth position in the league with a convincing 6-3 win at home to
December Bar, and Enjoy Place grabbed the points at Number 1 Pub by
capitalizing on a 4-2 singles lead with a win in the first doubles.
In last Thursday’s rearranged match between Enjoy Place
and Rock Hard Bistro, the Bistro ran out 5-4 winners.
When watching pool room scenes in a movie, I usually get
frustrated by not seeing the ball positions on the table or even a proper
shot being played. That wasn’t the case, however, in the 1961 film “The
Hustler”, where Paul Newman took the leading role as “Fast Eddie”
Felson and Jackie Gleason, the legendary Minnesota Fats.
In lengthy pool play sequences shown on screen, the
actors themselves took all the shots, bar the masse, in which the cue is
addressed almost perpendicular to the table in order to screw the cue ball
around an obstructing ball, and 14 times World Champion Willie Mosconi was
asked to give the performance. Unfortunately, this scene created a movie
gaffe, as a house rule sign behind the table in question at the Ames
Poolroom clearly stated on film, “No Masse Shots”.
Fifteen years later, Tom Cruise joined up with Newman for
a sequel to “The Hustler” called “The Color of Money”. Known for
working his own stunts, Cruise insisted on playing all the pool shots
himself, but like Newman before him, one remained elusive. Director, Martin
Scorsese, wanted Cruise to learn the shot, but the estimated two days
tuition would have held up production and cost thousands of dollars, so top
professional, Mike Sigel, stepped in to do the honors.
The shot that got away from Cruise was jumping the cue ball over two
balls to intentionally pocket a third ball. Try it sometime, but mind the
cloth.
