| [ HOME ] |
| IPT Tournament Call by Grady Mathews July 31, 2006 I run six miles a day, with hills, and practice my pool four hours. I was well prepared for the IPT tournament in Las Vegas and thought I had an excellent chance to win the whole thing. One thing I hadn't worked on was what my first opponent hit me with. He broke the balls so badly that there was always much congestion around the spot at the foot end of the table. I attempted to run out when I should have played safe. I fell behind, four games to none. "Well," I thought to myself, "This is a great opportunity to come from behind, to show heart and intelligence and ultimately prevail". I realized that to do that I'd have to change tactics. So I began to play safe more often and take extra time with my shot selection. I clawed and fought and brought the score to six to four, him. In game eleven, I win the first good shot and I run the whole rack out to the eight ball. I had had to move the eight ball on the previous shot and it traveled a bit farther than intended but it came to rest in a position where I could make it legally about ninety five per cent of the time (see the picture). Our referee happened to be right at the table. I motioned to him to watch the shot. He stood right over my shoulder, some six feet from the shot. "You might want to watch from here," I said and gestured to where the shot was, on the other side of the table. This he ignored and as an afterthought because warning sparks were beginning in my mind, "I'm gonna shoot it real easy," I stated. The relative speed of the two involved balls and the directions they go are things a good official will watch for when making this type of call. He or she will also know that when a hit is especially close the benefit of the doubt goes to the shooter. I was pretty sure my guy was blissfully unaware of these things. I used two tips of right hand english, shot gently and twisted the eight ball legally into the pocket. The fourteen ball came to rest as shown with the letter X in the picture, which meant of course, that the shot one hundred per cent had to be legal. It's not physically possible to make a bad hit here, while shooting easily and have the fourteen ball end up where it did. I'm really excited now and feel like I might run out the set. I turn to get my break cue and change the score to six games to five, when I hear the impossible-- "Foul," the referee hollers. To keep this tale short, I don't even get to return to the table. The inept referee awarded that game to my opponent and he promptly broke and ran out the last game. Of course if the jerk of an opponent had had any class, he wouldn't have accepted such a bad call. Get angry? You have no idea, gentle readers, what was going through my mind or what I would like to have done. I stopped just short of being permanently barred from the IPT with how I reacted and the language I used. It was just so unfair. I wasn't given any recourse, either. My confidence and self worth as a player are at an all time low. I'm beaten, violated, discouraged and honestly don't know if I'll ever get over this. It's the worst thing that ever happened to me at a tournament. I saw many other horrible calls during this otherwise great affair. Kevin and Deno, I respectfully submit that if you want controversy, there are better ways to get it. We are playing for a lot of money. I sure hope I don't have another important call come up, with the IPT refs. Grady (Professor) Mathews Grady101@sc.rr.com |
|
| I had had to move the eight ball on the previous shot and
it traveled a bit farther than intended but it came to rest in a
position where I could make it legally about ninety five per cent of
the time (shown above).
I used two tips of right hand english, shot gently and twisted the
eight ball legally into the pocket. The fourteen ball came to rest as
shown with the letter X above. This means, of course, that the
shot one hundred per cent had to be legal. It is not physically possible
to make a bad hit here, while shooting easily and have the fourteen
ball end up where it did. - Grady Mathews |
| [ HOME ] [ TOP ] |