“Tis a tale of woe that I have to tell you all about this fine crisp morning in late October.” As you who follow my postings telling all about the exploits of the team DIDN’T SEE THAT HAPPENING, playing out of the Sunbury Steam Company Number One;s may already know, we are on quite a successful session thus far in the long fall/winter session. Last night was match number 9 out of 16 weeks. We have accumulated a grand total of 84 points thus far , counting last night. That is a blistering pace of over 9 points per match. That projects out to a whopping 144 points for the session, which would be far and away the leagues best. There has been one small glitch so far for us, a blemish that we carry and MUST learn how to overcome if we have any hope of becoming the league champion at the end of it all. We must find a way of defeating one of our sister teams who also play out of our venue. We have played the team so ably Captained by Jean Hummel, now twice and have yet to crack the win column in either of those two battles. They are not doing very well as far as their total number of points as is prominently displayed from week to week on our score sheets. They have a formidable lineup from top to bottom, yet they struggle as they go merrily along the way. But it appears that as long as we are still in the hunt, they have a patsy when we must play them. Go figure , right ? Last night as the two Captains approached the table to execute the coin toss, there was almost a sense of foreboding hanging in the air. Yes, I am being a bit dramatic, but it is my story isn’t it ? Captains Jean and Captain , My Captain Dwayne met, Dwayne flipped the quarter and Captain Jean called out TAILS. Of course, given our recent luck , George ate felt , so to speak, which gave her the win with the coin toss. She asked Captain, My Captain Dwayne to post the first player to begin our Waterloo. Look it up my friends, it is not a good thing for soldiers or pool players. The other Duane on our team was chosen to start our night and Jean sent out a very game and handicapped shooter by the name of Mike Stahl. I say handicapped in the sense that Mike had a very secure bandage get up on his left hand. It was a bit awkward for him as he was playing but do not waste much sympathy on him my friends. His ability was barely hindered as he shot ball after ball in the pockets before him. He is a skill level 4 while Duane Friday is a lowly level 3. Duane actually won game one as he too struggled with his shot making skill. Still, that one win meant that we would get at least one point for the match no matter who won the skirmish. But a good game by Mike , in spite of the obvious pain that he was in sealed Duanes fate as he fell by the score of 3 games to 1 which made the initial team score 2-1 in their favor. I must point out that young Mike had broken his left thumb in FOUR places at his job, when he got it caught somehow in the conveyor belt. Good luck getting that healed up my young friend. So for match number two Captain Jean sent out her grizzled ace in the hole, Nick Zimmerman. It is painful watching this man as he struggles around the table during his matches. He is scheduled for a hip operation in January. While I do not have nearly the pronounced limp that Nick goes through, I can certainly sympathize with him. It does not seem to hinder his shooting very much. That, my friends, is real determination and dedication to this crazy game we call pool. After Captain , My Captain Dwayne and I talked a bit I said that I thought that he should play against Nick. Captain , My Captain fought very hard to win game number one, Nick struggled mightily to win games 2 and 3, which put him on the hill and in position to win their match. Captain , My Captain Dwayne then put on his big boy pants and took care of business to win games 4 and 5 and that gave him the win. So two matches into the night and we had settled exactly nothing except that we were tied at 3-3 going into match number 3. And what an epic match it promised to be as Captain Jean sent out her sharpshooting husband, Mike to battle one of the rising stars in our little league, Jason Linn. Both of these players are rated as skill level 6 players and both deservedly so. Mike won game 1 while Jason took game 2. Each would need to win four more games for the victory. Once again, they traded wins in the next two games to bring each player to 2 wins each. And , again for games 5 and 6. A game seven win for Mike put him on the hill while Jason still needed to win 2 games. Jason gave him a good match, at least I thought so , but could not overcome the shot making skill of Mr. Hummel and lost game 8 and the match by the score of 5-3. That resulted in a team score of 2-0 for team Hummel, and brought the overall team score now to 5-3 for the visitors. In an attempt to right the sinking ship, Captain , My Captain sent out my sharp shooting wife , Fast Eddie to get us back on the right track so we might be able to pull our asses out of the fire that we were surely in. She would be facing their skill level 2 , Jason Manuziak. This Manchild is a work in progress as he struggles with a slight handicap as he shoots. He tries to follow direction from some of their more experienced players and does make some nice shots. Eddie won game number 1 and was looking to lock up a win for the home team. But then a funny thing happened that had none of us laughing, as she was finishing off game 2, Eddie scratched on the eight ball, giving Jason the win and putting him on the hill to snatch victory from the jaws of defeat. But my wife has not yet lost a match of eight ball and was not going to go down without a fight, as young Jason would soon enough learn. Eddie dispatched him by winning the last two games and the resulting team score of 2-1 brought the overall team score now to 6-5 in favor of the visitors. So there we were both teams on the precipice of victory. We posted for match number 5 and Captain , My Captain Dwayne sent out one of our normally dependable players, Mr. Mike , call me Reverend,Carl to the table. Mike is a level 4 player and Captain Jean sent out one of the steadiest level 3 players in the league. Neil Altiers to play for the win. All Mike had to do was win the match and we would have been victorious. It could have been 7-5 , 8-6 with a skunk win, or even a 2-1 win would have given us a very hard fought 7-7 tie. But the fates are not always kind, so we would soon find out. Mike lost game 1 and that sealed our doom for this match as Neil now needed only to finish his match no matter how the next several games went. Mike did manage to win game 2 but the loss was already assured and when he lost game 3 on an eight ball scratch, it was over. The final tally was 8-5 as we lost our second match in a row. While we have a very big lead in the team standings we hope to get back to kicking asses and taking names next week when we visit the venerable team from the Selinsgrove Moose. John Kinney and his team will be waiting or us, eager to knock us off of our pedestal. Until next week my friends, and may god bless you all
Posted on: Tue, 28 Oct 2014 13:47:31 +0000
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