Yesterday evening we, team Foul and a Miss, played our last competition game of this season and lost badly to the other team from our snooker center. Okay, okay, so we lost eight frames to one, there I said it. That one frame might have been my most pleasant frame of snooker of the entire season. Somehow playing Wilco brings out the very best snooker in me and I guess one of the reasons why is that his way of playing snooker is almost exactly my own way of playing it, making it an altogether excellent sport when we meet. Simply brilliant. On a side note, the guys on his team needed those frames a whole lot more than we did anyway and it's not that we gave them away or anything. On a good day they are simply a bit better and yesterday evening we just couldn't break their defense. Speaking of defense ... What another member of the club explained to me after the game is still sticking in my mind and I have major trouble letting go of it. He stated that the game those guys play is the most negative form of snooker thinkable, as opposed to our own extremely positive form of snooker. What he explained is that that no matter how positive you play, as long as your opponent is only a fraction better than you are, you'll never ever win from him, simply because of that extremely negative way of playing the game. And here we were, thinking snooker was one of the more noble sports left in the world while what actually happens, on our level mind you, is that it's a classic battle of good versus evil. D*mnit ... it's The Force vs the gorram Dark Side all over again ... Those of us using The Force are the ball potting bread. If we spot something resembling half a chance we go for it one hundred percent and basically hope for the best. If it works out the way we hoped, we're in the green. But the problems start when it doesn't work out. Us ball potters, next to the actual potting of the first red, need one vital thing to keep on going and that is a good position to make the next shot. In order to achieve that position we sometimes have to give up a little bit of precision to make this position happen, because it not always comes all by itself. When we take on a shot there are basically three situations thinkable: 1. We pot the red, have the position on a color and pot it 2. We pot the red, have the position on a color and miss it 3. We miss the red all together Well now, let's talk about the possible consequences. 1. No problem, we simply pot the next red and move on 2. Big problem. Since we missed our color but were focusing on potting it and get the good position our opponent now has the perfect (if we are that good) position for his first red. Easy starter for his break. 3. Possibly a problem. We might have missed our red, but were playing for a position on the color so if we're lucky we're not leaving a easy red for our opponent. So far it sounds like a normal game of snooker the way you'd expect it to be played, right? I thought so too. However ... What was explained to me last night is how the Dark Side thinks and it came as a complete shock to me. I never thought of thinking about playing snooker as a battle between good and evil but believe me those guys can not be having any fun playing snooker. Not no more. And here's why: When you've missed your color and they go for that red they will usually roll it in and keep it near the cushions with a fifty-fifty chance of getting position on a color. When they take on the color they always make sure the cue ball ends up very close to the cushions, preferably on one of the small cushions but generally high up the table over the baulk colors or low under the black for example. The reason for this way of playing the game is incredibly sad but unfortunately very simple: under no circumstances whatsoever will they want to leave you anything to have a go at in case they miss their first pot. So in a way what they do is play for position as well but while doing so constantly think in absolute negative 'what if' doom scenarios. How 'bout that for a sportive event. Amazing isn't it? I tell you when this was explained to me yesterday I actually felt my stomach turn, almost like getting sick, that's how hard it hit me. In all those years that I've been playing snooker I never knew. Just think of it, the Dark Side is deliberately playing a extremely negative game, with as less potting as possible so the ball potters are getting frustrated with themselves and create the chances. Then the Dark Side comes in, take what they need and go safe again. Why does the Dark Side play like this? To the best of my mind I can't think of a solid reason. In my humble opinion snooker is about potting the balls. Simple as that. For crying out loud, those pockets are there for a reason right? It's like being in a boxing game and dance around the ring, evading your opponent long enough for him to finally get a heart attack and drop dead. No Sir, boxing is about facing the other guy and knock his lights out. It's just that simple and with snooker it's nothing different. For the record I'm positive that during my frame versus Wilco it was The Force versus The Force and that's why I enjoy playing him so much. I'm pretty sure that when a professional snooker player, playing in a major tournament, applied the Dark Side's 'tactics', the referee would at some point come up and have a serious talk with the chap. The public wants to see the players do their best to get the balls get knocked in the best way they know how, not that sad depressing snooker game the Dark Side is playing, come on! That boxer I referred to just now? Should he 'win' that game and leave the stadium I bet he had to dance all the way home to keep the angry crowd of his back. If you are a fellow snooker player out there reading this and would like to shed some light on this issue then I'd love to hear from you as from now on my main goal will be to find out exactly how this tactic works and a way to beat it. I will have none of that no more, I'm playing snooker to pot balls and not to be somebody else's dummy and get kicked around. Sorry for the long post, thanks for sticking with me this far.