Tuesday, June 27, 2006

Tournament Snooker

I wasn't supposed to play, i wasn't there when they signed up, i went to school feeling very down on monday. I could see the excitement that was waiting to explode within the eyes of teck and yuan hong and the rest, they pitied me, but i was unconsolable, i didn't show it though, i just wished them good luck. During reccess, wei zhou was busy trying to cheer me up. Towards the end of the reccess, wei zhou realised his great folly, he realised that a team could have 4 reserves instead of two, he then wrote my name on the excuse form and since they already told mr yeo i was playing, it wasn't much of a problem. So i was really excited but a little doubtful that i can go. But i did, and in the end, we met mr yeo and took a cab here, me, teck, wei zhou, kenneth, yuan hong, darren and aaron. When we got there, most of the teams were already warming up, and we were late, we looked at the other teams, ACS(barker), presbyterian high, montfort, and several others, they were all so professionally dressed, outram sec even wore long sleeved shirts and black leather shoes, they had coaches and many teachers surrounding them, while we, rushed over with our bags, with mr yeo and our cues, and we looked nooby and unprofessional.

Our match started soon after, with teck siang playing first, against montfort secondary, and since i wasn't in the starting lineup, i was told to be a ref for the other teams...... how nice, looking and keeping score of 4 games of snooooker.... i was standing alone there, refing outram sec and presbyterian sec's match and their's was the slowest everrr match, they were all so dry, potting at first but spending the next hundreds and million minutes just hitting balls that don't go in.. so i watched teck's first match, he was freaked, the first in the tournament, against a small cute, cuddly, chubby, adorable sec 1-2 montfort kid. When they started, teck attempted to smash his confidence by potting a red and a blue, a total of 6 points, but the boy wasn't impressed, and instead, smashed teck's confidence, he was a powerhouse, he pocket balls with great accuracy and was a master of snooking, making teck unable to hit several balls, when i saw the boy's ball hitting streak, and teck's off form face, i knew for sure, the first match was gonna be there, teck looked like some idiot standing there, getting thrashed by a pro, and teck was playing unprofessionally, at that point, we thought we had underestimated the the level of play of the competition, i mouth to teck, "wake up!" and he managed a weak smile. Then, teck returned at the turn of the tide, he started making several good shots, and surprisingly, the young boy's confidence was shattered, the young boy seemed to turn to what teck was, he missed many shots and didn't play well, at first, when we saw the boy score point after point, i thought he must have got at least forty points. But when i saw teck running the table for a really long while, with the boy missing a trillion shots, without looking at the score, you'd surely have the gut feeling that teck's score must have leveled with the chap's score. And when i saw teck pot the colored balls, i thought that he must have far overtaken the lad, i was so engrossed with their match, i didn't even notice all the fouls that occured in my match, till my montfort helper told me. finally teck pocketed the black ball, then i saw him smiling happily and walking back , seized him and asked him if he won, he told me they drew, when he returned the others, wei zhou was hugging him and the others were just congratulating him, but afterwards, he was recalled to pot the black once more, to decide the winner, this was worrying for me, i was afraid he'd lost, he started and he missed, now it was the lad's turn, can he do what he did before? I mean, he's the super lad! how could he not? i thought to myself, he's gonna pot it, dude, he's superlad, but maybe because all that was left of his thin glass of confidence were tiny shards on the floor, he missed the middle pocket narrowly, our reaction were all, "whawaaaaaaa, heng ah...." And teck, being inconsistent today, worried us a little, but with ease, he potted the black, and we all clapped, what can we say? Nothing much but pure brilliance

A remarkable comeback, From a miserable thrashing, teck turned the tide and made an unbelievable comeback, who could have thought of that? I congratulate and commend teck on his brillance but i want to beat his buttocks for his inconsistency, but still, we had won amazing game in hand, next was Master Tian.

Master Tian was up against, who we believed was the best among them, we rejoiced, for we knew, we had the game in hand, for which best was good enough to beat that bloody veteran? In fact, wei zhou's matches are boring, no excitement, because we know for sure, that the opponent might as well walkover rather than play, cause wei zhou's gonna do what he does, to look like an old man and thrash the opponent. So ya, he lived up to his expectations, and he beat their best player not by alot, but well, still do what he went to do----with easeeee.

Next was kenneth, now this was pretty unsure, i wasn't sure about kenneth, i had an instinctive feeling that he would lose, because i just know kenneth's not meant to play snooker, so i told my instincts to shut up and i had to slap myself a few times before they did. I love my instincts! it was right again, kenneth played very badly, he even jumped a ball while trying to screw, if i'm not wrong... And he was thrashed 70 plus to 30 plus. When he got back, he received a big scolding from that tian kid, lots of criticism, tian kid was utterly disappointed.

Then next was another worry, it was aaron up, i say worry for i haven't really seen him play and according to wei zhou, he says he isn't very good, but having seen him play pool, i predicted that he'll be ok, but still lose, when he walked past me, i told him, "Win this aaron!" and he gave me that sly smile. We were all on tenterhooks, because we were unsure of his ability and with his first shot, he cannoned the cue ball and all the balls jumped about, with that kindof shot, ......, when i looked at wei zhou, he immediately covered his face in grieve. Luckily he was playing against their lousiest player, and although aaron played anyhow, he lost by one point. We went home punching our faces, knowing that we could've won.







Then Second day of the tournament was even more exciting, i told myself that i wouldn't go this time, but when i met wei zhou he told me i had to go, or we wouldn't make a team of 6, since kenneth doesn't want to go anymore, and wei zhou told me either me or yuan hong would play. We had many discussions and wei zhou told me to challenge yuan hong and that the winner shall play, at this time, i was afraid, i could thrash yuan hong easily in pool, but i have had many problems breaking through my psychological barrier he set up for me when i play snooker against him, he's a psychological bomb, you'll see later why in the upcoming exciting events that follow, and i, am a foolish brat who cannot control his emotions and his impatient. Throughout the chem lesson, i was nervous, nervous that i would not be able to play, and nervous about the match against outram if them play, because i've seen them play when i refed their match, they all had ear piercings and all looked intimidating, and they were pretty good. Wei zhou worked it all out, he said that if we lost the match against outram, as long as we win the match against presbyterian, we could progress into the semis, but if we won this match, and lost to pres, we might not, because outram beat pres and have 3 points, montfort have 1 point, we have 1 point, and pres have 0. If we lose, we keep our 1 point and will have 4 if we beat pres, and if pres beat montfort, they'll only have 3, and mont would also have 4, so we might still get in.

When it was time to go, i was really very fidgety. But with our wonderful 3e2 classmates cheering and supporting us, we grabbed hold of that little bit of confidence. When we reached there, we met a guy called jason whom mr yeo hired for a while to teach us. He told us to snook or play safe whenever we feel that we didn't have the confidence to pocket any shots, so me and yuan hong tried a few shots to see who'll get the place. I did, but i imagined myself for a moment, there, with the outram fella, i suddenly wanted to puke, i told wei zhou to let him play, i couldn't undertake the pressure and had totally no confidence of my skills, call me a coward, but i really wasn't ready that day. Lee Hexun is ranked at 3, the shark, the highest in TPA, notice the P in TPA stands for pool, and i excel in pool, not snooker, i was unsure of my snooker skills, and even if yuan hong goes down, let him drag his opponent down too! With Yuan hong there, his opponent might feel the need to see a psychiatrist or even call my mom for psychological help. This time, yuan hong was to start the ball rolling.

Yuan hong started and the match slowly progressed, we highly doubt yuan hong's pocketing skills, but we do not, for a single moment, doubt his psychological skills. Of course, yuan hong is the master of luck and suprise. From the start, just by looking at yuan hong's small and skinny frame, with that happy happy haha face and that never unsmiling smile, i'll say every snooker/pool player will surely think that they're gonna win, with a possibility of 98%. I was always that snooker/pool player, i've been tricked, and i'm happy that this time, i'm gonna see them get tricked, hahahahahha. Even teck commented, " I think the guy see yuan hong also no mood to play already.." We agreed, yuan hong was always laughing and smiling at his mistakes, and he played the game very slow, and snooked and played safe many many trillion times, we were all proud and unimpressed of him, because we know him. His pure personality plays the game, not him, before long, his opponent was frustrated, he kept missing and missing, and he was totally pissed, while yuan hong was missing and smiling, playing safe and grinning, now, who wouldn't be frustrated now? Looks like this guy is unable to beat yuan hong's psychological barrier, he was totally disheartened, and missed even the simplest of shots. And scratched (meaning, pocketing the cueball, which is a foul of 4 points, depending on the situation) 5-6 times, can you believe it? Yuan Hong dropped his never ceasing psychological bomb on that fella, beat and killed 6899 x 10^49 of his brain cells and stole like, forty points! We never gave up hope on yuan hong, when he made mistakes, i was at the seats to give him a thumbs up and we were all laughing at the game, with that happy happy haha yuan hong face and that totally flustered opponent's face. Yuan Hong committed a grave mistake, and lost 4 crucial points, the opponent, having been psyched, potted the green and the cueball too. Yuan Hong didn't know they respotted the green, so he proceeded to aim for the brown, at that moment, we were all like: lskdghjsngnwqngwkrng;knwergnqn~~~~~~~~!!!!!!!!!!!! OY!!!!!!!!!!! Until i couldn't stand it i shouted Yuan Hong! Yuan Hong looked over with that question mark look, and i couldn't tell him, if not it wouldn't be fair, but yuan hong wasn't aware of his impending doom, and all we could do was, .....oh no! And he did it, when Yuan Hong realised his mistake, he laughed, hahah. Another crucial mistake was when the opponent, being too psychologically disturbed, scratched again, yuan hong had a clear and easy shot, and he missed, in the end, yuan hong lost by a margin, but we were all eager to congratulate him, for losing, haha, but no, we were proud of him for almost killing his opponent, his opponent was on the verge of going totally crazy, he was already 80% psyched. And we were all laughing with yuan hong, we called him the feeder, he pocketed less than 5 balls but went head to head with that guy and fed on his flaws and mistakes, and he managed to suck out 40 over points! THATS STUNNING! TO GAIN 40++ POINTS BY BEING HIMSELF??!!@!@ I was very happy with his performance and i stole him away to have a snack with him, there, i was busy telling him how unbelieveable he was and that i couldn't have got that far if i played (i'm unsure). I was really glad that day.

Then was teck, and he played against an indian, who was said by a few of us to be the best, teck, influenced by jason's word of advice to play safe when you've no confidence, totally wrecked his own game, teck, was an aggresive player, and for the whole game, he daren't pocket many balls for he wanted to play safe. It was a really tough match, and he lost 40-48. He was totally psyched by them, their whole team was there cheering that fella and disturbing teck, and their coach was really really irritating, all teck had was me, wei zhou, and yuan hong quietly standing behind him. But i congratulate Teck, nerves of steel, to play against their best is one mean mean feat. Teck Siang went back to the seats cursing nonstop, he wasn't happy about losing, and said that that guy wasn't even their best, he wasn't happy, and he cursed jason for disrupting his style of play. But he really put up a good fight.

Next was that boring guy tian, we didn't even bother to be excited, it'll just be another boring win, i shan't elaborate, all i can say is, he gave that guy alot of chance, but what else more can i say?


Last of all was Aaron, against another rumoured best, by then, we were the only team playing, and everyone was watching us. They started, and we were all curious at that chap's style of play, he seemed very good, but either he was frustrated at missing some shots and having his frustration influence him, or he really was a lousy player. But aaron played very well, much better then he did yesterday, he was serious, but cold, he even borrowed a sweater from another player from presbyterian. Aaron received several applauses from the spectators and surprised us, we were pretty amazed, and throughout the end, we were convinced that that fella was a noob, cause he kept missing. But during the last few shots, while we were clinging on to hope of winning, that guy just potted the pink and the black so easily, then we realised, he's good, haha, we lost, again, but we came here expecting to lose, we have to beat presbyterian tomorrow or teck would have to go to detention on thurs, hhaha. And we were kindof worried as pres beat montfort today, although that adorable boy was a steamroller against one of the pres guys and totally flattened him, maybe yesterday he was err, unlucky? Judging by yuan hong's superb play today, i declined to play tomorrow for i believe, to play yuan hong would be a much better effect. We'll see if teck goes to detention on thurs by tomorrow morning, goodbye.

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