Return with me now to the rural farmlands outside of Insch, where I spent last weekend with Calum and Roberta Burnet, a gentleman farmer and a special ed teacher ...
On our first night at the Burnet's house Keith and I were treated to a veritable late night feast. Bustling about the kitchen with an obvious love of guests, Roberta laid before us roast beef, potatoes, salad, wine, and tea. Hungry after a 3.5 hour bus ride (where I had made another 150 page dent in David Copperfield), Keith and I dug in with a gusto equal to that of a cold, wet American WWII soldier being taken into a sympathetic local house after a week spent crawling amongst French hedgerows in avoidance of Nazi tanks--we were that hungry.
Soon after dinner, Andrew, the eldest son, introduced Keith and I to the amazing world of snooker. With Daft Punk's "Discovery" issuing from the stereo, we proceeded to learn the intricacies of a game much more complicated and intellectually-stimulating than plain ol' pool.
As you can see in the above picture, there are a lot more balls on the table (and in the case of a full-size table, the table itself is much larger). The red balls are the generic common ball; the colored balls arrayed around the table are representative of different point values. Starting at the head of the table, you break the red balls like you would break up a rack in pool. From there, though, there is a whole world of difference. The goal for the first part of the game is to knock in a red ball, then a colored ball following. If you can manage that combination you are able to pick up points (1 point for the red ball + however many points the colored ball is worth). There is a point counter built onto the Burnet's basement wall just for this purpose. So you keep knocking in red balls and colored balls until all the red balls are off the table (a note: in this round you replace the colored balls on the table after knocking them in a hole). After the red balls are all gone, you have to knock all the colored balls in while following an ascending point order. If you EVER miss a shot, beware the penalties. Miss a red ball and your opponent gets 4 points. Miss a shot at a 7 point ball (the black one) and your opponent gets 7. Often, games are decided not by what you make, but by what you miss.
Where, you may ask, does the term "snooker" come from? If you have to hit a certain ball, but another ball is in the way, making a direct shot impossible, you are "snookered." Think of it as a polite, snobby British euphemism for "fucked." So, since you get points when your opponent can't hit the proper ball, you always want to snooker your opponent--it takes a lot of pressure off you if they are constantly in a battle not to screw up.
Needless to say, Keith and I were hooked. He beat me by one point in the first game, then we played as a team to lose to Andrew by about 40 points. We played three more times while we were there, eventually evening the score at 2 games to 2 games (Can you smell a rematch? I sure can).
Coming either in a few hours or tomorrow, depending on when I get to it.... our visit to a whisky distillery and a castle (with ghosts and Shetland ponies, oh my!)
On our first night at the Burnet's house Keith and I were treated to a veritable late night feast. Bustling about the kitchen with an obvious love of guests, Roberta laid before us roast beef, potatoes, salad, wine, and tea. Hungry after a 3.5 hour bus ride (where I had made another 150 page dent in David Copperfield), Keith and I dug in with a gusto equal to that of a cold, wet American WWII soldier being taken into a sympathetic local house after a week spent crawling amongst French hedgerows in avoidance of Nazi tanks--we were that hungry.
Soon after dinner, Andrew, the eldest son, introduced Keith and I to the amazing world of snooker. With Daft Punk's "Discovery" issuing from the stereo, we proceeded to learn the intricacies of a game much more complicated and intellectually-stimulating than plain ol' pool.
As you can see in the above picture, there are a lot more balls on the table (and in the case of a full-size table, the table itself is much larger). The red balls are the generic common ball; the colored balls arrayed around the table are representative of different point values. Starting at the head of the table, you break the red balls like you would break up a rack in pool. From there, though, there is a whole world of difference. The goal for the first part of the game is to knock in a red ball, then a colored ball following. If you can manage that combination you are able to pick up points (1 point for the red ball + however many points the colored ball is worth). There is a point counter built onto the Burnet's basement wall just for this purpose. So you keep knocking in red balls and colored balls until all the red balls are off the table (a note: in this round you replace the colored balls on the table after knocking them in a hole). After the red balls are all gone, you have to knock all the colored balls in while following an ascending point order. If you EVER miss a shot, beware the penalties. Miss a red ball and your opponent gets 4 points. Miss a shot at a 7 point ball (the black one) and your opponent gets 7. Often, games are decided not by what you make, but by what you miss.
Where, you may ask, does the term "snooker" come from? If you have to hit a certain ball, but another ball is in the way, making a direct shot impossible, you are "snookered." Think of it as a polite, snobby British euphemism for "fucked." So, since you get points when your opponent can't hit the proper ball, you always want to snooker your opponent--it takes a lot of pressure off you if they are constantly in a battle not to screw up.
Needless to say, Keith and I were hooked. He beat me by one point in the first game, then we played as a team to lose to Andrew by about 40 points. We played three more times while we were there, eventually evening the score at 2 games to 2 games (Can you smell a rematch? I sure can).
Coming either in a few hours or tomorrow, depending on when I get to it.... our visit to a whisky distillery and a castle (with ghosts and Shetland ponies, oh my!)
posted by The Oracles @ 10:05 PM
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