Thursday night my APA 9 ball team played at the Elks in Woburn. Was a nice team to play against in the sense that they where good sports in all levels of play, which no drama was a nice change of pace. They had two tables in a small room in the back so room was a little tight, the tables looked as though they needed a little repair but other than that it was a decent little place to play.

So the first two matches went by without too much fanfare.  I forget the specific details but we lost the first won and then won the second one.  At the end of the those two matches I believe the score was 21 to 19 with us in the lead by two points.  My captain then throws me up to which the opposing team answered back by putting up their 6 to make it an even race to 46 points.  If I remembered I had played this person before and when we are both on it is usually a fairly evened match up.

So I was shooting pretty well that night and the first rack ended up going 9 to 1 in low innings.  I proceeded to make balls which I could see the few shots that he did get where so far apart it was hard for him to get into the groove of making balls.  He was very quiet during the match as he was upset that he could not do better.  As the match went on I continued making shots.  I had a couple of opportunities to get a 9 ball break and run but I seemed to miss it every time by a few balls here and there.  I wasn't disappointed as I was still shooting very well.  By the end of the match he had 11 points to the 46 points I had.  In total the match took 10 innings and the final score gave me a 19 to 1 victory for my team.

So going into the 4th and 5th matches my team was up 40 to 20 only needing to get 11 points in total.  Seeing as I had a long drive home ahead of me I decided to say my good matches and farewells.  The 4th match ended up in a 14 to 6 final score giving us a total of 46 points and our opponents 34 points.  Meaning our 5th match player needed to lose by no less than 15 points to 5 points in order for us to get to 51 points in total for the win.  He ended up losing 17 points to 3.  It was a nice come back for the Elks team to advance.

This night shows that no matter how down or out you think your team may be, to never count yourselves out.  I am sure their morale was low at the end of the 3rd match as we only needed to get 11 points combined for the 4th and 5th matches.  I hope they are able to make the best of them advancing in the Almost Made It bracket to make it to the LTC's in Lawrence.  In the end I feel I gave a great effort for my team even though I am not remaining on that team for the following sessions.  Well it feels good to write a positive entry for a change.  May your aim be true and your leaves be what you are looking for.