Flukiest Shot

[Chris_Sav]

Played our League Cup Final tonight and watched KP play one of the flukiest shots I have ever seen, especially at a critical point in a final!!

Plays a cr@p shot and leaves the ball slap bang in the middle about 3 inches in front of the 100 hole. Wacks the ball off the cushion and one goes down the 100 hole and the other down the 50 hole, gets the break back and wins the leg!!

What's your flukiest shot???

Sav.

[Kevin Pringle (R.I.P.)]

I thought it was skill ;)

Anyway stop moning I was on your side.
How does that song go 'We are the champions' :D

kpringle said:

I thought it was skill ;)

Anyway stop moning I was on your side.
How does that song go 'We are the champions' :D

Well done mate ;) I can remember a certain mister blobbie in the winter league just gone.
The ball was tight on the line and he smacked it trying to keep both balls in play. You won't believe what happened ::) :D
The ball hit 2 cushions and straight in the 200 hole. That was a fluke. He also missed the red on a break shot but I won't go in to too much detail ;D ;D ;D

[Mark James]

Although I did not witness this myself, the flukiest shot I have ever heard of was described to me by (the impeccably reliable) Pete O'Brien, who was the scorer in a mixed doubles match involving Peter Rourke & Sheila Pinner (as she was then).

In the deciding game of 3, Peter Rourke had a potentially decisive 6k break going, and the object ball was on the back cushion between the right hand 20 & 30 holes. On it's way towards the object ball, the cue ball ploughed straight through the right hand peg, knocking it over.

However, the peg fell in such a way that the metal bit that sticks out of the side landed in the path of the cue ball. The ball rolled over the metal, which caused the peg to flip up in the air, and it came to rest approx. 2 inches off it's spot but, astonishingly, upright!

Meanwhile, the cue ball continued onwards towards the back cushion, where it struck the object ball as intended, potting both of them, and enabling him to carry on with his match-winning break, which he duly did.

Any advance on that?

Mark's offering as described would undoubtedly warrant an entry in the top ten of flukiest shots, but the other nine entries would probably originate from the "magic wand" of John Turner:

An incident at the George and Dragon is still local folklore, when a violent miscue shot balls around the table off all three cushions and a 100 as well as a 200 was potted. He didn't bat an eyelid, carried on and claimed the shot was "played for". Maybe KP and JT are related ? ;D ;D ;D

[Kevin Pringle (R.I.P.)]

It was skill I tell ya :D

[barneybear]

markjames said:

In the deciding game of 3, Peter Rourke had a potentially decisive 6k break going, and the object ball was on the back cushion between the right hand 20 & 30 holes. On it's way towards the object ball, the cue ball ploughed straight through the right hand peg, knocking it over.

However, the peg fell in such a way that the metal bit that sticks out of the side landed in the path of the cue ball. The ball rolled over the metal, which caused the peg to flip up in the air, and it came to rest approx. 2 inches off it's spot but, astonishingly, upright!

Meanwhile, the cue ball continued onwards towards the back cushion, where it struck the object ball as intended, potting both of them, and enabling him to carry on with his match-winning break, which he duly did.

In my present job I do sometimes encounter the aforementioned Mr Rourke (usually in a licenced premise). Next time I see him I will let him know that his ability is still remembered in bar billiards circles!

tommo said:

Mark's offering as described would undoubtedly warrant an entry in the top ten of flukiest shots, but the other nine entries would probably originate from the "magic wand" of John Turner:
An incident at the George and Dragon is still local folklore, when a violent miscue shot balls around the table off all three cushions and a 100 as well as a 200 was potted. He didn't bat an eyelid, carried on and claimed the shot was "played for". Maybe KP and JT are related ? ;D ;D ;D

Young Kev (BB Reaper) was able to witness the Turner Jam from close range last night.
Shot one was supposed to be a "one-up" shot, which saw both balls hurtling towards the pockets, then the left one suddenly stopped dead on the lip of the pocket as if pulled back by an invisible thread. :o
And later in the game one came back off the far cush at a rate of knots (and I was scoring, so could see by the look of anguished concern that it wasn't intended) and it went straight down the 200 without even touching the sides. ::)

[NigelS]

Well Reevsey played a very flukey shot against me in the recent Worthing off the spot quarter finals.

On around 3k he left a ball in the middle of the table between the 100 and 10 holes.
Playing with a lot of side he miscued causing him to hit the cushion and the edge of the 50 hole. This straightened the ball up and hit the object ball perfectly, both balls went down giving him the break back. So instead of a 3k break lost, Chris got the break back and was able to extend his advantage.

Fortunately for me I put this out of my mind for leg 2, where I had the break and was able to go off with 10k to beat him.

[CraigC]

Last night witnessed a pretty fluky shot. An opposition player, with one ball down the table just past the 100 hole, mis-cued and missed the ball on the way down the table. On the way back, the cue ball connected with the other, they split and one went down one fifty, the other down the other 50, getting the break back. Gives a new meaning to the term "reverse break".


(sorry, had to edit that after realising what a complete mess I made of describing the shot originally :-/ )

Just played the flukiest shot ever that I've seen in 39 years of bar billiards - myself - in the decider of an Open Pairs match.

Each side had about a thousand on the board, and I tried a straight pot to the hundred hole past the black. Went far too close to it, the black rocked backwards and forwards like a drunken sailor and the peg stayed up ! The red was potted into the 100 and the (white) cueball sat perfectly for a follow-up in-off with the red for a further 200 and clearance for the break-back.
I went on to bank just under 5k and had to apologise afterward to the opponents who fortunately were able to see the funny side of it.
My doubles partner J.T. has certainly trained me well ! ;D

[Q]

Were you using his 'magic wand' ?

q said:

Were you using his 'magic wand' ?

No, I've used Margo's cue all season. But it must be tuned in to the right wavelength as the shot I played was straight out of the Turner top-drawer ! ;D

[doug]

I once managed to play a shot that potted balls down all five of the pockets at the back of the table at the same time.

That was a GOOD SHOT Doug, rather than a mere fluke. ;)

[yorkshireterrier]

Alan Shaw here. This is the flukiest shot of my career, I think, unless someone else knows otherwise

I was recently playing Dave Hampton in the final of the West Sussex Team Champion competition. It was the first leg of a best of three and me to break first. Knowing Dave is quite capable of chasing 10k + I was determined not to break down on my first visit. This was made harder by the fact the table was very difficult to split.

Baring in mind Dave had already posted the highest weekend break to that point of just over 11k, it made this shot even more outrageous.

I had got up to about 9k a little slowly but with little trouble and was cruising to winning the first leg, and highest break when I was left with a fairly standard ball between the 20 and 30.

A simple shot off the cushion, both down, break back carry on - but wait - the right hand cushion is a bit dead and I miss the ball and my cueball lips the 30 hole and goes into the corner - damn, break over and lost - but wait, the ball comes out of the corner and just clips the other ball - phew break held and I've posted Dave a usefull target - but wait - both balls have dissappeared down the 20 and 30 holes and I'm back in business - outrageous.

I have to apologise to Dave because I carried on to beat his break and play the table out and won the final 2-0, sorry Dave, the drinks are me at presentation night.

[hon Vice President]

Having witnessed the shot - and Mr H's somewhat un-Hampton like countenance in the immediate aftermath from the scorer's chair; I'd second that offer of beer Al!

I'll wager that he'll take it too - be the first thing you've given him in years of healthy competition mate. ;) :D