What did you think you was good at

It's a really bad thing! Be proud of the fruits of your labour. If I'd thought like that, I'd never have DJ'd in front of anyone, communicated with anyone in any language other than English, or cooked a meal for anyone's consumption other than my own. I'm told I'm pretty handy at all of these things, so there's no reason why any of your writings shouldn't be shared either.

 

Fair point. Maybe I'll have a read through my old stuff and see if there's anything worth polishing.

 

Archaeology. I always assumed I knew a great deal about the discipline. However, when I started studying for my degree, it quickly became apparent my arrogance & ego did not match my abilities. Once I got over that, it also became apparent that the more I learnt, the more there was to learn. Then I was able to love the subject & increase my knowledge.

 

Do it! What's the absolute worst that could happen? Bearing in mind how amusing I find most of your posts on the bbs, I'm looking forward to reading the romance already!

 

If you're shooting 75 you're probably in the top 5% of golfers on the planet. But as I'm sure you're aware I don't think there's any sport like golf where the margins between those near the top are so close, yet so far.

Even a scratch golfer needs to cut another 5 shots off their handicap before thinking of even getting on the European Tour. To a non golfer it might not sound much but it's a massive distance. Golf for me is the ultimate game with about 90% of it played between your ears. Endlessly challenging and the only game where people of all skill levels can compete.

I'll settle for breaking 80!

Recommended : Chasing Scratch podcast.

 

Sounds like Kirk Balk, though they must have run out of cricket bats to hit you round the head with

 

Without going into details which would probably bore most people rigid, top level professional chess has an "elite of the elite", who are so far ahead of even the "average" grandmaster. I reckon that most professional sports must be like this, though. A top 200 in the UK snooker player would look like a magician in the pub or snooker hall, but at The Crucible would probably look like he won a tombola to participate.

 

Good point, when people point out that so and so isn't a good player or is rubbish, it's all relative and often fine margins. I remember one of the best players at school joining Barnsley, thinking he'd do a great job but he only managed a game or two before moving on.

 

Quite true, top level sportsmen and women are a class apart. Golf is easier to measure and compare though as there's a par score we can judge players against, and unlike most sports it's not a shared ball game so you've got no one to blame but yourself

 

Snooker doesn’t really work like that. As an example Steven Hallworth is 94th in the world and there are plenty of players in Lincoln who can beat/give him a game over 3 frames. With Snooker it’s more about consistency, that’s why the top players prefer longer formats.
Ref Chess, have you watched Queens Gambit?

 

i thought i was a decent cyclist till i went on a long ride with some thin as rake blokes who raced up the hills so they could have a *** whilst they waited for the rest of us to catch them up.
and we weren't that slow

 

I can how that would be the case with snooker. Maybe tennis would have been a better example.

Yep, watched Queen's Gambit and absolutely loved it.

 

In 1974 when I went to Newcasle Poly, I joined the table tennis club and took part in trials to pick the team. I made it into the team (3 of us out of about 15 members) so I was dead chuffed . We played a match and won so I was super chuffed . The next club night 3 Chinese lads turned up, apparently they weren't good enough for the Chinese and far east league. We struggled to take a point off them and there ended my glittering career as a table tennis player....

 

Speling

 

I remember, as a young lad, my Dad taking me to some club to watch his mate play another bloke, at pool, for a sizeable lump of cash. Can’t remember how much, but more than I had ever seen. I remember afterwards, someone commented ‘best two players in Yorkshire, them two’, ‘should de pro’s’.
The other fella was called Jack Duggan, and in my younger years playing for a couple of pub teams, his name would often pop us as the best player around.
Anyhow, fast forward 15 years and my mother in law, a pub landlady phoned me to tell me their pool team were a man down so would I come and make the numbers up. I’d not held a cue for years, but it was an excuse for a few midweek pints so off I went.
Anyway, I was up first. I must have been seen as the weak link. I broke and potted two reds and the rest spread lovely and I cleared another four with my 7th ball hovering near a pocket. Not played for years yet I was about to seven ball someone, from the break, for the only time in my life.
So I am lining up for my last easy red, but the ‘old fella’ I was playing’s cue case was in the way. So I picked it up to move it and it had a gold engraved name plaque on it ‘Jack Duggan’.
With ‘one, of the best players in Yorkshire’ going through my head, I fluffed my easy red, he stepped up, cleared up and I haven’t played since!!!
I actually told him afterwards that I was on for my first ever seven ball win til I realised who he was and my @rse fell out. He laughed, we lost, game over.

 

I think you left the double 'e' out on purpose!

 

Football was the opposite for me. Was fat at school & most of my schoolmates never really played football so I didn’t either.

At college I started playing 5 & 7 a side for a laugh with mates & to lose a bit of weight & eventually sunday league & ended up playing with or against a lot of the lads I went to school with who I used to think were unbelievable players at school age. Ended up holding my own against most of them.

Still a **** footballer in the grand scheme of things & some of them had probably gone the opposite way in terms of fitness but it was always a good feeling.

Squash was one where I got a massive reality check. Started beating my old man & mates & thought I was pretty decent. Played someone who was in a squash club at uni & he slaughtered me. Neither of us suggested playing again afterwards. I think he was genuinely concerned he’d finish me off with the way he had me stumbling round the court constantly out of breath.

 

Snooker for me… my dad had a six foot snooker table with relatively small balls which looked in proportion to the ones on the telly… I spent many hours practicing and playing and could beat my dad easily, and generally all comers to the house. I could even use the small cue, specially cut to fit in the tightest corner of the table without bashing the wall. I thought I was amazing, and wondered why people found snooker so difficult.

One day my mate suggested a game of snooker. His dad could get us on a proper table! I jumped at the chance, even took my own cue like a real pro…. Anyway walked in the room confronted with a table bigger than my garden and balls like bowling balls. I could barely hit them, never mind pot them. We spent about three hours knocking the balls about before both giving up and going back to the 6ft table..

 

I used to play quite a bit of pool and got reasonably good, especially as my flatmate for a while was a really excellent player who won a few tournaments in his time. Therefore I thought it stood to reason that I'd at least be semi-competent at snooker, so decided to give it a bash. As soon as I laid eyes on the equipment I realised it was probably going to be quite a lot harder than I'd envisaged. Very long, thin cues, relatively small balls and pockets not much bigger, on a table the size of something you'd find in a banquet hall. Needless to say, after an hour of hitting the balls aimlessly around the table we gave up, still nowhere near clearing the table, and the leading scorer by some distance being fouls.

 

Art.
Thought I was OK. My teachers said I good.
Decided to bin off maths and science and went to art college.
I know art is subjective but I was so out of my depth it was unreal. Lasted a year and quit. Got a job and never studied again.
I still like to draw now. I don't regret quitting but do regret not doing other studies. I guess it's never too late to learn something new though.