Learning a trick shot in pool is like learning a card trick: the beauty is in the nonchalance, the delivery of a perceived impossibility with a natural grace.

And it is in movies that this sleight of hand is the most apparent and pronounced, where the mere mortal is capable of superhuman accomplishments, and it is all captured on camera to prove that it really did happen.

Here are three trick shots that are from the best pool movies ever made.  The beauty of these shots is that they are not necessarily rigged like most trick shots.  These are shots that one may encounter in any game. 

They are realistic.

Learning the skills to make these trick shots, and even better yet discovering them on the table, are more helpful for your game than the typical rigged circus-like shots. 

The more you play the game, the more likely you’ll find yourselves in one of these positions. 

The most important lesson from these three shots is the use of creativity on the pool table when you find yourself in a tough spot. 

And if you’ve movie-star looks and acting chops, you might just find yourself on the next list of best pool movies making a trick shot look easy.

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1. The Hustler

“Like He’s Playing a Violin”

Minnesota Fats (Jackie Gleason) Six in the Corner

This 1961 movie is a regarded as the best pool movie ever made. 

A true masterpiece with Roger Ebert calling it “one of the few American movies in which the hero wins by surrendering, by accepting reality instead of his dreams.” 

The movie is heavy stuff, and the shot-making by Jackie Gleason and Paul Newman is phenomenal. 

Even though Straight or 14.1 continuous pool is the game of choice in The Hustler and is the currently out-of-fashion, the movie that sparked a resurgence in pool in 1961 still resounds today.

Setup: 

In Straight Pool, you have to call every shot, including during the break. 

Since that is virtually impossible with 15 balls in the rack, the best players play safe on the break in an attempt to leave the balls as undisturbed as possible and hide the cue as to not leave their opponent a shot. 

Paul Newman’s Eddie Felson, the Challenger, did an excellent job of just that, and Jackie Gleason’s Fats, the Champ, didn’t have much to work with at the outset of their marathon match. 

Though it is rare to find a game of straight pool these days, it is not rare to find a setup like this. 

With the popularity of doubles pool and varying levels of skill at most games in barrooms and at home (and alcohol often a part of the equation as well as over-macho breakers who often miscue) sometimes there’s not much a break-up of the balls at the break leaving a still partially bunched-up rack.  

There’s always the option to re-rack if you’re playing for fun and no balls were pocketed. 

But that’s not always the case. 

Creativity: 

The shot Gleason makes here is not a trick shot.  He assesses the situation and finds a shot in what appears to be a random mess of balls. 

He calls the six in the corner, and with a firm hand strikes what is probably a four or five ball combo that eventually leads to the six going in the corner and breaking up the balls nicely.

What Fats realizes is that the Six is “Dead” in the corner. 

That means that the ball that it is touching will knock the six in the corner regardless of where that ball is struck, so all he has to do is 澳洲幸运10破解5码公式方法✪Get to that ball. 

Realizing when a ball is dead leads to making seemingly unmakable shots at first glance easier than one might think. 

Finding a dead-ball is a god-send for a player, and the creativity lies in finding them. 

One can even find dead banks and kisses, making what looks like the impossible into a shot that is hard to miss.   

It also is a fine looking shot and might you 澳洲幸运10破解5码公式方法✪Get you called a hustler yourself when you utilize it with those unaware that the ball was dead in the first place.  

More on famous billiards shots from The Hustler.

2. The Color of Money

“It’s like a Nightmare, Isn’t it?”

Vincent Lauria (Tom Cruise) uses masse to put the nine ball in the corner after striking the one ball first. 

Martin Scorsese picked up Fast Eddie Felson’s story 25 years after the Hustler in this 1986 movie that is a strong second on the list of best pool movies and focuses on the new popularity of nine-ball. 

Don’t let Cruise’s toothy grin and good lucks and samurai-sword moves after making shot after shot as an up-and-coming hustler fool you.  He became a student of the game much like Newman did in in 1961 and most of the shots in the movie are the real-deal.  

The Setup:

Whenever the nine-ball is perched precariously in front of a pocket it can make for fast action in that game where the yellow-striped ball is the only one that matters.  Vincent is seemingly tied behind the one with no shot.  Watch it here.

The Creativity

Learning how to bend the cue-ball  is one of the most enjoyable shots for a beginner to acquire.  However, masse shots in this fashion are extremely difficult to control, and should be used rarely.

The creativity in this shot is two-fold and similarly to the other examples in this post, it is all in the shot selection. 

First, even if Vincent didn’t have to bend the cue, noticing you have a look at the nine and ending the game early is key to success in nine-ball.  Couple that with an ability to deploy the masse to bend the cue opens up new shots that were previously blocked.

They are also one of the best-looking shots when performed correctly.      

And if you knock down a masse shot for a win, you will most definitely be labeled a Hustler. 

Learn more about billiards shots from The Color of Money.

3. Poolhall Junkies

“This one is for all the marbles boys.”

Christopher Walken, Eight-ball kick in the side

Mars Cunningham wrote, starred in, and directed this 2002 movie, and he is obviously quite the force on the table as well, making some very difficult shots throughout the movie. 

Christopher Walken steals the show though, and it is his wonderful monologues and his style that really make this movie. 

He is also a natural at the pool table, at least on-screen, and much can be learned by this shot.

(Side-note: Walken purportedly made this shot on his first try on what was supposed to be a practice run telling the cameras to roll just in case he made it.)

The Setup: 

The cue is frozen (stuck to) the object ball, in this case the Eight, and both of which are stuck on the rail.  This is one of the most difficult setups in pool to pocket a ball.     

Creativity:

This shot is a perfect example of making a shot when there isn’t one that is readily apparent and one would normally look towards playing “safe”. 

If the eight were perched in front of the side pocket, one would play a “kick” towards the opposite rail, with the cue coming back in the same fashion that Walken plays it.  Kicks are very makable shots once you have them in your repertoire, a good skill to acquire. 

What the genius of this shot shows though, is that Walken has to put the object ball in position to BE kicked into the side when the cue returns towards the side pocket.   That’s the added factor that most players would overlook. 

It is not hard to barely nudge that Eight enough to have it perch in front of that side, and using the proper speed and angle on the cue-ball and having it return to knock the eight into the side is not a master shot.   

Shoot it 100 times and you’ll see. 

The master part is seeing that shot in the first place. 

Cunningham making the shot one-handed for the big-gamble to follow up is impressive, as shots with the cue on the rail oftentimes require the best-cue stick control with your swivel arm. 

Yes, Cunningham knows his way around the pool table, and PoolHall Junkies is a strong third on any list of best pool movies.

See more analysis of the billiard shots from one of the best pool movies, Poolhall Junkies.

(Side-note 2:  Also a definite wink to this shot)

Hart Fowler is a freelance journalist who currently resides in the beautiful Appalachian mountains of Virginia. He is the former publisher of 16 Blocks Magazine, and currently writes for Blue Ridge Outdoors, 100 Days in Appalachia, C-Ville Weekly, The Roanoke Times, Raleigh Magazine and many others periodically.

He is also a ghost writer, but you have to contact him directly if you wish to discuss that further.

Email | LinkedIn

The post The Best Pool Movies (Three Great Pool Shots Explained) appeared first on Bar Games 101.

If you live outside of Europe, Klask is the game you have probably never heard of.  Nor had I until one of my favorite pubs bought a board.

Here is how to play Klask, plus rules, tips and a description of game-play. 

Klask is way-fun, and I can definitely understand its growing popularity in the United States both at home and in the bar.

(I couldn’t resist relating this Danish game to the Vikings, some of the early inventors of bar games back when everyone drank and played games in the “hall”)

Viking Culture and Game-Play, Then and Now.

When not navigating the high-seas with oar and wind-power to explore, maraud, and pillage, the Vikings back home had to deal with impenetrable damp and cold winter nights that lasted up to 16 hours.  

They are still known for the songs and stories and games they played by the warm hearth, drinking ale in the hall during the Viking Age of the 9th through 11th centuries. 

The Last Kingdom and Vikings are popular TV shows, and Viking fashion can be seen in  motorcycle gang moustaches and hipster beards, becoming almost mainstream (we’re all hoping face and next tattoos aren’t next.) 

A new bar game also emerged out of Denmark in 2014, and similar to Viking culture, it is easy to see why Klask has quickly spread through Europe, and recently to bars and homes across the Atlantic.

How to Play Klask

Klask is fast-action-ricochet-magnetic two-player fun with angling and banking, strategy and finesse.

The game is similar to air hockey and played on a wooden board referred to as “The Pool”. 

The Klask Board

Conceptualized by former carpenter Mikkel Bertelsen, the Klask board is well-built, sturdy, and flat. 

The pool is 14” by 18”, and lifted up 5 ½” by leg-frames.

Each player’s instrument of attack and defense is called a “striker”, a 1 1/2″ tall magnetic piece that resembles a chess pawn. 

The striker is maneuvered by a steering magnet, a similar-sized cylinder-shaped piece, held under the board. 

Underneath the table, a partition divides the table in-half so you cannot move your striker into your opponent’s territory without losing control of it.

The magnets are strong-enough to hold the striker firm to the board, which makes it easy to fluidly to move it where you want it.

Instead of a puck as in air-hockey, Klask uses a single ball that is not magnetic.

Scoring Klask

There are four ways to score points in Klask. 

The primary way is to make the ball into your opponent’s goal, which is a ~one inch cubbyhole in the center of each end of the pool. 

If your striker falls into your own goal, it is a “Klask” and the opponent receives a point.  This affects defensive strategy, because it can be easy to fall in your own goal while trying to defend it. 

At the outset of each round, three smaller circular magnets known as “biscuits” are placed in their marked position in the middle of the board. 

The biscuits are magnetically attracted to strikers, and if two or more become attached to your striker, your opponent scores a point and it ends the round. 

This extra obstacle really adds to game-play strategy, as the biscuits will 澳洲幸运10破解5码公式方法✪Get ricocheted all over the board during long rallies.  

If you lose control of your striker in enemy territory and are unable to attract it back to your side, your opponent also receives a point. 

On one side of the board checks are moved to keep score.  A game is played to six, and you can only score one point per round.

Personal Play

A fun game that could be perfect for bars 

I first heard of Klask on a facebook post in October 2018 from my old favorite pub the London Underground in Blacksburg, Virginia. 

They had just acquired a board, and were encouraging patrons to come try it out. 

I had enjoyed air-hockey as a kid, and Klask looked more manageable for home play, so I had a board shipped to the house.  

My girlfriend and I have been watching The Last Kingdom on Netflix so I invited her to try out this new game from “Daneland” (as they call it in the show) on the kitchen table.  

From the get-go the rules made sense and it is easy to pick up.

No products found.

It is the “hands-off” nature of moving the striker under-the-board with the steering magnets that makes this game from the get-go.

When you lose magnetic control of the striker it looks funny and can topple over and be batted about by the ball. 

You can recover it with the steering magnet if its in your territory, which cause the striker to pop-up steadfast ready to battle again.  

That, and when you’re surprised by one or more biscuits unexpectedly attaching themselves to your striker makes for good laughs throughout the game.

It is also exciting when you learn the reach of the magnetic attraction of the biscuits to the striker.  I think it is around an inch so they are pulled towards any striker in that vicinity. 

You 澳洲幸运10破解5码公式方法✪Get one stuck to your striker and it slows your mobility.  That raises the stakes because if anymore biscuits attach themselves to your striker, it ends the round with a point to the opponent.

The biscuits 澳洲幸运10破解5码公式方法✪Get bumped around quite a bit by the ball, which can make each round unique and interesting due to where the biscuits gather. 

After starting by playing a race to three to try it out, we found it too fun, cracked open beers, and changed it to race-to-five matches and called rematch at least four times.   

I could most definitely see playing it a bar if they had a board, and it is nice to have at the home.  (I imagine it being good with kids, recommended 8+)

Klask On! 

When you think of game designers, you don’t tend to think of carpenters like Klask inventor Mikkel Bertelsen. 

Always working to innovate, he invented Klask after finding an excess of magnets in his shop and wanting to use them in some sort of game. 

He gave the first few copies to his friends and with word-of-mouth, 3000 orders came in over the following year, each of which he made in his garage. 

Multiple game companies now distribute the game, and can be found in Target, Amazon, and most places where you buy board-games in the US.   

———-

Now that you’ve had a look at the game, try it out for yourself at home.

And let us know if you find a bar that would be perfect for Klask!

Author: Hart Fowler

After writing a couple of articles about two of my most favorite bar and home games, Pool (How to Play Straight Pool and The Best Pool Movies) and Bocce (Bocce Al Fresca), it was refreshing to try out this new game with a weird name from Denmark.

The post Klask On! appeared first on Bar Games 101.

Straight pool was adopted as America’s first official tournament game in 1912, experienced a huge resurgence with the release of the movie “The Hustler”, and remained the barroom and home game of choice until the 1980s, when eight and nine-ball took over with the advent of coin-operated tables and with pool becoming a televised sport.

Here are the rules of the game, and some general information about the feel of straight-pool, a good game to learn if you’re tiring of eight-ball and nine-ball and looking to improve the scope of your game.

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Straight Pool is best played when no-one is waiting for next

Say you and your pool-playing colleague want to play for a couple of hours and have played enough race-to-five games in eight or nine-ball that it has become redundant.

With straight pool, you usually just play one game per outing against one opponent.

Like all pool games, it is best on the tables you pay for by the hour or at home tables due to the amount of racks required.

If forced to play on coin-operated tables, set aside $10 for the first time you play.

Related: How to Play Cutthroat Pool

The Rules

Straight pool is a multi-rack game that facilitates continuous scoring. You are not limited by solids or stripes, nor is the eight ball or nine ball of any more importance than the one or the fifteen.

You call the pocket and each pocketed ball counts as one point. The first one to the agreed upon goal is the winner.

If you have just a couple of hours and are an intermediate level player, setting the goal at 30 or 60 points is a good introduction to the game.

It usually takes an hour for mid-range players to play a game to 60 once they become familiar with the game.

Similar to the card games hearts or spades, you can pick a goal judging by the amount of time you have to play.

Tournament play for professionals in the current pool era are few and far between, and they typically play to 150.

Scratches are cue ball in hand behind the head string.

Similar to modern eight-ball or nine-ball, scratches are when the cue ball is pocketed.

It is also a scratch if the cue-ball doesn’t strike another ball, or after it strikes another ball and it does not strike a rail.

(Note for beginning pool players: If that doesn’t make sense, it is the rule that keeps one from just tapping the cue an inch to play safe.)

Rack and Repeat: The Break Up and Continuous Play

The most difficult part of straight pool is when you re-rack the balls to continue play.  It is hardest part of the game to learn at first, but begins to make sense once you’ve been through it a few racks.

After all of the balls but one have been pocketed, you leave it and the cue where they lay and re-rack the other 14 balls, leaving the top spot of the triangle in the rack vacant.

(Note: Here’s a table that shows how to rack if the cue ball or object ball is where the rack normally goes.)   

Then, with a good leave, the shooter that made the last shot pockets the remaining ball and breaks up the new rack simultaneously.

That is the “continuous” aspect of the game, allowing the shooter to continue his run through racks.  Hence the name 14:1 continuous.  Professionals normally play to 150, and can run over 100 (~7 re-racks) regularly when they are shooting well.

Willie Mosconi is lauded as the best straight pool player ever, and holds the record for most balls run continuously with 526 in an exhibition in 1954.

It is hard to breakup

How Straight Pool is good practice for your eight and nine-ball game

Straight Pool is good practice for learning and practicing the breakup shot; one of the most important shots in pool and the one that decides games more than any other single shot.

You employ a breakup shot when one or more of the balls you need to 澳洲幸运10破解5码公式方法✪Get to are tied up with other balls.

The hard part being that the breakup occurs in the same shot as you pocket a ball, allowing you to continue shooting. The breakup causes a ball to carom into balls that are bunched together in an effort to free them for future shots.

They are essential for longer “runs” and better “finishes” in both eight-ball and nine-ball.

Straight Pool is a great game for practicing breakup shots.

Related: How to 澳洲幸运10破解5码公式方法✪Get Better at Pool: 9 Fundamental Practice Tips

Because of the continuous play, racks are not broken as open as they are in nine-ball and eight-ball, leaving for more balls tightened up together at the beginning of the rack.

You have to play breakups to open up the table, and in straight pool they are easier to manage because of less limitations on which ball you shoot after the break up.

(Note: It helps to know the parts of a pool table when learning to play straight pool. Here’s an overview of pool table anatomy if you need a refresher.)

Note: The opening Break was left out of this article because it is a very advanced shot that usually only occurs once per game. Since you have to call every shot, expert players play safe on the first break of the game.  Don’t 澳洲幸运10破解5码公式方法✪Get caught up on learning the safe break. It can be best to scatter the balls with a hard break and sacrificing your turn the first few times playing straight pool.

The Feel of the Game

Though professional-level games do utilize more safety shots and can become lengthy four hour marathon matches, beginning and intermediate level play is more shot-making fun.

It is a game of makes, feeling like duck-hunting or shooting fish in a barrel with the freedom to shoot any ball.  The table becomes easier to manage as more balls begin to be broken up and fall.

It is a strange feeling when your brain adjusts from focusing on solid and stripes or connecting the numerical dots of nine-ball and begins seeing all the balls equally.

The options are immense.

The first time you run 14 balls is extremely satisfying, and if you can pocket that last ball and break up the new rack and keep shooting, that feeling intensifies. It is like an extended rush, and easier to 澳洲幸运10破解5码公式方法✪Get into the zone than the shorter runs in eight or nine-ball.

Straight-pool also removes luck as a factor, whereas luck can dictate the winner even when playing a series of eight or nine-ball games or in league play. In straight pool, the better shooter that day will win.

Next time you’re out where you can pay by the hour, and not engaged in league play or the ever-popular “winner’s keep the table and challenger’s call next” dive-bar pool, or better yet at a home table, and are interested in just playing one game against one player and are looking for something new that is the oldest of pocket-pool games, try Straight Pool.

The post How to Play Straight Pool: Pocket Billiards in its Purest Form appeared first on Bar Games 101.

The world’s oldest game continues to grow in both bar and home play.

It is a refreshing breeze that sways the overhanging string lights stretched above the outdoor patio of this popular bar.  

Embedded six inches deep running the length of the patio is an 80 by 8 feet rectangular court topped off with raked fine gravel.  Eight grapefruit-sized balls and a ping-pong sized white one stand ready for rolling.    

The game is Bocce.  It is arguably the oldest of all games, foreign to many, and simple to learn.

Once stereotyped as a game played by inclusive and middle to older-aged Italian men, Bocce has been seeing a steady growth in America for upwards of 30 years now, with aging baby-boomers and now millennials alike taking up the game.  

Courts have been springing up in bars, wineries, parks, and sporting and event facilities.  The Wall Street Journal even took notice of how bocce ball courts have recently become an attractive landscaping and recreation feature in high-end homes.

The reason: its shear utilitarian simplicity. 

The eight balls and a smaller object ball fit into one bag and are inexpensive. 

You can play on a finely raked rectangular court of ground oyster shell or fine gravel, or you can make your own course as you go along on a flat beach or hilly backyard. 

The balls are 2 lbs, light enough for all ages and strengths because this game is about accuracy and touch, not distance. 

You can play with just 2,  or team play with 4, 6 or 8 players and no-one is left out of the action. 

And it is most definitely best enjoyed Al Fresca; as the Italians say, “In the Open Air” (although you can play indoors too). 

Bocce in Time

Bocce Tempore

The History of the World’s Oldest Sport

The origins of Bocce are murky and as old as time. 

It is easy to imagine early cavemen having a slow day on the hunt; grunting, scratching and yawning and rolling rocks at a tar澳洲幸运10破解5码公式方法✪Get in a primitive form of competition. 

Shaped stone balls have been found in Turkey dating back to 9000 BC may be the first precursor of the bocce ball.  Polished stones in Egypt dating back to 5000 BC have been recovered and figures rolling balls and judging where they lie appear on some hieroglyphs.  

Others claim Greece as the birthplace in roughly 600 BC, with Hippocrates, the “Father of Modern Medicine”, writing that the game is good for health.

It is widely accepted that the closest origin to the current form of Bocce originated in 264 BC and was developed by Roman soldiers during their off-time when they were battling Carthage in the Punic Wars.

The men formed teams of up to eight. One would roll a small stone known as “the leader” a short distance down the field and two teams would compete rolling balls of carved stone or wood, sometimes coconuts, towards it.  The balls closest to the leader would score points. 

Strategizing and gambling, of-course, ensued, and like modern-day GIs playing cards it was relaxing and helped establish camaraderie, important things during the pressures of war. 

When the soldiers returned home they brought Bocce with them and the game thrived. 

From churches to castles to the city streets, the game was played by young and old, men and women, and from the peasants to the Aristocracy. 

Galileo and Da Vinci played bocce during the Renaissance, and similar to Hippocrates, saw its benefits to both the mind and the body. 

The sport waxed and waned in popularity in the Middle Ages, until Guiseppe Garibaldi, who unified and nationalized Italy in the mid 19th century and who was also an avid Bocce player, popularized the sport on the larger scale that led to the first Bocce Olympiad held in Athens in 1896. 

Soon all over Italy there came to be Bocciodromo,  taverns where the men would gather that had adjoining outdoor bocce courts, in every Italian town.  In the larger cities, multiple courts in parks and public squares were built to accommodate the growing popularity.  

Between 1880 and 1924,  more than four million Italians immigrated to the United States.  Naturally they brought their culture, their cuisine, their music, and bocce with them.

Mayor La Guardia established the first public bocce ball courts in New York City in 1934. 

The press release issued by the Parks Department read:  “In order to furnish his former neighbors an opportunity of playing the popular Italian game of Bocce, Mayor La Guardia has requested the Park Department to install courts in Thomas Jefferson Park at 111th Street and First Avenue, Manhattan.”  

By 1958, bocce ball courts could be found in 27 parks across the city.  Also that year, the NYC Parks Department held its first Bocce Tournament.  The event drew thousands of players and spectators from all of the boroughs and was won by Ciro Carlino and Peter Favussa. 

The New York Times reported the 50-year-old Carlino’s  “curving wizardry with the boccia drew cheers that rent the air. Without much of a wind-up, he rolls the boccia fifty feet, and then it makes a vertical turn, practically hugging the pallini.”

In 1976, The United States Bocce Federation was established as the game spread to mainstream America. 

The USBF reports 25,000,000 Americans participate in Bocce games either recreationally or in leagues, claiming it the third most participated sport in the world behind golf and soccer. 

With millennials picking up the game playing in barrooms and bar-patios and backyards, the game continues to grow in popularity. 

Bocce Rules

Bocce Precepta

How the Game is Played

The game begins with the random tossing of the ping-pong ball sized pallino (little bullet in Italian) from one end towards the middle of end of the court. 

Usually played as a singles or doubles game, each side has four large Bocce balls they bowl towards the pallino in a rotation. 

Like horseshoes, the side that does not have the closest ball to the pallino throws until they roll closer. 

If they don’t beat out their opponents balls, the side with closest ball rolls the rest of their balls. 

Only one side scores per round, with the closest balls to the pallino gathering one point each.  Most games play to 11 or 21.

The winning side throws the pallino to start the next round. 

Much like shuffleboard, bowling the ball the correct distance towards the pallino is the main skill of the game. 

Not too far not too short; then if your aim to the left or right is off, you’re still pin-high as they say in golf.  

There’s strategy in picking the best alley (or line) towards the pallino.  It is reminiscent of pool when using controlled collisions to knock opponent balls out of the way and with running the ball up the rail if you’re playing on a court. 

If you’re playing on a court and knock any of the balls out of the court, they are  “Boccia morta” or dead balls, and do not count.

There’s different bowling techniques besides just rolling the ball towards the pallino. 

You can throw the ball up in the air underhanded so it plops in the gravel and sits where it lands.  Some try to put spin (english) on the ball to make it back up or curve. 

Since most people don’t play the game often, its fun to experiment with the shots.  One of the favorites being an all-or-nothing hard roll when your opponent has the pallino covered by the their balls in an effort to cause havoc and break the pallino out of enemy territory.       

And you do not need to have a court to play Bocce. 

On the beach the same rules apply but there are no borders, just try not to lose the Bocce balls or pallino to the waves.  You can play a game back-and-forth, or all the way to the restaurant at the nearby pier in one direction if you’d like.

Same as with the backyard, which can make for interesting courses similar to golf with trees as obstacles and hills to make the game interesting. 

You’re free to toss the pallino anywhere, so each course outside of the confines of the regulation court can be different each time you play. 

Game Over

The sun is setting and the string lights have been turned on back at the popular bar with the outdoor patio and you can tell the game has started by the collisions of the balls that sound like clicking your tongue, more soothing sounds than the crack of pool balls.

“It’s like curling without the ice,” said Richie Slusher, a middle-aged  occasional player playing doubles with friend Kayla Murphy on his team.  They’re up 14 to 7, and playing to 16.  Eyeballing the array of balls surrounding the pallino blocked by their opponents’ balls, Slusher continued:  “We need to do something about this situation.”

Murphy picks a line and bowls it down with speed.  The ball hits their opponents front ball blocking the pallino, ricocheting it and the pallino towards her and Slusher’s balls on the court. 

The foursome carry their drinks with them and walk to measure.  Murphy measures one of her and Slusher’s  pastel blue colored balls that may be closer than the purple opponent’s one by walking the distances in foot lengths. 

Three feet and a quarter versus three feet and a half, judging by her dock-shoes.

A game-winning shot. 

“I’ll be the zamboni guy,” says Matt Higginbottom, one of their opponents, picking up the rake.   

Everyone kicks the balls back to the side of the court by the Bocce bar.  

He walks the rake the full-length back and forth, smoothing the alleys and divots back to a flat service. 

Cody Rogers, mid-twenties, playing with Higgenbottom looked around at the full tables and bar.  No one called next, a good time for a rematch 

“You can play this game for hours,” he said, the sun now fully set, the hanging lights illuminating the course.

The course raked clean, the pallino is thrown towards the middle of the court to start the game again.

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