Filipino Canadian Alex Pagulayan has just had a run of 88 balls to open the straight pool match. German American Thorsten Hohmann comes to the table and there's no shot. Or is there? Watch this nice bank into a triple combination. (Actually not a tremendously difficult shot to execute, but not an easy shot to see. Note that the announcers don't pick it up until he calls it.)
The late, great (and much missed) George Fels, who is commentating (first voice you'll hear), said this semifinal from 2011 was one of the best pool matches he'd ever seen. Which is saying a whole lot.
(It's been more than a year and a half since the last one of these, so don't complain! I'm trying to distract myself from the sounds of an OSHA backup beeper, which is driving me batty. The old church across the road is getting a new roof.)
Mike
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Featured Comments from:
Ken Bennett: "Well that is totally addictive...thanks, Mike! I played pretty serious pool in college, a long long time ago. We had an older guy who hung out in the student union and played, and taught a bunch of us, enough for a club team to play other schools. We played mostly straight pool and 9-ball, depending on how long we had until our next class. :-) "
Speaking of OSHA, where's that guys safety lanyard?
Posted by: mike plews | Tuesday, 30 August 2016 at 03:16 PM
So long as you're off-topic:
Why do cars have tachometers when fewer than 5% of cars sold in the US have manual transmissions? This assumes that one uses a tachometer for maximum performance, to judge when to up-shift. I'll guess that even when the automatic trans can be manually controlled, few drivers use that feature ... or perhaps even know how.
Posted by: Mike R | Tuesday, 30 August 2016 at 03:25 PM
Well, well, the roofer doesn't seem to use a safety rope, probably thinks if it's a church then god will save him.
Isn't that similar to taking photos while standing on railway tracks?
Posted by: igor | Tuesday, 30 August 2016 at 03:55 PM
To show my dedication to TOP, I watched it.
Well part of it anyway.
Posted by: Ken James | Tuesday, 30 August 2016 at 09:52 PM
I realized why a Honda Odyssey minivan (a vehicle that has no manual transmission option) had a tachometer when I test drove one. If the climate control system was running or the radio (or the DVD player, for that matter) was on, it was really hard to hear the engine, especially at idle.
We didn't buy one, but I've ridden in "luxury" cars that didn't have half the soundproofing that Odyssey did.
Posted by: Alex | Wednesday, 31 August 2016 at 09:12 AM
Ever stop to think about the name of that vehicle? In the Odyssey, it took the hero 20 years to get home, with the loss of all his companions.
Posted by: Ben Rosengart | Wednesday, 31 August 2016 at 01:54 PM
My goodness – the builders have fitted sarking. I thought that was a construction detail confined to more northern latitudes. 'Sarking' is Scottish building term for boards placed over the rafters, into which the slates are nailed. From 'sark', a shirt, chemise or similar garment: c.f. 'cutty sark' which I recall we discussed a while ago.
Posted by: Allan Graham | Thursday, 01 September 2016 at 05:30 AM
You rotten sod, Mike. now in my mid-70s, I realize that I misspent my youth -- NOT playing pool. Instead I worked and slave and followed ambition, and in the end, it all more or less came to nothing and I can't even summon up a decent pool game to pass the time. I love watching it in low bars and such palces. Oh well.
Sarking? In Australia (and the islands where I live now) sarking is highly reflective foil we put under roofs and walls as the first step in insulation -- against the heat. It also prevents condensation from getting inside. And yes, those roofers should have safety harnesses and in Australia you aren't allowed to use ladders to go more than 2.5 meters up; then you have to have scaffolding. Mind you I had none of that when I built my adobe and recycled timber house in the rural area on the edge of Melbourne, Australia, in the early 1980s. Gawd, the risks I took. I can't believe it now.
Cheers, Geoff
Posted by: Geoffrey Heard | Friday, 02 September 2016 at 03:54 AM