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SOLERA DIAMOND VALLEY | NOVEMBER 2017 17 By Dick Roppé, Resident When growing up and walking to and from elementary school, I would pass the local pool hall. I was too young to go inside because you had to be 18 or older. I could take a peek when I passed and catch a glimpse inside. It was mysterious and dimly lit with secondhand smoke wafting out the door. It seemed like a cave-dark, dangerous and foreboding. What was inside… ogres, alien beings, men of ill repute? In the 1962 film, The Music Man, Professor Harold Hill, portrayed so brilliantly by Robert Preston, warns the town of a dangerous presence. "You've got trouble, right here in River City. Trouble! It starts with "T" and rhymes with "P" and that stands for pool." Within the lobby walls we have three well-kept tables where pool groupies congregate almost daily. The ladies gather on Wednesday mornings at 9 am where they get lessons, partner-up and engage in "friendly" competition. It's all about the fun. Right? Then on Thursday nights the Billiards Club meets at 5 pm where Solerans of all ability levels are welcomed. Players designated A's and B's are again paired in a double elimination tournament format. Once again, it's all about the fun. Right? Cue sports, as it's called, has an interesting and colorful history, stretching from its inception in the 15th century to the wrapping of the body of Mary, Queen of Scots, in her billiard table cover in 1586. It is even mentioned in the works of Shakespeare, including the famous line "let's to billiards" in Antony and Cleopatra (1606– 07). There are many famous enthusiasts of the sport such as Mozart, Marie Antoinette, Napoleon, Abraham Lincoln, Mark Twain, George Washington, Charles Dickens, George Armstrong Custer, Theodore Roosevelt, Lewis Carroll, W.C. Fields, Babe Ruth, Bob Hope, Al Boucher and Jackie Gleason, to name a few. There are three major subdivisions within cue sports: 1. Carom billiards, referring to games played on tables without pockets, typically 10 feet in length. 2. Pool, covering numerous pocket billiards games, is generally played on six-pocket tables of 7, 8, or 9-foot lengths. Eight- ball is the world's most widely played cue sport. Nine-ball is the dominant professional game. There is something I've never understood about pool… nine-ball is played with nine balls and eight-ball is played with 15 balls. Go figure! 3. Snooker and English billiards are played on a billiards table with six pockets called a snooker table with dimensions just under 12 by 6 feet. These games are classified separately from pool because of their separate historical development, as well as a culture and terminology that characterize their play. Familiar billiards movies include the 1961 flick, The Hustler, co- starring Paul Newman (of salad dressing fame) and Jackie Gleason. In the 1986 film, The Color of Money, temptation and greed provide the plot for Paul Newman (again) and Tom Cruise. To me, the game has always been "pool." Somehow, billiards has a rather snooty ring to it. "Rack 'em up!" IT'S TIME FOR POOL SCHOOL!

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