The Fan, Bryanston

Monday, March 14, 2005

Service: * *
Food: N/A
Ambience: * * *
Babe Count: * * *

Tony Garland and I are playing tonight. He's known as "The Machine". This is because he's one of the best money players in our club, and he seldom loses a money game. But match play is slightly different to money play. So he's only the second or third or fourth best player in our club when it comes to matches.

We start playing. And finish rather quickly. Cos "The Machine" processes me in his mechanisms, and spits out broken cogs and little shards of stripped metal. He takes me down cold. 21--5.

"Did I make any tragic errors?" I ask, cos I'm keen to learn from these dudes.

"That last double wasn't right," he says. "And there were a few early doubles that you offered that I was only too happy to accept. But other than that, basically sound. Just check up on cubing."

So I go home broken, but with the balm that my game wasn't a complete disaster.