That difficult, slippery opening day.

It is a well-known fact that if billiard players lose a swimming match, they blame the water. In 3-cushion tournaments, the table is the first thing to point to, of course. Or the cloth. Or the balls. And never more so, than on the first day of a tournament.

The opening day of the world championship in Bordeaux was no different from other tournaments where the cloth - for whatever reason - had not seen a day and a half, two days of action. Very slippery conditions, very difficult to produce a good average on when the positions are a bit unfriendly. We have all been there, and we know how a brand new cloth can mess with you. Golf commentator Peter Alliss once said it very well, about the insanely slippery greens at Augusta: "it's like putting from the roof of your car, trying to stop the ball on the hood". 

Here's the strange thing about table length: if a table is short, players miss, then adjust, then play well. They don't go on making the same mistakes over and over again. Instead, they use the (unpleasant) short behaviour of the table to solve problems. Some solutions no longer work, other options open up. If a table is long and slippery, they can't follow that same path: miss / adjust / do well. Instead, you'll often see them complain / over-adjust and miss. Which, in a cruel way, is funny to watch. What is also entertaining is that "look" into the audience, in hopes of finding some sympathy from someone who saw the way that shot missed. Fifteen years ago, I promised myself I would never do that again, and I've only broken that promise 11.357 times since.    

If this disbelief of the way a table reacts was a characteristic of just one or two players, you'd have to say it was just a bad attitude on their part. But if the majority of the players fall into the same pattern, and some of them are world class, there is something different going on.

Experience teaches us, that the lower tournament averages are produced when the tables are very long or extremely short. Medium length will give good averages, tables that are (slightly) shorter will get some criticism but produce even better averages. We'll just have to accept for a fact, that adjusting to shorter tables is much easier than adjusting to longer tables. 

If I have not confused you enough already, let me add that for a small group of lines, long tables are shorter (because they hold on to spin) than short tables (where spin dies out). And long tables that have been properly played on for a week, have become predictably long and the problem is over. When they are new, they are unpredictably long, which is what hurts.   

Tomorrow, it will be more normal. Thursday, Friday and Saturday, conditions will be superb. And the swimmer who holds the Cup over his head, will not have a bad word to say about the water.