Table Talk…

I’m back on the pool table in a money league in Sutton.

I’ve had a five-month lay-off from competitive pool and now I’m rubbish. Like really bad. I’ve had 50-odd frames in the past week and have yet to break off and clear up once. It’s that bad.

Fortunately I’ve been put in the second division and I’ve scraped my opening two matches and I’m hoping I won’t take too many beatings on my way back to match form. Well I hope…

But it’s good to be back, even though it’s frustrating that I can’t do all the clever stuff I used to be able to do on auto-pilot about six years ago.

I’ve trying not to take it too seriously but the competitive instinct is over-riding my desire to be relaxed so I’ve spent half the first two matches laughing and joking then the second half trying to get it together.

Fortunately life in hapkido class and playwriting land is much better. I finally learnt to fall properly a few months ago and it was genuinely like getting a new belt. And I love the new techniques I’m learning. They’re called Yew Sool and they’re Korean judo throws and after four years I think I have found a set of skills that I instinctively understand.

I also have tomorrow off work to get on with Meat, my play about Victorian prostitutes.

For everything else to be good it’s worth not being able to pot balls. Well, for the time being...