5-1

Title says it all really..........trounced my opponent at snooker today and played some of my best stuff, typical old school me, fairly dodgy (although improving) at short range pots and deadly from long range.

That was a great positive from today, my long pots, they were good, and I owe it to the hours I put in yesterday trying new things. I'm still striving to improve my technique, and will be for years to come, but yesterday it started to dawn on me i needed to change my technique and today proved that. When I address the ball i'm good, but when i go to take the final stroke i would be looking at the cue ball and only holding the mental image of the object ball in my head, rather than the other way.

This has come from watching the pro's on TV basically, where i realised that at contact, their eyes were focussed on the object ball. So i've tried that today and it's worked, 5-1 would suggest so anyways!

The first frame of the day started well for my opponent, he'd taken a lead something like 24-3 and i was looking at defeat. The 3 red's i'd potted were really good ones, a long red, a tight pot into the middle from the edge of the pack and one at a tight angle near the black spot.

I picked up my form towards the colours, and remarkably potted every colour in around 3-4 visits to the table. Again a great positive to my attitude, i was staring defeat in the face and came back, believed, and eventually took the frame!

The second frame was the best of the night, spurred on by the comeback at the end of the last, i raced to a score in the 40's with him needing snookers he conceded to make it 2-0, he was clearly down, even his mood was starting to affect my mood. This frame the long potting fell into place and the middle pockets seemed to open up, as evey cut i made to the middle went in, similar to how my luck around the black spot has been coming in previous weeks.

3rd frame i was playing badly, and he started to come at me and got another great lead. I was playing badly and he was playing bad enough to think i could take him. AGAIN i performed well on the colours, took the blue, a tricky pink and tried to double the black, it failled, and we scrapped it out at the black, he stuck it up, not that easily, dead straight, but i converted for a 3-0 lead.

I was chuffed, i'd played both well and bad, had to scrap and shown flair. My good lay had earnt me the points and my scrappy play and a bit of safety (wasn't too hot today) had helped me defend those leads.

The forth frame my bad play had started to surface and again my opponent came at me. He was playing as well as he had today, but I knew i could beat him in this one. His scoring was again so few and far between i should have taken him, had i remained consistant as i had previously. He took this frame in a fashion i had become used today, getting the points on the colours.

After he slotted the black away (i stuck it up) i went to the toilets, i find it helps me keep my head. For the first time for months and months i was gutted to have lost a frame of snooker. Not in my performance, just the fact i'd lost. It was here i realised i'm back baby!

Reading ronnie o'sullivans book a line which caught me said "if you get the enjoyment back in the game, then the hunger for winning will come back" and it is so true. I realised 'hey i really care that i've lost, i'm gutted, i'm playing well and he's playing bad, i want to whitewash him'.

So 3-1 up and still gutted, i'm just chuffed my attitude is back, and as i write this, am already plotting my route to success next week. I want to start beating him regularly, frustrate my opponents, almost make them feel as bad at their performance as i had felt over mine in late 2006.

The 5th frame i showed what i was all about, determined to take this frame to stop any chance of a comeback. He started strongly, decent scoring around the black and blue. But i matched him, and my long potting started to fall into place, combined with decent short range pots i notched up a decent score, just with a fair few visits to the table (too many for me). 4-1 up and playing well. 'Winning snooker' as i'd called it when compared to yesterdays performance.

The final frame i'd again started well, my opponents luck was all out and after he stuck me up again he folded, his luck was bad and demoralised him so much he had to call it. To be fair i think i'd have gone on to record a few frames after that one as i'd found my groove.

Another positive to take is that i don't get tired or fed up as soon. it'd taken me very few frames to get going, and was keeping it up. Hopefully over coming weeks i'll be able to get into top gear as soon as and last for a lot longer.

I'm looking at getting a new cue soon, only as my cue now looks a right state! it's a cross between two cues and the patterns don't match. It's a shame as i'm playing well with it, but i think it's time. I put a lot of my recent performances down to the tip i'm using, it's fairly big and seems softer than my last, it's working a treat.

Good enough result tonight, wanted a whitewash, but maybe i'll have to wait till next week!