Apart from allowing our UIC players to practice, the friendlies also serve as an opportunity to see what other members can do on the pool table under interleague conditions against quality players. Last season, we held 11 matches and the SS-UIC team won them all. This season, the Potentials have narrowed the gap which means that the general standard of play must be improving.

The attendances have been increasing too, such is the interest in interleague now in SS. Indeed, recently we have held a 10 v 10 and even a 11 v 11 match!

However, this is being done to accommodate the number of players who turn up without confirming with Marie. I only have so many UIC players to go around, and they are not always available on a weekly basis.

Which means that on occasions I have to 'borrow' players from the Potentials team to even up the sides, which defeats the purpose of the exercise. I am having to use non-UIC players which is not preferable, just to give others a game. I am not going to deliberate whether this has affected some results, because at the end of the day, they are only friendlies and ENJOYMENT is the one and only important factor in reality.

But Marie and I DO need better communication all round. If Marie drops you a YIM to notify you of a forthcoming friendly, please reply asap with a 'YES, I CAN PLAY' or a 'NO, SORRY I CANNOT'... don't just leave it and turn up EXPECTING to play. We need to know numbers so that we can plan who plays who. Yes, it's great having 22 players participate in a friendly, but this is more down to luck than judgement!

So the message is... by all means participate in these enjoyable friendlies, but PLEASE respond to YIMs from Marie and myself. If you don't respond, we won't expect you to be there, it's as simple as that. Courtesy goes a long way and it is something that WE expect... call it a British thing (lol) but that's the way Marie and I operate.

Thank you for your continued support of SS and the interleague-style friendlies.

Regards,
NIGEL
(UIC Captain)