Saturday, September 19, 2009

Excuse Me Sir, But that's my Cue

September 19, 2009

Last night hubby and I played pool. We did a round robin with 7 players total on three tables. As more player's started to leave, we were left with one table and 3 players. Mr. Wacky asked if he could use my cue and I said it was fine, because he had broken his down thinking that we were all leaving for the night.

Out of nowhere, this other guy who we were also round robining with, Mr. Shy, took my cue to look at it. I thought to myself, that's fine. Next he started grabbing some balls acting as if he was going to hit it. And he was.

Startled, I exclaimed to him, "Hey, you can't hit with that! That's mine!"

He looked genuinely shocked. I continued to scold him and said, "It's just pool etiquette to first ask the person whether you can hit with their cue."

He was still stunned and proceeded to put the cue back down. I don't think he said anything back to me after the incident.

I don't have a problem if somebody asks to use my cue, but the point is, ask before doing it.

What are your thoughts? Should I not have scolded him? Was I too harsh?

Quilt & Bitch

2 comments:

p00lriah said...

it was harsh, but understandably so. i mean, cues aren't exactly a dime a piece. it's common etiquette to ask for permission before using anything that doesn't belong to you. i'm sure this mr. shy wouldn't appreciate it if you just grabbed his car keys & started driving. :-P

on top of that you have theft to worry about (not saying that this mr. shy is one at all). people have "walked out" of a pool hall with cues before . . .

personally i think you're fine since you weren't intentionally trying to give him a hard time.

Quilt+Bitch said...

p00lriah,

Mr. Shy showed up the next night to play again, so I guess he was fine with my scolding.

I think he was not intentionally trying to be disrespectful of rude, he was just clueless.

Theft is a worry at a pool hall. Luckily at this particular pool hall, there has only been only one event of theft that I know of, where somebody snatched a cue and the case that was placed temporarily behind the counter.