'Sticking it' to Wednesdays

Monte Thayer is looking forward to pool season.

Thayer is the organizer of the Platte Valley Wednesday night pool league and has announced an initial organizational meeting for tonight at the Hotel Wolf and a follow up final meeting Wednesday, Oct. 24 at the American Legion.

A proposed start night of Nov. 7 is on the slate to be discussed along with teams, team locations, length of season, tournament format and more.

A change this year is that the Wednesday night league will no longer sanction players for state tournament play. The reason for this is that several tables being used for the Wednesday night league are not Valley National Charter-owned tables and do not have quarters collected for the Valley National Eight Ball Association (VNEA). That being the case, the $10 per person sanctioning fee will no longer be collected. It is expected that the league will remain with the $7 per night per player fee but that is also up for discussion at the upcoming meetings.

Sanctioning and Saratoga

Another topic of discussion at the meetings will be a possible shortened Monday night sanctioning league. This would be for anyone wishing to be sanctioned for state play and would require the $10 sanctioning fee. These games would be played on VNEA tables at the Rustic, American Legion and the Hotel Wolf. Since a player only has to play 32 games to be sanctioned the Monday night league is expected to last about five weeks.

After that league is wrapped up, a “Saratoga” league has been proposed to follow. Thayer says they tried the increasingly popular game as a league both here in the summer and in Rock Springs and that the Rock Springs players were so taken with the game that they had proposed having “Saratoga” replace their nine-ball league.

Setting the Bar

Each bar will be allowed to host two teams per table available and teams will play half their games on their home tables. It is up to prospective teams to check that their chosen home bar has room for their team to play there.

Banking on a turnout

Last year’s Wednesday night Pool League sported 18 three-person teams. Thayer said he hopes for that many or more for this season’s league and invites anyone interested in joining in the fun to stop by either of the upcoming meetings.