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Often referred to as ‘Artistic Pool,’ Trick shots have become much more popular over the last few years. This entertaining and demanding discipline of pool can be categorised into two types, The first of these are Setup shots, in which the balls are set up in a specific formation to steer them towards the pocket. Volunteers from the audience are often selected to try these shots as they are difficult to miss. The second type is the skill shot. These require a good stroke with the que hitting the target ball in the precise place needed to cause the ball to ‘whirl’ around the table. Some Advanced skill shots include Jumps and Masses, where the ‘que’ or white ball, curves on its own.

In a Competition setting these Shots are broken up into 8 categories; These are Trick and Fancy which consist of Setup shots, and example of one fancy shot is having several balls set up so all balls go into different pockets with one stroke of the que.

The second Competition category is Prop, Novelty or Special, These shots are the least likely to come up in a regular game of pool as they often require use of the Rack as a prop or hitting a moving ball or shooting one handed or speed shots which involve hitting several balls within an allotted time.

The Draw and Follow shot requires precise angling in order to hit the que ball in an exact place so it travels in a prescribed way. For example back toward the competitor or continuing along the path it is taking rather than rebounding off any other components on the table.

This is done by causing the ball to either topspin or backspin. The Bank and Kick requires the ‘object ball’, the ball the que or white ball hits, or the que ball itself to hit the rail a prescribed number of times before entering the pocket. The Stroke requires technique as well as control, as in these shots the balls are often very close together possibly even touching. Jump shots are when the que ball leaves the table to avoid an obstacle. The final competition category is Masse. When the ball has so much spin it deviated from the expected line of play without hitting any obstacles.

There are many different champions giving hints tips and demonstrations on the internet.

The Gumball 3000 is more media spectacle than athletic competition, with celebrities and wannabes with more money than sense touring the country in expensive toys better suited as side-show attractions than in professional sport. That being said, I can only imagine the thrill, the rush these contestants and their die-hard followers must get from the event.

The rally is – I won’t say grueling – three thousand mile international road race where winning is merely a coincidence; being there is the prize.

First founded in 1999 by English entrepreneur Maximillion Cooper, The event is reminiscent of the ‘80s movie ‘Cannonball Run’, but there’s no pot of gold at the end of this rainbow; the prize is the attention, the true motivation is anyone’s guess. It draws the attention of many of the ‘beautiful people’; what we used to call the jet set – in my mind’s eye I can see a marvelously tanned George Hamilton, his gleaming smile and his silken scarf whipping in the wind over the back of his Bugatti.

Mostly run in Europe, the race has run all over the world, including a visit to North Korea in 2008. This year, the thirteenth annual Gumball 3000 was held May 25th to the 31st on the North American continent, primarily coast-to-coast through the United States, with a brief jaunt near the beginning into Canada to Toronto. The maximum 120-driver field took the green flag in Times Square at noon, and the checkered flag on Hollywood Boulevard seven days later. To all but a few who won was not important. For most what mattered was to say that you were there, either as a participant or a witness, to what is arguably the most glamorous, glitzy automobile rally on earth. And oh, by the way, the winners were Charles and Kira Morgan, in their 2012 Morgan Threewheeler. As far as I can tell, neither George Hamilton, Burt Reynolds, nor the late, great comedic talent Dom DeLuise attended.