A key element missing from my snooker practice has been an actual opponent. My wife far prefers pool, as does her dad, so whenever I’ve gone down to the club to play snooker I’ve been practicing alone.

On the one hand, this works great. I tend to spend best part of an hour practicing whatever shots I want to work on that day, whether that’s back and top spin, down the rail, or awkward red-black-red combinations. Then I’ll spend the rest of my time practicing frames against myself, still trying to put myself in awkward positions like I’m actually playing, counting fouls etc.

The problem is this gave me an incomplete idea of how I was playing. I had no-one else to measure myself against, and figured that as I was making shots seemingly above my skill level, as well as rapidly improving my pool game, I would be able to roughly hold my own against a real opponent.

I was wrong. Or at least, I would say I was.

I finally got together with a friend yesterday for a few hours, and lost every frame. Neither of us scored particularly high, I think the highest break between us was in the low 10s. The final frame I’d held the lead narrowly for about 20 minutes, but then lost it due to simple errors.

I potted the white far more frequently than in my normal practice games, due to a bad cueing action putting far too much top spin on the cue ball. My bridging was inconsistent and poor; at least twice I fouled by accidentally tipping or touching a red ball. My straight shots were abysmal, my combination attempts woeful.

That said, it wasn’t a complete failure. My friend pointed out charitably that it wasn’t like I had a huge amount of opportunities, which is fair. He’d done a great job preventing any clear pots in the event that he missed his shot, and like I say I don’t think either of us really scored above 50. Plus I played some fantastic shots, including a very long shot cutting the red into a corner pocket from across the table, and a snooker where I’d left the cue ball nestled into the jaw of the far corner pocket,but wins and losses tell the bigger picture, and I was soundly beaten.

It has served to point out some glaring problems with my game though. I’ve already mentioned my bridging, which needs plenty of work. I have a suspicion there were nerves at play causing my fouls, but it’s an easy thing to practice at home and get into the habit of fixing using my cue at the kitchen island.

I also really need to work on my short to medium shot game, in particular funny angles on the middle and black ball pockets. Most of them yesterday were either too thick or too thin, although the ones I did pull off were absolute corkers.

Finally, I need to practice taking my time more. A practice frame for me usually takes no more than 40 minutes, whereas yesterday they took closer to an hour. I can’t keep trying to shoot round the table like it’s pool; I have to take my time, properly line up the shot, set it up and go. Take in the whole picture: the shot at hand, where I want the white going, what shot I’ve got next. Too often I focus on one or the other and either nail the shot but leave myself nothing to go on with next, or miss the red but place myself perfectly on the next target colour.

A bigger deal for me though is more personal. I’m a bit of a bad loser, more of a perfectionist than a tantrum thrower. I want to do it right, all the time. Yet, although clearly I have more than a few issues with how I played, I’m feeling pretty good about it. Optimistic about the next game. I even had fun losing.

The therapy may just be working.