The art of the sly

 

It is known that if an opponent fails to claim a forfeit and continues play, that forfeit is then deemed void. This is in the International Carrom Federation rules. It is not incumbent upon you to say anything about that mistake. Keeping your mouth shut while your adversary missed an advantage is, while sly, legitimate. "Never interrupt your enemy while they are making a mistake" Napoleon Bonaparte.

Here, the blog studies some instances of SCL slyness.

Bruce Morton is known to divert attention at his venue by casually saying this before his opponent takes a shot midway through a game: "Hold on - I just want to change that playlist". On re-seating, Morton will often ask who it is to go and persuade the opponent that it is him to go.

The "which hand is it in" trick.  Now discredited and abandoned, this move was favoured by Morton and Stu T who would offer two closed fists to the opponent for that person to guess which hand held the striker and, thus, choose who would break. It was revealed in summer 2023 that often there was no striker in either hand..This was sly to the max: literally cheating before the game began. Subsequently, players have used the "nearest to the back frame" guide for the break choice.

Dosing your opponent with edibles half an hour before a set. Whilst sly, no player has as yet complained to The Elders about this maneuver.

Dick the Queen. A rare distraction, this, but the Summerboard 2023 event famously saw SMC regard his semi-final opponent lining up an easy cover in a tense game and stood up and flashed his dick. The cover was made and the opponent later said it wasn't a big deal. 

Be-bop as a background distraction and head-blister.

Vape smoke. Often used by Jas Young and Paul McCole at the Linen mezzanine, vape smoke can temporarily obscure the line-of-sight of an opponent. Two Linen meets were halted after two players lost their spatial awareness and fell off the mezz.

The phoney phone call sting. Rare, subtle and requiring deep syncopation, this move primes a third party to send a weird unexpected text to your opponent during a game, thus breaking their concentration and conferring a brief advamtage.

All hail the sly.