WAY”S TO PLAY WITHOUT CLEARING THE BOARD
©copyright 1993 by Lary Faris
Maybe I’d better not write this column. My partners will all dump me and my faithful tournament- level
readers will think I’ve gone soft……But here goes.
Maybe it’s because I’ve been playing for 65 years, but I’ve become weary of clearing the board all the
time. I’m studying the ways to play the game without knocking the other guy’s pilot every time he sets a
St. Pete. I know the winning strategy is to clear, but maybe there are ways to not-clear and at least have
some fun?
So the opponent sets his inevitable St. Pete. What are the possible responses?
Today’s diagram shows seven of them. Likely readers may suggest several more. Let’s look at the ones I
have shown.
Response A to the St. Pete is to shoot down suicide alley for a 7. I’m not much in favor of this tactic
because, even if it is made, all black has to do is hide on his shot, and it’s all even again and then yellow
has more room for a second hide than black does in his little corner of the 7. Besides, the try for the 7
might end up in the kitchen. So suicide alley lives up it’s name.
Response B is black to use suicide alley but purposely shoot short of the 7. The disc becomes a sleeper.
Yellow will likely hide a 7 and then black has a chance for a bumping shot, hoping to replace the yellow 7
and maybe kitchen it. I’ve seen Hall of Famer Dale Williams do this many times. It’s interesting to think
about.
Response C is to fill-in yellow’s hiding route. That gets into a fun game. There are lots of possibilities
from then on. If I use it, I like to have my disc deeper than the St. Pete. I haven’t played at Hollywood,
but I’m told that over there they use the fill shot as a regular thing and are very good at handling it. We
used it when I was teener and loved it.
Response D can be fun also. I’ve been using it in practice games. Here black responds to yellow’s St.
Pete with a St. Pete of his own. I’ve seen Hall of Famer Glen Peltier use this effectively. In this case both
will likely try hide and keep hiding. The keys for black are, first, to shoot his early hide deep so he has
room for a second; and second, to use his hammer to remove yellow hides. Yellow has to hide three
times vs. black’s need to need to hide just twice (Black has the hammer). As a result, black will likely
have one of the black hides exposed as a target when the hammer comes up and likely that target disc
can be used to hit yellow’s other scores. Fun.
Response E is to simply go on the board. I’ve shown this in two locations. This is the standard catch up
game which we all play when we are behind. But if the player is in the lead, it’s tough to come out ahead
on it. Black has to shoot awfully well to win using it. It takes the shooting skill of all time greats Rosaire
Biron and Lee Jordan to make it work, but it’s fun.
Finally there is response F, which is to play around with various nicks of the St. Pete. It’s hard to show
this on the diagram. Hall of Famer Jacques Bergeron will often shoot softly and nick the St.Pete on the
inside so that the St. Pete moves off the side and his black shooter rolls to a St. Pete for him or to a
score. This can be lots of fun. In Jacques’ hands, it works very well. But, remember he can shoot very
well.
Readers: I’m sure you have other non clearing tactics against a St. Pete that work.
Partners: Rest assured, I won’t mess around with these tactics in a real tournament game, So relax and
don’t dump me. But they are fun.