Cleaning During Tournaments

We all appreciate really great, assertive waiters/waitresses, right?  Well, one over the weekend was too assertive while at the same time very unfamiliar with pool.  Even tho she was working in a pool room!

Deep into the tournament on Sunday last weekend of the 11th stop of the Omega Tour this year, one of the players was sitting quietly at her table as her opponent was shooting.  The air was a tad humid and so she put some chalk on the table where she was sitting, so she could lay her fingers on the powder and stroke the powder on her shaft before she shot so it would slide easier for her.  Several people were doing this throughout the weekend.

As this waitress gets on shift later on Sunday, she starts moving very fast to start to clean up the area.  She moved all the stools in their proper place (which created extra noise as they hit the metal tables), she sprayed the tops of the tables and then wiped them down, even if pool cues were leaned against them, and as she walked by the table with the chalk of this player, she sprayed the table and wiped away the chalk!

I cared more about the cues that she accidentally sprayed at first, but then it was crazy she also wiped away the chalk.

I think one of the issues was tempo.  We were used to the waitress who was there all day, and then this new one comes in and changes the dynamics around us.  If this was Saturday with 100 players in the area, it wouldn't be an issue and we wouldn't have even noticed her, but when you are down to only a few tables and a handful of people in the area, we see more distractions easier.  Plus, we had been used to a waitress who stayed out of the way all day.

I heard it wasn't her first day there, but I think she just hasn't been around big tournaments or something because she wasn't very cognizant that high-stake money matches were going on and instead cared more about clean tables, straightened chairs, and getting things done by walking by the matches. 

I'm not really complaining, as some tournaments I have been to you can never find a waitress or the tables aren't cleaned up all day long.

While we all appreciate her great service, there are times it's okay to leave things be until matches are completed.  It can be more of a distraction.