McSwiggans

One of my league night rituals is to get in a little solo practice at a bar that's near where I'll be playing. Like when I have a match at Barfly or Paddy McGuires, I'll go practice beforehand at Plug Uglies. When I play at Makers, I'll practice at Bulls Head Tavern. Another place where I've practiced is McSwiggans, which hosts one of the teams in my division. Located at 23rd and Second Avenue, I checked it out once because it looked like the kind of place that would have a pool table. A few weeks ago I had a match there and was impressed to see the large back room where the pool table is located had been renovated. The dingy exposed brick walls appear to have been sheetrocked over and painted with bright paint, and the floor seems to have been redone. They may have even put in a new ceiling with recessed lighting. At any rate, it already was a nice play to play. Now it's even better. The picture at top is from my most recent trip and the smaller picture was taken from the McSwiggans website. But both pictures are more or less looking in the same direction, toward a dartboard in the corner. On Christmas I passed McSwiggans while riding the M15 bus downtown and outside there was a banner announcing new management, which could explain the upgrade.