Got my snooker balls in!

[TheStranger]

Finally, after several weeks of waiting, the Aramith snooker balls I ordered have arrived here in California. Played a couple of games on a pool table at a local billiard hall with the D and balk line and marked spots on it - first frame was with pocket reducers for a more challenging experience, second frame (after a game of nine-ball with a house ball set) was without them.

I lost the first frame to my mate something like 47-35 (after fouling with a 13 point deficit) in a 38 minute grinding battle that saw a high break of merely 8. The second frame, with the pockets widened up (resulting in a quicker game), gave me my highest break of 18 (clearing the last three colors) and a 54-31 victory, precipiated by my friend's late foul on the black before my clearance. (He had lead 31-29 before the foul.)

The pool hall owner was really excited to see a snooker ball set out here in the States; we asked him if he could put in a snooker table someday but he said it'd take up too much room. He also noted that friends of his have been demanding a snooker table there for years!

Here's a great photo of the balls nicely set up before the second frame:

http://img293.imageshack.us/img293/5...erballshk2.jpg

With the World Championships coming up, these couldn't have come at a better time.

[Nugget]

Looks fun!

Here's a guy playing on a similar set-up:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sOLudQV1G2M

That seems to be the trade really - over in California you get nice weather and over here we have easy access to snooker tables!

Are there no full size tables anywhere near you? I registered on the AZbilliards forum to hear how the game is seen and played in the US but for some reason I can't post there...

Enjoy the snooker!

[TheStranger]

Looks fun!

Absolutely. Plus the balls are pretty

That seems to be the trade really - over in California you get nice weather and over here we have easy access to snooker tables.

Are there no full size tables anywhere near you?

I only know of very few pool halls that offer snooker in this state, and none in the Sacramento region. (However, in an interesting twist, some pool tables in the area make it easier to keep track of score, as the old-school straight pool score counting devices are installed on tables in quite a few places out here.) Hell, we have two places with carom billiards tables (one entirely dedicated to it in fact)...but no snooker.

From looking through yelp.com reviews, I think there's one in San Francisco along Geary Boulevard, and another two in the rest of the Bay Area.

I've read there's only one place in metro Los Angeles (in the suburb of San Gabriel) that has a snooker table, which is the site of the US snooker tourney as mentioned at snookerusa.com.

A mate of mine out here says he might know of someone with a full sized table at home...I'm going to have to check that out if that's the case! :snooker: The balls I bought were designed more for pool tables though as they are 1/8th inch larger than regulation sized snooker balls.

That reminds me, a few days ago, my friend Thomas and I hit up a pool hall in south Sacramento, Sharky's...where they had a set of regular pool balls and a snooker-sized cue ball! That played really, really peculiar...

[ADR147]

that table looks nice and easy!

[TheStranger]

that table looks nice and easy!

Not so easy once the pocket reducers are on, reducing the entry area to about 1.25 times a ball. (So, for a 2 1/4th inch ball set like these, the entry area was 2.5 inches)

All this makes me think a great idea one of these days if anyone (maybe me) has the time is to make a snooker table directory for the entire US, for such a big country, there are probably less than 50 billiard halls nationwide that offers the full sized tables.

[Viktortheman]

it's very sad that snooker has not "settled" in the U.S. I think USA would be a hell of a country on snooker if the sport became more famous

[TheStranger]

it's very sad that snooker has not "settled" in the U.S. I think USA would be a hell of a country on snooker if the sport became more famous

Even if the market (at present) in the US is miniscule, I think it comes down to several factors:

1. TV in the US hasn't really discovered it...ESPN2 and other stations focus on 9-ball, trickshots, even 7-ball once...when they have hours of useless programming like fishing and "World's Strongest Man," honestly snooker could take over the late night slots that such dreck occupies
2. No sponsorship yet because...
2a. No great American player to capture the imagination of the public. Hell, it doesn't even have to be a native-born American as long as it's someone who settled here (Mario Andretti's impact to auto racing is a good example of that). Some people argue this may be the problem with ice hockey in this country - but ice hockey has more American participants than snooker, thus the big grouping of American teams over the years. This is in a sense why it's surprising a bit to me that snooker's popularity in Canada never translated to it spreading south of that border here, even after Thorburn's title.

9-ball has gotten most of the coverage in this country over the last few years, probably because it goes by fast on TV, as well as being a game that anyone can play at their home pool table or at a pool hall. It's a chicken-and-egg cycle in a sense: With snooker tables and equipment being so scarce here, as well as any event coverage, people aren't ever turned on to the game - but with people not playing the game or demanding coverage, the scarcity continues.

I think in order for snooker to grow in the United States, someone would have to make it their personal mission to plant the seeds here - starting up snooker camps, encouraging a television network to show matches, getting faces in the media - things that, while they will absolutely pay off in the long run, require years of cultivation. I'd be chuffed to see that happen.

[TheStranger]

An addendum to my last post:

The rise in snooker's popularity in the early 1970s, thanks to Pot Black, mirrors the rise in poker's popularity in the middle part of this decade.

Just as BBC2 wanted a venue for color television to be fully realized, the poker boom out here came about when the "hole cam" (which shows the audience everyone's pocket cards, something that the players themselves can't see except for their own during play) revolutionized how the game was viewed by the casual fan.

I don't know if snooker needs a "technological reason" to become compelling in the US though because I feel the sport itself is already great viewing as is.

[TheStranger]

So in good news, while we were at that same pool hall last night, someone mentioned another place out in this area (in the suburb of Elk Grove) that has an actual snooker table. Gonna have to check that out soon.

[TheStranger]

Turns out that hall with the snooker table is actually not in Elk Grove, but the small town of Franklin, a half hour drive from here (15 miles). They're only open until 9 in the evening, so we'll try to check it out tonight if we can before it closes.

[Viktortheman]

were in the U.S do you live?

[TheStranger]

Sacramento, California (the state capital), about 90 miles east of San Francisco and 400 north of Los Angeles.

Oh yeah, an update on that snooker table we found at the small town pool hall in Franklin: It's actually not fully regulation sized (it's more akin to a large pool table in dimensions) BUT the balls and pockets are definitely snooker-sized, and they had true snooker cues.

We played one frame, which was won by me 55-47, but not before my mate Thomas had pushed back from a 42-22 deficit. (Much of my lead came from fouls; at one point, I had 12 points on the board without potting a single red! I think I only fouled twice, compared to five or six times for my friend.)

The frame came down to the final black, when Thomas potted the pink to make it 48-47; he actually fouled on the black but I was kind enough to let him retake the shot and it took us quite a bit of time to finally conclude the color clearance. The winning shot had the black on the bottom left pocket with the white closer to the bottom right; I have to admit that that was probably the biggest pressure shot I've felt in some time! Felt good to pot it and take the victory though.

Prices are really good too - $5 per hour I think it is to play, regardless of how many players are there, and $1 per snooker cue rented.

[Viktortheman]

if I have understand it right snooker is biggest in New York in the U.S.
is that true?

[TheStranger]

I wouldn't know for certain, Viktor, but it seems like someone else pretty much posted the same thing here about New York.

Kinda makes sense too when you consider that NYC is right on the Atlantic (thus making it a natural port of entry into the US for European travelers), and relatively close to Canada as well.

[Wity]

I lost the first frame to my mate something like 47-35 (after fouling with a 13 point deficit) in a 38 minute grinding battle that saw a high break of merely 8.

Love the honesty TheStranger


So when's the 147 gonna happen?