Bridge Cues

[itsnoteasy]

i
During the 90's I had cues made in various places around the world, often the timber was from the same forests. I could look at a cue and recognise the wood and where it came from and have a 90% chance of getting it right. I could spot the fine timbers that made the butt and know whereabouts in the tree it came from.

Ebony from Africa was almost pure black in the centre of the tree and as it was taken nearer to the bark it got paler in colour and would contain creamy stripes within the black. Very close to the bark it would look like Rosewood (dark brown) with some thin stripes of black. Rosewood got it's name from the smell of the sawdust when it was sawn, it had a hint of Rose fragrance. Both Ebony and Rosewood are now protected and can no longer be sold for commercial purposes.

Canada provided most of the Maple cues and by looking at it, the wider the grain lines are the more southerly facing the tree is, and If I knew the forest I could tell whereabouts in the forest it came from. The better woods had a very close grain, meaning that the tree was North facing and got less sunshine and more colder weather, this made the timber very hard and made the best cues, the same could be said for the Ash cues with English Ash being a good one to choose. The gap between the lines of the grain is the annual growth rate of the tree so when a cue length is cut from top to bottom through the grain, one can see the annual growth for a few years of the tree's life.

Filipino Ash was usually wide grained with the temperature being higher, but this made the cues warp easier, so strict conditions were required for the makers to use well chosen Ash for my cheaper range.

Reading through this I bet you have fallen asleep by the time you got to "Africa"

All the best

Anthony

I love all this stuff . Unfortunately my knowledge of cues ends at ,one end should be a bit more pointy than the other end.

[ebonynivory]

Hi Cue Crafty

I can relate a match I had in one of the UK country open event between myself and a Canadian. All qualifying matches were played through the Summer at the Norbreck Hotel, On the sea front near to Blackpool. The hotel is massive and had a new carpet laid for the Summer. It was a nice smell when walking through the doors and even today when I smell a newly laid carpet I'm sent back to the memories of losing many matches at the Norbreck.

On this particular day I arrived about 40 minutes before the 2pm start and asked if a table was available to practice on. The table already had someone playing and he apologised and packed up ready to leave when he asked me if I was Anthony Bridge. It turned out that he was my opponent. He then got me to confirm that I was the man who sold cues and accessories. "Have you got a catalogue," he asked I returned in five minutes from the car park with price list and colour catalogue. He began to look through it and asked me several questions.. The practice table didn't get used and soon the announcement summoned us to our tables in our own little room with chairs for 30 spectators, there were none for us, nothing new there. After he won the first frame he came over to me to ask more questions about cues and cases. The referee looked a bit bewildered to see us both sat together, especially as he brought his chair over to my side of the table. After frame two I'm 2 - 0 down and he's sat with me again. We left the referee to set the balls up on his own when normally we would help him to get the balls on the table, but we had more important business going on.

Frame three followed suit and the interval almost gave us time to complete an order. I'd won a frame, by the way, so I'm only 3 - 1 down at the interval in this best of 9 match. It's now that he drops a bombshell on me. He has to lose because in three days time, the day of the next round, he has to be back in Canada to the opening of his new Pool Club in Toronto. I had never come back from 3 - 1 down so I'm not likely to do it now. But the game continues with referee having not seen a game like it. My opponent kept missing some easy shots and although I knew why he was missing I found that winning another frame was quite enjoyable. Now I'm only 3 - 2 down and he's just about completed his order and still the referee is having to pick out all he balls and reset the table.

Little does my opponent know, but I have a customer from Saudi Arabia coming to my premises on the same day as my opponent wants to go home. I can't let my customer down so I play a few billiard shots knock in a black close to the pocket after I potted a red and the white went on to pocket the black. After a few more shots like that I got the referee's sympathy about my bad luck. I'm 4 -2.down. I'm used to losing and I sometimes think I've got this off to an art form. I fail to get out of several snookers when he "puts me back in" after I've snookered him after a foul stroke of mine. I'm 26 behind in frame 7 when he's fluked a snooker, he's missed the green and I'm only just snookered behind the pink I try a Masse shot but I swerve too much and miss the green but glance the blue. I'm 31 behind with an easy green to pot and the brown over the pocket. I concede. Lost 5- 2 in one of my most satisfying games.

This match was between two players ranked about 600 neither of us were going to make any impact on the outcome of the tournament. My opponent heavily lost his next round and the winner lost in his next round. About 7 rounds later it was whittled down to the last 64, the heights of which we never reached. Neither of us won anything at snooker during our careers and no bets or money exchanges were made.
In my opinion the best player beat me and I would have been honest enough to try and win but delighted it turned out OK for both of us without bringing the game into disrepute.

PROLOGUE

After my opponent lost the next round, by midday he was on his way to Manchester Airport to catch the 4pm flight to Toronto which got him there at 5pm their time and over two hours to spare for the opening of his new club. I was paid in advance and his order was waiting for him when he arrived at his new club.
I met my Arab customer who was smartly dressed in suit and not walking round round Ashton-under-Lyne in traditional Arab dress. He gave me a £2000 order and got it the early part of the next week and both of us were satisfied as usual.

All the best

Tony

I must say, I am loving this content. Thanks for sharing Anthony

[Jim Magee]

ah thanks for posting Anthony Bridge - your cues come up for sale from time to time and they look very nice. I have to find an Executioner now!

[Anthony Bridge]

Hi Jim

The executioner was a very limited edition. barely 100 made and at around £300 was my best cue before I retired. It was made to my design by Lewis and Wilson in Telford along with the slightly less expensive cues that I called the Firefox and Mystique.

Good luck in finding one, I used to use the Executioner when I was a Pro but in my last year or so I used a Master cue from Thailand that sold for around £500 in 1999. I still have that one today but play less than a frame a year. They may have been beautiful cues but I still lost 4 or 5 to nil in most of my matches.

I may have mentioned before that I had hoped my cues would continue to be used long after my life but when someone brought one of my cues in to have a new tip I saw that the printed name plate had been rubbed clean after a lot of use. But I was surprised that on one of my visits to the factories in China who made my range of cues, that a Singapore company had been ordering thousands of Bridge, Raiders which was naughty of the maker and the buyer but I saw it as a compliment, especially as they were making a lot more for Singapore than they were for me.

All the best


Anthony

[the lone wolf]

Good reading Anthony

[Jim Magee]

Anthony Bridge - i'll be lucky to find an executioner then! I've never tried one of your cues, i must give one a go...