Why, oh why?

[the lone wolf]

Just start watching Luca's match against Singh...
Neil Folds made reference that Luca's cue has gone missing during his summer tour of the USA and now playing with a different cue!

Question
Why, oh why haven't the top players yet to learn that they should have more than once cue?

IMO
The current reigning World Champion who no doubt will be doing an additional amount of exhibition and promo work. Why would you take your prizes asset to such events?

Surely having a couple of replica's would do the job at these exhibition type event. It's not like fans come to see his cue and even if they did, they wouldn't know the difference between his real cue and a replica!

Seems like some very poor decision making too me!

Just sayin'...

[itsnoteasy]

Because every cue is different.

[cueman]

Funny you should say that.

https://wst.tv/murphy-ready-for-cue-innovation/

Shaun Murphy planning on using different cues and picking out the one with the right characteristics based on the conditions that day.

From personal experience, I don't think it's the cue issue with conditions, I think it's more down to the tip. Sometimes a softer tip would be better on an older cloth so you can generate a bit more spin, humid conditions would favour a harder a tip. I think Murphy will struggle if he's really believing he can just swap cues and play to the level needed.

[MrRottweiler]

Poor guy I hope the cue is returned to him but it's unlikely that will ever happen. It wasn't a good idea to take the cue he won the WC with on a holiday and it should have been left at home or in a bank while he was away. He needs to determine which country it went missing in and report it to the local police and British police who can contact sports memorabilia bodies to keep an eye out for the cue appearing on the market. Luca needs to put pressure on the airline and tell them the cue has clearly been stolen and is reporting it to law enforcement. It's a shame you can't trust anyone these days and someone might have thought they can sell it which is why it needs to be publicised. If he had taken a replica cue the case would have probably been more valuable to him and if it was stolen and the thief tried to sell it as the real thing because they believe it is they would be in double trouble.

I would ask the airline if the cue can be put in the pilots' hold which is usually empty anyway apart from a golf bag. The captain would have to agree but I'm sure they wouldn't mind and it should be the safest storage space on the aircraft. If I was a professional travelling with my only cue I would have an extra strong case with biometric locks and built in GPS that send co-ordinate alerts when it's opened and pay for the best handling service the airline offers. Costly to set up but pennies compared to what the cue could go on to earn over a career.

Replica cues for exhibitions would take a lot of pressure off the players when relying on transport and could keep it identical or make it clear to any would be thief by having something printed on the shaft.

[vmax]

Funny you should say that.

https://wst.tv/murphy-ready-for-cue-innovation/

Shaun Murphy planning on using different cues and picking out the one with the right characteristics based on the conditions that day.

From personal experience, I don't think it's the cue issue with conditions, I think it's more down to the tip. Sometimes a softer tip would be better on an older cloth so you can generate a bit more spin, humid conditions would favour a harder a tip. I think Murphy will struggle if he's really believing he can just swap cues and play to the level needed.

It's down to the cloth and the balls. In humid conditions there is more moisture in the atmosphere and in the cloth so therefore more resistance leading to more friction between the balls on contact. If Murphy believes that a different cue will mean less chance of poor contacts then he's mistaken, it's a lottery no matter what cue one is using. The pros can't seem to understand that even when it's not an obvious kick there are poor contacts that alter the path of the cue ball and object ball, it's not the cue ball deflecting offline, 2021 world championships in the summer proved that.
These guys have the best cue actions in the world yet in humid conditions when they miss, they miss thick almost every time. My inner Mr. Spocks leads me to the only logical conclusion, balls that need absolutely perfect conditions in which to function normally.

Now I've retired I've been very busy in the workshop but have also been watching quite a bit of old snooker on youtube, 1991 world final no problems with kicks, bad contacts or serial cue ball cleaning, 1996 UK final cue ball cleaned many times every single frame.
The ruling bodies of all billiards associations need to get together and send a tender out to all chemical companies to find an alternative to the Saluc phenolic resin balls they are being forced or lobbyied to use.

[vmax]

Just start watching Luca's match against Singh...
Neil Folds made reference that Luca's cue has gone missing during his summer tour of the USA and now playing with a different cue!

Question
Why, oh why haven't the top players yet to learn that they should have more than once cue?

IMO
The current reigning World Champion who no doubt will be doing an additional amount of exhibition and promo work. Why would you take your prizes asset to such events?

Surely having a couple of replica's would do the job at these exhibition type event. It's not like fans come to see his cue and even if they did, they wouldn't know the difference between his real cue and a replica!

Seems like some very poor decision making too me!

Just sayin'...

If they had a split cue couldn't they keep it with them as hand luggage ? As someone who's never flown I don't know the dimensions that 'hand luggage' comes under so would a 3/4 split cue and case be too long or heavy ?

[the lone wolf]

If they had a split cue couldn't they keep it with them as hand luggage ? As someone who's never flown I don't know the dimensions that 'hand luggage' comes under so would a 3/4 split cue and case be too long or heavy ?

Once upon a time you could board a flight with a cue stick.
9-11 and other events brought a stop to this.
However, some USA and European flight companies are starting to allow items like cue sticks back into the cabin with passengers.

[Delphi]

Luca did already have a spare cue, which he's using now at the European masters, anyway i just been informed his WC cue has been found!

[Nifty50]

Luca did already have a spare cue, which he's using now at the European masters, anyway i just been informed his WC cue has been found!

Great news. Thanks for keeping us informed.

[the lone wolf]

Luca did already have a spare cue, which he's using now at the European masters, anyway i just been informed his WC cue has been found!

That's a relief for him...
hope he learns his lesson because I won't be starting a new thread if he does

[mrdman]

I believe Ronnie changes his cue fairly often from what I've read. I've always thought it would make sense to have a handful of cues and regularly rotate them, rather than end up in a Hendry situation, where one unlucky flight, means you can never play the same again (at least that's how he describes it).