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About 10 years ago I started playing snooker again after a gap of about 12 years. I had played all through the 1970s and most of the 1980s with the same cue which was a very old ivory inlaid maple billiard cue but one day I played a rather hard power shot and about an inch broke off the cue just below the ferrule. A local cue doctor added the inch or so onto the butt end but the cue never played the same again!! I then went to work overseas and then gave up snooker completely for about 12 years. Eventually I ended up working in Oxfordshire and a mate of mine was the manager of a local snooker club and asked me to play for his team.....so my search for a new cue began!! I know that many members of this forum have been through the same search, looking for that 'perfect' cue so I thought that my search may be of interest to others!! 
The first cue that I bought in my search was a maple Walter Lindrum machine spliced cue as I knew that Willie Thorne had used one of these during his playing days. I didn't like it so sold it on almost immediately. Back in the 1970s I was good friends with Dave Martin (the ex snooker pro) and he used a beautiful Burwat Champion cue so I decided to try and find a good Burwat Champion. I contacted Dave Smith (Cues'n'views website) and drove to his house and he sold me a lovely ash Burwat Champ. I also bought FOUR more Burwat Champs from Dave Brown (Craftsman Cues), Neil Moseley (ex Pro), and two cue collectors. They were all lovely cues but sadly not for me so I sold them all on again. Next I bought an old maple Riley Prize cue in absolutely perfect condition but again could not get used to it and then bought an unbadged maple cue followed by two unbadged pearwood cues and then a Craftsman 3/4 joined maple cue. None of these 'felt' right so I sold them all on........
I then contacted Tony Ions and he made me a maple 3/4 cue and a 'Ye Olde Ash' replica cue. I couldn't use the replica cue but the maple 3/4 cue was lovely so I decided that this was 'The One' and played as much as I could with it, knocking in a few 50 and 60 breaks and steadily improving. Round about this time my family wanted to buy me something for my approaching 50th birthday so I chose a handmade onepiece maple Mike Wooldridge cue at 58.5in long rather than the 58in that all the other cues had been. When I eventually received the cue I was over the moon. It felt lovely and after about 3 frames I got a 77 break!! I then sold my Tony Ions cues and decided that the Wooldrige cue was 'The One'!! Over the next few weeks I was happy with the cue but unhappy with carting a onepiece cue around so like a complete idiot I started buying cues again!! I bought a 3/4 joined maple Dave Coutts cue, a Hunt & Obyrne machine spliced 3/4 cue, a Will Hunt 3/4 ash cue that Will had made for a friend of his, an antique Eureka cue, a maple Cannon 'Match' cue and an antique 'OK Selected cue'. None of these cues were right for me so I then bought a maple 3/4 North West cue. This cue was simply amazing!! It looked horrible, must have been the worst piece of maple that I had ever seen and the cue weighed 20oz which was a lot heavier that I had been used to BUT I couldn't do anything wrong with this cue and absolutely loved it. I then won a local singles final with the cue so decided that my search for a cue was over and sold all the other cues!! The North West cue was the 21st cue that I had bought in my search and as far as I was concerned I now had the perfect cue for me............My love affair with this cue lasted for almost an entire year but then after playing badly for a few weeks and then losing a final which I knew I should have won I blamed the cue and like a complete idiot sold it at the end of the season which left me exactly as I had started without a cue!!
(Part 2 to follow)
The first cue that I bought in my search was a maple Walter Lindrum machine spliced cue as I knew that Willie Thorne had used one of these during his playing days. I didn't like it so sold it on almost immediately. Back in the 1970s I was good friends with Dave Martin (the ex snooker pro) and he used a beautiful Burwat Champion cue so I decided to try and find a good Burwat Champion. I contacted Dave Smith (Cues'n'views website) and drove to his house and he sold me a lovely ash Burwat Champ. I also bought FOUR more Burwat Champs from Dave Brown (Craftsman Cues), Neil Moseley (ex Pro), and two cue collectors. They were all lovely cues but sadly not for me so I sold them all on again. Next I bought an old maple Riley Prize cue in absolutely perfect condition but again could not get used to it and then bought an unbadged maple cue followed by two unbadged pearwood cues and then a Craftsman 3/4 joined maple cue. None of these 'felt' right so I sold them all on........
I then contacted Tony Ions and he made me a maple 3/4 cue and a 'Ye Olde Ash' replica cue. I couldn't use the replica cue but the maple 3/4 cue was lovely so I decided that this was 'The One' and played as much as I could with it, knocking in a few 50 and 60 breaks and steadily improving. Round about this time my family wanted to buy me something for my approaching 50th birthday so I chose a handmade onepiece maple Mike Wooldridge cue at 58.5in long rather than the 58in that all the other cues had been. When I eventually received the cue I was over the moon. It felt lovely and after about 3 frames I got a 77 break!! I then sold my Tony Ions cues and decided that the Wooldrige cue was 'The One'!!
Over the next few weeks I was happy with the cue but unhappy with carting a onepiece cue around so like a complete idiot I started buying cues again!! I bought a 3/4 joined maple Dave Coutts cue, a Hunt & Obyrne machine spliced 3/4 cue, a Will Hunt 3/4 ash cue that Will had made for a friend of his, an antique Eureka cue, a maple Cannon 'Match' cue and an antique 'OK Selected cue'. None of these cues were right for me so I then bought a maple 3/4 North West cue. This cue was simply amazing!! It looked horrible, must have been the worst piece of maple that I had ever seen and the cue weighed 20oz which was a lot heavier that I had been used to BUT I couldn't do anything wrong with this cue and absolutely loved it. I then won a local singles final with the cue so decided that my search for a cue was over and sold all the other cues!! The North West cue was the 21st cue that I had bought in my search and as far as I was concerned I now had the perfect cue for me............My love affair with this cue lasted for almost an entire year but then after playing badly for a few weeks and then losing a final which I knew I should have won I blamed the cue and like a complete idiot sold it at the end of the season which left me exactly as I had started without a cue!! (Part 2 to follow)
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