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I was now cueless (and clueless!!) so began yet another buying frenzy. I next bought some antique cues (Reece cue, Rogerson cue) including yet another Burwat Champion cue although this one was maple. Sadly none of these felt right so I then bought a 'Cue Doctor' 3/4 ash cue, an old Joe Davis maple centre joined cue, yet another Riley Prize cue and a beautiful old Mannock maple cue. I was in daily contact with Andrew Ramsay, we spent hours talking 'cues' on the phone and Andrew told me about a really good Australian cue maker called Andy Bream. I then twisted Andrews arm and he sold me his 3/4 pearwood Andy Bream cue and I also bought an Andy Bream ash cue from Mike Russell (World Billiard Champ) that Andy had made him. I also got Omin to make me a lovely maple 3/4 joined cue as well as buying another Omin cue from Mike Russell. Out of all these cues I loved the Bream pearwood cue the best, maybe as it was 58.5in long, and played well with it. All the other cues were tried out again and again and then sold!! I now had a decent playing cue again but the dreaded 'cueitis' had taken hold of me and over the next few months I bought a Parris Champion, a Parris Special and a Parris Traditional. They were all really nice looking cues but didn't 'feel' right so were all sold. I had quite often gone into London and become quite friendly with John Parris and his wife, Chris. At this time Stephen Hendrys original cue had been smashed and John had made three cues for Stephen, two with plain black ebony butts and one that was made to look like his original cue. It took me three months of pleading and pestering John and Chris but finally they agreed to sell me one of the two cues that Hendry had not chosen. I chose the plain black ebony cue but after a week realised that the spec was not for me so took it back to John and he agreed to let me swap it for the other cue.....the one that he had made to look like Stephens original cue. This cue was a work of art......a Parris Ultimate badged cue and I reached the 1/4 final of a pro am using it. It was a lovely cue and I knew that it was the very best that Parris cues could make. I had at this time made lots of friends with the cue collecting fraternity and one collector had wanted the Hendry cue as his 'Holy Grail' and as it was only 57.5in long I let him have the cue for exactly the amount that I had paid for it (which was a fortune!!), but before I sold it I had got John to make me a Parris Ultimate that was identical to Hendrys cue in every way apart from the length, my Ultimate was 59in long. I was now like a little kid in a sweet shop. I had some spectacular cues and spent ages agonising over which one to use!! I know that some of you are reading this and shaking your heads.......I was an idiot and of course couldn't decide which cue to use. I also bought a black plate Robert Osbourne special pearwood cue as well as a wonderful original Hunt & Obyrne lack plate cue!! So there I was with a few stunning cues and spent happy nights trying them all out and never quite getting used to any of them although the Andy Bream cue was my favourite!! Eventually I sold all of them apart from the Bream cue as I had decided that I played best with that one. I had contacted Andy Bream in Australia and asked him to make me two cues, one ash and one maple, both 3/4 joined, both 58.5in long and both 18.5oz. I also bought another John Parris 'Ultimate' cue which was 3/4 joined, ash and 58.25in long. When the Andy Bream cues arrived from Australia I tried them out and couldn't get on with the ash cue but loved the maple cue. In fact I knocked in a couple of 80+ breaks using that cue in the first week so finally I was in total love with a cue again and sold all the other cues!! The maple Bream cue was my cue number 42 in my search for a cue!! Over the next 6 months I played almost every day and got better and more confident and probably played the best snooker of my life. At the end of that season I again reached the final of the local snooker singles and for once in my life I felt confident with the cue and my snooker and turned up for the final really looking forward to it. I then proceeded to play possibly the worst snooker of my life, the more I tried the worse I got, in fact it is possibly the most embarrassing snooker that I have ever played.........of course, being a total idiot and pratt I blamed the cue and the next day sold it!! So there I was, cueless and clueless again!! 
Oldgit
Oldgit
.................................. wow. i hope you find it one day mate
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