Which World Champions played with a bent cue?

[Shockerz]

From what I'm told, Spencer, Reardon and Hendry played with bent cues.

There is lots of debate about what's required to make a good cue and the following seems to be a must:

It has to be straight (never any mentions of the various ways to make a cue with more than one taper on the cue).
It's stiffness (modern day cues must be stiff?)
The grain need to be straight
The grain needs to be tight
There must be 5 evenly spaces on the shaft for the cue to be considered a great shaft
It must be straight when rolled on a table, It must be straight with the eye, It must have tapering gradients suited to the type of hit required etc etc
The ebony must be black

I have my own opinions on what is really important and what is visual but I'm interested in other opinions as I'm never surprised at some of the requirements that are a must from guys searching for 'THE' cue.

I'll kick it off, if a cue is that important, how many World Champions played with a bent cue and if they knew it was bent, why not change it for a straight one if it's that important?

[vmax]

Spencer won two world titles with his original rack maple cue that was bent and had a nail holding one of the butt splices on to it. Hendrys' Powerglide maple cue was also bent, as is Dohertys' rack cue. Doherty still uses his whereas Spencers' and Hendrys' both got broken and were replaced with a new one, Spencer famously was the first to win a world title with a two piece in '77.

I myself played pool for ten years with a bent machine spliced rack cue with a pro taper. I held it so that the bend pointed down rather than to the side so it was effectively straight and I would imagine that others playing with bent cues do the same, after all the need to cue straight is paramount and if you know your cue is bent why play with the bend pointing to either side.

This must effect ones cue action as regards to effectively striking the cue ball accurately along the vertical centre of the cue ball if the bend of ones cue is pointing either down or up, so topspin, screw and stun shots won't be hit as accurately using a straight cue as one becomes subconsciously used to the bend so therefore ones cue action being honed around a bent cue becomes inherent with the bend in that cue for really accurate striking at the very top level.
This is something that I believe affected Hendry, that fine line dropping down to a top sixteen player from the best in the world in his prime, something that a coach cannot do anything about. He could have carried on if he had a genuine love for the game, but for him it was all about winning and his inconsistancy using straight cues lead to his early retirement.

As for what makes a good cue, it's a good player, and all those on the Parris/White waiting list are simply buying into the brand and the kudos that comes with it when it's first removed from its case, but that kudos dissappears as soon as it's in the hand and pots start being missed.

For me a cue first and foremost must fit your physique, length to within an inch of the tip of your shoulder means you will be comfortable in your stance with no need to compromise your backswing, bridge/arm length or follow through. After that you play with it, get used to its characteristics and subconsciously hone your game around it.
Back in the day there was a player in north devon, Colin Smale, who was a century breaker and used an aluminium cue, and opponents who didn't know him would smile to themselves when he slid it out of its metal tube but weren't laughing as he potted them off the table.

I've yet to see a cue that pots balls on its own.

[Shockerz]

Nice post Vmax.

What do you think about straight, close knit grain and arrows on the shaft?

[fkhan]

Nice post Vmax.

What do you think about straight, close knit grain and arrows on the shaft?

These visual traits do not validate the quality of the shaft alone in how good it plays. Even an ugly looking shaft can play excellent.

[vmax]

Nice post Vmax.

What do you think about straight, close knit grain and arrows on the shaft?

I believe the really important response from a shaft comes from the top 15 to 20 inches, the part of the shaft that flexes most on the strike, the density of the timber itself and the taper also allude to this flex. The rest of the shaft and the butt don't matter as regards to response and playability, therefore the top 15 to 20 inches are paramount to the feel of the cue.
Close straight grain the whole length of the shaft should ensure good feel from the top 15/20 inches as the overall resonance will be uniform, but the top 15/20 inches can be straight grained while the grain wanders over the rest of the shaft and vice versa and the grain can wander over the whole length of the shaft and this will give a different feel.

It's the feel a player gets used to when using a cue for a long period which is why most players keep the same cue all their lives and when forced to take a good while to get used to another one. Those who swap and change all the time will never know this feel, those who swap and change looking for one that feels the same as one that was lost/stolen/ broken will never find it as all timber reacts differently. You can get close but never the same, Alex Higgins was a victim of this and couldn't find another cue like the Burwat Champion he used exclusively up to 1972 when it then got broken. Of course he could play fantastic snooker periodically but that real precision of strike and feel was always on the edge as he played with side so very much, and side is what separates the top amateurs and lower ranked pros from the very best players in the world.

Arrows on an ash shaft are purely aesthetic, anyone looking down their shaft and following the arrows to the line of aim isn't really looking at the target IMO, after all maple users don't have this so called aid and no one needs it.
Any good quaility hardwood can be used for a cue, and by good quality I mean no knots or shakes or resin pockets, ash and maple are used mostly because they're cheap and plentiful. I saw a sweet chestnut board for sale the other day but it was twice the price of an equivalent ash board so I passed; it looked like a real solid piece with very tight straight grain and I expect would be ideal for a cue shaft and as I still haven't managed to shift the two beech cues I made last year the market for cues other than ash/maple are sketchy simply due to fashion and ignorance.
People think that ash/maple has inherent playability qualities that other wood doesn't possess, and that's why cues are made mainly from them but they're wrong, my beech cues play great and as beech is naturally slower growing it has an inherent tight straight grain as a species; so a beech shaft is all about density and taper rather than grain so is easier to bespoke to a customers needs.

Yes ash is nice and looks good too and a good piece is hard to beat, but it is finicky due to wide grain that mostly isn't uniform. Uniform tighter grained hardwoods are not only easier to bespoke but are easier to work as well, beech and maple plane/cut/sand/scrape/turn much easier than ash simply because the grain in all woods is softer so the wider the grain the harder it is to work as blades etc cut into the grain more readily than the rest of the timber.

Well off to the workshop now to plane a nice ash shaft that I prepared to 2mm oversize last year and it's still dead straight, should have the cue finished by the end of the week.

[Terry Davidson]

There used to be a guy (from Russia I think) who was always selling over-priced copy cues from Ronnie or others and in his eBay ads he always mentioned the cue would run a 147 by itself. After a while he got lost in the mists of time but I imagine he sold a few. Every new one-off cue he had for sale had the same bed quilt in the background and a price that caused me to choke.

I wonder how many of his buyers ever had a century with the cue, let alone a 147.

[Shockerz]

These visual traits do not validate the quality of the shaft alone in how good it plays. Even an ugly looking shaft can play excellent.

So why worry so much about it? People just gotta have them arrows right or it's not worth getting the cue, always found it a bit strange but it takes all sorts.

[Shockerz]

I believe the really important response from a shaft comes from the top 15 to 20 inches, the part of the shaft that flexes most on the strike, the density of the timber itself and the taper also allude to this flex. The rest of the shaft and the butt don't matter as regards to response and playability, therefore the top 15 to 20 inches are paramount to the feel of the cue.
Close straight grain the whole length of the shaft should ensure good feel from the top 15/20 inches as the overall resonance will be uniform, but the top 15/20 inches can be straight grained while the grain wanders over the rest of the shaft and vice versa and the grain can wander over the whole length of the shaft and this will give a different feel.

It's the feel a player gets used to when using a cue for a long period which is why most players keep the same cue all their lives and when forced to take a good while to get used to another one. Those who swap and change all the time will never know this feel, those who swap and change looking for one that feels the same as one that was lost/stolen/ broken will never find it as all timber reacts differently. You can get close but never the same, Alex Higgins was a victim of this and couldn't find another cue like the Burwat Champion he used exclusively up to 1972 when it then got broken. Of course he could play fantastic snooker periodically but that real precision of strike and feel was always on the edge as he played with side so very much, and side is what separates the top amateurs and lower ranked pros from the very best players in the world.

Arrows on an ash shaft are purely aesthetic, anyone looking down their shaft and following the arrows to the line of aim isn't really looking at the target IMO, after all maple users don't have this so called aid and no one needs it.
Any good quaility hardwood can be used for a cue, and by good quality I mean no knots or shakes or resin pockets, ash and maple are used mostly because they're cheap and plentiful. I saw a sweet chestnut board for sale the other day but it was twice the price of an equivalent ash board so I passed; it looked like a real solid piece with very tight straight grain and I expect would be ideal for a cue shaft and as I still haven't managed to shift the two beech cues I made last year the market for cues other than ash/maple are sketchy simply due to fashion and ignorance.
People think that ash/maple has inherent playability qualities that other wood doesn't possess, and that's why cues are made mainly from them but they're wrong, my beech cues play great and as beech is naturally slower growing it has an inherent tight straight grain as a species; so a beech shaft is all about density and taper rather than grain so is easier to bespoke to a customers needs.

Yes ash is nice and looks good too and a good piece is hard to beat, but it is finicky due to wide grain that mostly isn't uniform. Uniform tighter grained hardwoods are not only easier to bespoke but are easier to work as well, beech and maple plane/cut/sand/scrape/turn much easier than ash simply because the grain in all woods is softer so the wider the grain the harder it is to work as blades etc cut into the grain more readily than the rest of the timber.

Well off to the workshop now to plane a nice ash shaft that I prepared to 2mm oversize last year and it's still dead straight, should have the cue finished by the end of the week.

Nice post again Vmax, never really thought much about Beech but sounds a goer!

[Shockerz]

There used to be a guy (from Russia I think) who was always selling over-priced copy cues from Ronnie or others and in his eBay ads he always mentioned the cue would run a 147 by itself. After a while he got lost in the mists of time but I imagine he sold a few. Every new one-off cue he had for sale had the same bed quilt in the background and a price that caused me to choke.

I wonder how many of his buyers ever had a century with the cue, let alone a 147.

Maybe he meant a 1,4 and a 7 Terry?

[Woody001]

Maybe he meant a 1,4 and a 7 Terry?

You leave my three highest breaks out of this.

[jonny66]

Maybe he meant a 1,4 and a 7 Terry?

Red, brown, foul the black. Poor man's 147

[Shockerz]

Red, brown, foul the black. Poor man's 147

Don't knock it, I'll take anything I can get at the moment.

Should read, Red, brown, Twitch, foul the black. Doh!

[jonny66]

Don't knock it, I'll take anything I can get at the moment.

Should read, Red, brown, Twitch, foul the black. Doh!

I'm not sure if it should actually be red "1", then green takes the score to "4", then the foul on the black?