Advice for a surprise pressie

[Jenni]

Hi,

I'll be comlpetely honest here, i know nothing about snooker cue's like weights or lengths or what brands are good etc. I want to buy my boyfriend a snooker cue for Christmas (yes i know it's early) but want it to be a surprise. This means i won't be able to ask him what weight/length he prefers etc. I can see from other threads in this section that this kind of information is useful when buying a cue but is it really essential?

Would you recommend buying a cue without knowing anything about the recipients preferences? And if you think it's ok, can you give me some advice about what i should be looking for (good brands etc.) or even recommend some specific ones. My budget is about £50-£60 (i know i'm not going to get anything fantastic for that but that's ok).

Thanks in advance!

[thinsy]

Wow, a snooker cue for christmas.... Can I be your boyfriend? lol

Cues are much of a personal preference so it will be difficult, but i'm sure your in the right place to be helped.

I probably won't be much help, but I do know that there are a few guys on here who have shops and sell cues, so if you let everyone know what area you live in i'm sure someone will be only too happy to point you down the right street...

They may even be kind enough to change it if it doesn't appeal to him!

Good luck in your quest.

[Jenni]

Well i live in st. helens (which you've probably never heard of lol) which is between Liverpool and Manchester. The advantage of that is i'm near some of the major towns in the North West so getting to places like Manchester, Warrington, Wigan, Liverpool isn't too much of a problem

[thinsy]

Well i live in st. helens (which you've probably never heard of lol) which is between Liverpool and Manchester. The advantage of that is i'm near some of the major towns in the North West so getting to places like Manchester, Warrington, Wigan, Liverpool isn't too much of a problem

Sidetracking a bit. I know St Helens, had family live there many years ago.
I was a sick child and also spent many months in Alder Hey

Used to live in Wigan but left there 29 years ago...

[Jenni]

lol yeah sidetracking abit but... meh! I've lived in St. Helens nearley all my life, moved to Manchester for a couple of years whilst i was at uni but me and my boyfriend couldn't afford to buy our first house there so St. Helens seemed a good compromise!

[MrRottweiler]

A snooker cue is a very personal thing and if your bf is a keen Snooker player I think he would prefer it if you offer to put £50 towards a cue. He then has the option of putting some towards it himself and will get the cue he wants. This way it wont be a surprise but there wont be a danger of him not appreciating the gift. It reminds me of my ma (bless her) getting me a cue as a presant. It was graphite. I almost projectile vomited at her.

[Sam147]

totally agree with thinsy & MrRottweiler about cues being a personal preference, even 2 cues of the same brand and the same specs can play a lil different.

the question is tho, does your b/f already have a cue & is thinking of buying another one? is he relatively new but keen on the game? does he play with any off the rack cue at his local or has certain preferences to a certain cue?

once u've answered that, u'll probably have a pretty good idea on what to do next

i also believe u might be able to sense your b/f's preferences towards cues if u show some interest in the game & start discussing such stuff with him as u've still got some time till Christmas... if his preference is way off your budget then u could take MrRottweiler's advice & offer to put the £50 towards buying his preferred cue!

[Jenni]

It was graphite. I almost projectile vomited at her.

Hmmmm nice - bet she never got you anything again lol! He's not exactly training to be a professional or anything - he only plays once a week (twice at most) for fun but i see your point. Although he might use it abit more once we get a snooker table in our loft.... along with the pool table, the sauna, the steam room, the swimming pool (complete with water slide) and all the other things he says we should get to put in the loft of our old 2 bedroom terrace lol!

Sam - he doesn't have his own cue at the moment but his mate said he's always whinging about how rubbish the public ones at Rileys are. When we go to play snooker, i dont think he uses exactly the same one every time (there are too many in Rileys to find the exact same one you used last time) but he will change the cue afew times until he's happy. He's not exactly new to the game, he played pool all the time when he was at uni and has gotten into snooker over the past few years. Although he is keen and he likes it, he's not exactly looking to be the next Steve Davis, he just plays for fun.

P.s. i've managed to get in contact with the bloke he goes to play snooker with and he said he'd try to sneak some information out of him without giving anything away so i might have at least abit of information to go on!

[Morse]

fun cue

sounds to me like he is a fun player without a cue of his own no need to spend more than 50 or 60 quid on a cue yet! in case he goes off snooker so your budget is about right if he has no cue of his own he has no preferences as of yet because he has been playing with every old bat in the club and will probably learn to play with almost any cue...
Wherever you go roll the cue on the table tip should not move much of the cloth ... that means its straight get one and play shots with it, grab it in a warm hand and play shots with it if it feels sticky its gonna be difficult to play with
What i always say is go to a local handmade snooker cue maker and buy one of his 2nds you are guaranteeing a better piece of ash/maple with normally slight imperfections on veneers etc which dont make a difference and they are always the best people to advise you. have a look in some of the other cues forums and ask some of the makers there are bound to be some by you !

[dannyd0g]

Many of the members here are very seriously into playing snooker. If your b/f is much more casual than that he's not going to be as exacting as some of the members here. So if you can just find out if he likes a heavy/light, long/short, ash/maple etc he'll probably be pleased with what he gets.

[Jenni]

ah that's true, i never thought about it like that! Cheers

[dannyd0g]

Forgot one of the other important criterias on how he likes them - thick / thin.

Dont know how you are going to get all this info without him twigging though.

[trevs1]

Personally, I think we can sefely say he'd be fairly pleased with something of a more or less standard shape and weight, as if he only uses the club 'rack' cues, this is what he'll have a choice of when going to play.

Good second hand is a good shout, but obviously, Jenni has no knowledge to make an informed choice or judgement.

It's a tricky thing to offer anyone advice on such a subjective item as a cue, but, Jenni, if you want some unbiased opinion, send me a P.M and I'll give you my view on it.

Good luck whatever you decide to do.

[Morse]

excellent idea

trev is one of them handmade cue people i was talking about he is not over by you he is over by me in the misty far off land full of wyrd dragons, cloud covered volcanoes... and sheep. but he is the one to talk to about cues what he doesnt know about cues you could put on a grain of rice and i am sure he would steer you in the correct direction (he is hand building my cue at this very time as a reference!) good luck in your search!

[Jenni]

Ok well he's going to play snooker tomorrow so hopefully the guy who plays with him will be able to get me abit of info so i'll at least have a starting point. Thanks to everyone that has offered advice so far