Snooker table spots

[Danger Steve]

Hey chaps!

A few weeks ago I decided to fit the white table spots I bought from Thurstons, there sort of a sticky back fabric type of thing, I trimmed them down to about 8mm diameter because originally they are massive! Anyway, what’s really bugging me is that it’s difficult to get the balls to stay on the spot, they just want to roll off slightly, now I’m just getting annoyed with them. I can see why folks bang balls onto the spots...

I just read an old post from 2016 where Geoff mentioned he uses 8mm green spots that iron onto the cloth and he recommends replacing them on a fairly regular basis. I’ve had an internet search but drawn a blank on these greens spots??

Any suggestions on the best spots to use?

[Nifty50]

A few years ago I bought black spots that were made from silk. Think I got them from Thurstons. They were very good but expensive compared to normal spots. Because they were silk and ultra thin they fitted to the table very well. No problem with balls rolling off.

[Nifty50]

https://www.abcsnooker.co.uk/discoun...e-silk-spots-1

[fkhan]

Here we use billiards pencils to draw the spots. Hopefully they can be used there too. Something like these:

https://www.cuepower.co.uk/product/s...arker-pencils/

[mikee]

Using pencils to mark the spotted area is good ,but you need spots as well otherwise your cloth will wear out very fast ,especially around the black spot .

[vmax]

Use self adhesive paper spots that are easy to fit and replace when worn, available in many colours and very cheap. I have a sheet of them in my wallet and fit them every time I play on a table with worn and dipped spots to stop bad contacts on the spotted colours.
Sometimes a dipped spot needs more than one paper spot to keep the colour level with the bed, that's how rarely our tables are re-covered, but some berk always removes them come league night

[Danger Steve]

Thanks chaps! I’ll give the paper spots a try. Do you get any balls rolling off the spots VMax?

[mikee]

Thanks chaps! I’ll give the paper spots a try. Do you get any balls rolling off the spots VMax?

No not at all ,I use 8 mill ones ,just makes re spotting balls a little trickier .

[vmax]

Thanks chaps! I’ll give the paper spots a try. Do you get any balls rolling off the spots VMax?

Not if you place them correctly over the worn spot and spot the colours properly.

[inevermissblue]

Don't use spots. As they aren't 100% effective. So as a result, it only takes one impatient person to bang the ball on the spot and that area is now ruined!
All you need to do is mark out the cloth with a pen, such as a tippex pen. Mark out the cloth with a cross.
Most importantly... The manner in which you respot colours is paramount! Never skid the ball towards the spot as this creates gullys over time. Equally damaging is if you drop or Place directly onto the spot.
The best practise would be to place the ball down near the spot, but not on it. Then just gently roll the ball into position. This is the correct way to look after these areas on the table.
Furthermore. If you brush the table afterwards. Pay particular attention to the bed cloth that tracks into the pockets along the cushions. As accumulated Chalk trapped into the bed cloth causes accelerated wear from the balls along this path. This cleaning regime adds extra months/years to your cloth.

[Danger Steve]

Some conflicting info here chaps!

It’s been around 5 weeks since I fit the new cloth, I marked out using a white pencil at the time, reason being it isn’t as permanent I thought, that way after the re-stretch I won’t have obvious double markings and I could go maybe for the more permanent tippex markings.... However! After just 3-4 weeks I started to notice the black rocking into position by itself when placed close to its spot! Hence the need to start using spots to protect the cloth. As INMB mentions I did gently place the colours near the spot (not on them) and then rolled them into position, as seen on TV! The problem is yes this might work as far as re-spotting goes, but the problem as far as I am aware is that when the cue ball strike the object ball there is a downward impact into the cloth from both balls? Which is why you also get those worn marks around the black spot? Hence why table fitters recommend using spots?

[Danger Steve]

One other point I noticed on the old cloth which had no spots... whenever I hit a straight blue or pink of its spot with some power the object ball would jump slightly!

[mikee]

Not using spots is only for tv ,as they change the cloth every 3 days so it becomes a non issue .I have played a few times at a club that doesn’t have spots on their tables and all of them are Badly worn ,and the balls roll in to them ,must cost them a fortune in recovering .Inervemisablue is correct though about keeping the tracking marks down in the pocket openings by good brushing and ironing .Another thing regarding wear in the pocket openings is if a table has undercut on the nose of the rubber the bed cloth and cushion cloth wears a lot faster around the pockets compared to a more match style cut pocket with the full nose profile running all round in to the opening .

[Danger Steve]

I might have to start spotting the lineup the amount of practice I’m giving it! Lol

[nocciola]

I've been looking into getting spots or not as well because the cloth indeed wears out quickly around the spots.

what do you think about these, don't know if they're silk or paper:

https://www.peradon.co.uk/billiard-r...w=2101#product
they have 'Self Adhesive' and 'wet before sticking' table spots, not sure what the difference is and what would be best.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Tweeten-WHI.../dp/B00K6R8PDG