Put your balls in the microwave

[ryanah147]

Quite an interesting one, and one I haven't come across before....
Last night at a snooker exhibition here in Cork given by Dennis Taylor, Ken Doherty, and Jimmy White. After Jimmy played his first two frames, it was obvious that he was not satisfied with the condition of the balls. He got the white ball changed on two occasions ( wether that was an excuse for his very poor performance of play) and the blue ball also changed.
At the interval he went to the office and picked from the 10 sets of Aramith TC the best (according to him) 15 reds and a set of colours. He then instructed the manager to put them in the Microwave for exactly 5 minutes as that will liven them up.
This was a new one on me, and I'd like to put it to the Forum to see if they ever seen this happen before. Also, does it work?
G.

[DeanH]

didn't Alex Higgins ask for the very same thing many years ago?
microwave or oven - not sure which

[itsnoteasy]

Did it work? Or was he still poor after doing it.

[cyberheater]

That thread title sounds painful doesn't it.

>.<

[ADR147]

i think this sounds like a bad idea.

[itsnoteasy]

I did read somewhere that warming them in a bowl of hot water made them play quicker, but a micro? It would be a case of after you.

[thommo335]

didn't Alex Higgins ask for the very same thing many years ago?
microwave or oven - not sure which

I remember that though it might have been the pie warmer.....!!!

[Geoff Large]

you should never soak snooker balls in water

Even when you wash them do it one ball at a time in soapy water and dry straight away never put them all in a bowl and soak as the colours could leach .

as for warming the ball in a microwave , thats a new one on me , and if any slight air pocket is in a ball it could lead to an explosion

or cracking of ball . not that there should be any air pockets but it only takes a bad one in production or a low quality set to have imperfections throughout the ball .

Better to just warm them on a radiator if you think this warmth is good for better play .

Iv'e seen some odd maintenance practices on snooker and pool tables , one was back brushing the nap or side brushing the nap , I even witnessed this at a club where I maintain the tables and the person doing it was the owner in an on line live pool match .
bet he didn't know I was watching him do it on line !

another is spraying the napped cloth with water or Starch , water to make the cloth greener and starch to make the cloth faster and supposedly bring back to life.

some good ones though , like floatex floor covering used as a napper to fine comb the nap .

[itsnoteasy]

Thanks for that Geoff ,I very nearly put my balls in a big tub today, I normally just wipe them down but hadn't done so for a few goes so thought it would do them good a good soaking, I'm glad I didn't now.
How on earth do you reply to this thread without everything sounding like a double entendre

[philip in china]

Sounds like a Darwin award contender as the thread title stands!

Absolutely off topic but I will mention it anyway. If you have silica gel to keep something dry, don't throw it away when it is exhausted. Just put it in your microwave and it will come out steaming. After a few runs through the microwave it will be as good as new.

Also finding a snooker topic which is new to Geoff must be a first!

[Redphex]

Judging from how a microwave oven works, I doubt that it would cause harm to the balls.

Think of it: the alternating magnetic field of the microwaves causes molecules with electric dipoles (like water) to rotate and therefore generate heat. There is not much going on with dipoles in phenolic resin, so heating will be slow.

No one would hesitate microwaving their Tupperware or other "plastic" dishes.

[thelongbomber]

Quite an interesting one, and one I haven't come across before....
Last night at a snooker exhibition here in Cork given by Dennis Taylor, Ken Doherty, and Jimmy White. After Jimmy played his first two frames, it was obvious that he was not satisfied with the condition of the balls. He got the white ball changed on two occasions ( wether that was an excuse for his very poor performance of play) and the blue ball also changed.
At the interval he went to the office and picked from the 10 sets of Aramith TC the best (according to him) 15 reds and a set of colours. He then instructed the manager to put them in the Microwave for exactly 5 minutes as that will liven them up.
This was a new one on me, and I'd like to put it to the Forum to see if they ever seen this happen before. Also, does it work?
G.

At my club they would kill me for mixing balls between sets. Aren't balls weighted on a set by set basis?

[philip in china]

At my club they would kill me for mixing balls between sets. Aren't balls weighted on a set by set basis?

With decent quality sets you might well be correct.

Somewhere there is an old thread of mine where I weighed every ball in a set, and a set of pool balls, and worked out the standard deviation etc. I had more spare time in those days!

[Redphex]

At my club they would kill me for mixing balls between sets. Aren't balls weighted on a set by set basis?

The variance within sets is pretty big - even factory new. As long as they are fairly of the same age, swapping within the same type of sets won't be a problem.

It is a problem if you start mixing different types of sets (ATC vs. Premier) or sets with different age.

[thommo335]

How on earth do you reply to this thread without everything sounding like a double entendre

Put the word 'snooker' in front of balls but the thread is far more amusing to read without!!