Pocket size for beginners

[Leo]

80 mm is a bit tight, that's under 3.25". My credit card seems to be 86mm and around 3 3/8". I'd be pretty happy with that up to 3.5"

80mm is not a bit tight it's too tight and no good for anyone who want to progress in the game

[Chappy5]

80mm is not a bit tight it's too tight and no good for anyone who want to progress in the game

That has been the world measurement for well over 100 years in Billiards and Snooker and only the last decade or 2 has TV comp tables seen them being opened.

How the hell did everyone progress in the game 100 years ago and your comment is outrageous.

[Leo]

That has been the world measurement for well over 100 years in Billiards and Snooker and only the last decade or 2 has TV comp tables seen them being opened.

How the hell did everyone progress in the game 100 years ago and your comment is outrageous.

Its not at all and you know that, anyone looking to improve in the game of snooker and playing on pockets that are 3.15 inches is outrageous, come on chappy you seem like you have some knowledge in the game but 3.15" pockets is bording on ridiculous.

[Chappy5]

Its not at all and you know that, anyone looking to improve in the game of snooker and playing on pockets that are 3.15 inches is outrageous, come on chappy you seem like you have some knowledge in the game but 3.15" pockets is bording on ridiculous.

But that is the world template

People have been playing this game for centuries at the standard 3 and 1/4 inch world pocket template for Snooker and Billiards and lots of people progress and my 11yo daughter pots balls on my table all the time has improved immensely over the last 6 Mths and check my post on page 1 where i put Pics of my home table.

[Chappy5]

Also from Geoff himself.

but going back in time when Billiards and snooker was at it's peak when no TV was around , most where set at Billiards openings of around 3.1/4 inch

3.1/4 Inch is what they are meant to be and only the introduction of TV wanting 100 breaks all the time has seen them opened up a bit, but for centuries 3 and 1/4 inches has been the standard template and saying no one can improve is ridiculous and plenty have been for hundreds of years.

[Ramon]

Also from Geoff himself.




3.1/4 Inch is what they are meant to be and only the introduction of TV wanting 100 breaks all the time has seen them opened up a bit, but for centuries 3 and 1/4 inches has been the standard template and saying no one can improve is ridiculous and plenty have been for hundreds of years.

yep ,3.1/4 is about right . i have a old file from World Snooker templates , which gives the same size for those pockets .
btw, no one can improve by opening the pockets. You get improvment by better cueing / better aiming / cueing stright / strike the ball well and in the center /
no criticism to other's opinion , but it's just for the first time in my life that i hear sumthing like this .
you can improve by making the pockets bigger . it's new to me and very strange.
also with other sports . never heard of sumone saying , I can'nt play tennis so I'm gonna to make a shorter tennis field or a lower tennisnet.
anyway, thanks for the info .

[Chappy5]

yep ,3.1/4 is about right . i have a old file from World Snooker templates , which gives the same size for those pockets .
btw, no one can improve by opening the pockets. You get improvment by better cueing / better aiming / cueing stright / strike the ball well and in the center /
no criticism to other's opinion , but it's just for the first time in my life that i hear sumthing like this .
you can improve by making the pockets bigger . it's new to me and very strange.
also with other sports . never heard of sumone saying , I can'nt play tennis so I'm gonna to make a shorter tennis field or a lower tennisnet.
anyway, thanks for the info .

Exactly

Great post.

[jamesg19851]

A lot of people say that the the pockets are now too big. All I can say is that after seeing the pockets on the tv table for a ptc in gloucester a few years ago, they are very tight indeed.

[Geoff Large]

No pockets on TV tournament tables have large pockets they are all set to template size a shade under 3.5 inch , so please no comments that the tV tables have been doctored or have been eased to please the watching TV punters .
what I will say , it is down to the actual fitter to make sure the undercut is correct , some pockets can be made very hard to pocket due to rough uncleaned rasped and sanded undercut , this is one thing that I pay a lot of attention to detail on .

it has to be WS templated size double checked by fitter and governing body and referee , because no century or 147 breaks would be recognised and they are all cut to WS templates , Every table is checked by the governing body through the referee who also has to have access to the templates
this was confirmed to me when i enquired about having a set of these WS templates , I was told only WS and the referee are entitled to have a set , plus of course Star in china .

you could say the same for all the Football Grounds the governing body of FA or fifa checks that the size of goals are the same .




Reading back i have seen a few refer to TV tables having large pockets if you ever get the chance to go down there and measure them you will find at the drop they are a shade under 3.5 inch , as a billiard fitter working on imperial sized snooker tables I refuse to use metric measurements on pocket openings
and most time served fitters even from the 1980 time period will also use imperial sizes for pocket openings .

Only thurston who jumped the gun in the 1980s and made a few Metric tables have used Metric for pocket sizes and marking spots out but only for these very few Thurston Metric tables that are around , for all others they use Imperial measurements.

3.1/4 inch pockets are old billiards sizes , from the 1960s onwards there was a change to make them 3.5 inch and the radius of the fall was also 3.5 inch
if they had stuck to that then there would be no arguments over pocket sizes , but players got really good at high breaks so they have meddled with them again to reduce to a size just under 3.5 inch .

ONLY proper made steel cushions will replicate the match TV openings , all standard cushions have more rubber going back into the rear of the pocket opening ,
so you cannot compare standard tables with match pocket openings as you will always get a bit of ball rattle or pocket closing up on standard tables depending on time period they where made


you can see the difference of steel burroughs an watts cushions to a set of standard Riley cushions , here http://gclbilliards.com/replace-stan...-leg-in-derby/

also look at the original cushion re-rubber before I changed them to steel cushion , look at the template in the corner pocket opening it will not even fit in as the pocket gets tighter towards the back end
http://gclbilliards.com/re-rubber-re...snooker-table/

look at the black ball opening you will see this set of riley cushions has rubber that goes right back to the pocket plate with an angle cutt into the top wood work

then look at the steel cushions that have been fitted and re-covered , you will see no angle in the top capping and different pocket plates

99.9% of tables are made in imperials sized slates , on a full size this is 12 foot long , by 6ft 1.5 inch wide , if we are going to use imperial sizes then why not use imperial sizes for the pocket openings ?
we also mark out using imperial measurements for the baulk line and spot placements . on normal sized tables these are 31 inch for Baulk line , blue 6ft , pink to align diagonal from centre pocket to bottom pocket normally this works out at 37 inch from black end , and black spot is 14.3/4 inch .
all measurements done with cushions off .
the sooner everyone gets back to 3.5 inch pockets the better , these are not easy pockets especially now that the flat rubber is extended right to the back of the opening unlike the old way of undercut where it was angled away to a point , making deflection of ball downwards a help in getting the ball down the pocket
all pockets are now flat faced with only the undercut being under this 3/8th flat face

Having said the above I will cut any size pockets my client instructs me to , from very tight to buckets , it is not my choice it is always the clients .
we are trained to ignore all players in snooker clubs asking for this and that and only take instructions from the owner of the club or table .

On some occasions the owner lets the players decide and they often say we want tight pocket openings , after we have done this , the majority of standard players int he club will not play on that table ,
this pleases the few players who like playing on tight pockets as they get their table easy as it is always free when they walk into the club .
But the real issue is when the owner gets a read out from the Till or PC that the table is not being used as much and that's when I get a phone call asking me to go back and open the pockets up to around 3.5/8ths which is normal club sized pockets .

[itsnoteasy]

yep ,3.1/4 is about right . i have a old file from World Snooker templates , which gives the same size for those pockets .
btw, no one can improve by opening the pockets. You get improvment by better cueing / better aiming / cueing stright / strike the ball well and in the center /
no criticism to other's opinion , but it's just for the first time in my life that i hear sumthing like this .
you can improve by making the pockets bigger . it's new to me and very strange.
also with other sports . never heard of sumone saying , I can'nt play tennis so I'm gonna to make a shorter tennis field or a lower tennisnet.
anyway, thanks for the info .

That's exactly how youngsters start off at tennis, what are you saying, if you don't play to Wimbledon rules don't bother playing?
I have played at the Locarno club in Edinburgh and the tables in there are just the same as ours,Stephen Hendry played in there as did Chris Small, so does Scott Donaldson, but as you said none of them improved on those 3 1/2 inch bags and never did anything in the game as far as I know.

[Leo]

Old billiards tables were tight yes but it's 2016 soon and we all know that 3.15" for pocket openings is way to small, this is not me trying to argue its me pointing out simple facts that times have changed.

[j6uk]

if your looking to the pockets for solutions then maybe snooker is not right for you

[Ramon]

That's exactly how youngsters start off at tennis, what are you saying, if you don't play to Wimbledon rules don't bother playing?
I have played at the Locarno club in Edinburgh and the tables in there are just the same as ours,Stephen Hendry played in there as did Chris Small, so does Scott Donaldson, but as you said none of them improved on those 3 1/2 inch bags and never did anything in the game as far as I know.

you'r missing the point here. please read the post nr 46 . ur answer is there.
I did'nt say non of them improved.
I said Hendry was kind of player who did'nt worried about the size of the pockets.
yes they improved but the reasen of thr improvment was not the size of the pockets.
You play snooker with ur arm and ur arm is the one who's doing the job . Do'nt blame the size of the pockets / ur cue / table or ...... for ur own mistakes.
Snooker is not everyone's game .

[Ramon]

if your looking to the pockets for solutions then maybe snooker is not right for you

common sense !!

[itsnoteasy]

You said no one can improve on bags bigger than the original templates, well the players I mentioned played and still play on tables with bigger ,or more open bags than that, so tell me how did they improve? I don't blame anything but my own technique, I couldn't give a tuppence cuss what size the bags are ,I pot and miss roughly the same on all tables, so I don't agree with folk who say pockets HAVE to be this or that size( obviously within reason).