pocket templates

[peternurse]

is it possible to purchace a set of pocket templates so i can check the pockets on my riley 1920s table the reason being is that they seem very tight and often reject balls that seem to go in withe ease on other tables
i have heard that these templates are supplied under licence only ,whats the big deal i only want to check my table you would think they would be available on the internet can anyone help thanks

[ferret]

If you are talking about the WSA COPYRIGHTED templates then you have a better chance of going to the moon to be honest.

But you can get a standard template from a fitter, but they would probably insist on coming out and checking it for you than sending you a template.

[hegeland]

Thats very strange, why copyright a pocket template?? Wouldn't it be better if more people had access to it?

[ferret]

Yeah I know it's crazy.

I have tryed to ask The WPBSA about this in the past but all they have to say is that the pocket template is copyrighted and give no further comment to any of my questions

You could always purchase an ex-world championship table and make your own templaye but that would cost a fortune.

[Joe99]

Why not just trace the shape of the pockets on your table and make your own set of templates? This would enable you to compare it with other tables you come across, or you could even scan your template and email the shape to anybody willing to make the comparison. At least you would find out if your pockets are different from most others.

Ferret mentioned getting an ex-world championship table. Are world championship table pockets known to be different from "ordinary" tables?

[Redphex]

Very soon, there will be official IBSF templates:

http://web.mac.com/pascal.guillaume/...cket_size.html

[inevermissblue]

I would like to know why there are so many different sized pockets anyway? It has to be one of the most annoying things about snooker. I often hear people talking about breaks made on "buckets", as if to say that this does not become recognised as a bonafide break. Surely every single table that exists should have the same pocket size as the professional ones. This makes perfect sense to me. For example, you will find it impossible to go to your nearest stockists to buy a larger sized dartboard, just incase you feel that regular ones are difficult to play on. So why have snooker tables accommodated these sorts of modifications over the years? I would have thought that if they had never messed with the pockets and they were tighter right from the word go, then the game as a whole would have gained alot more respect!

What are everyone elses thoughts on this????

[moglet]

In many ways I entirely agree, if we always kept to the same sizes, shapes and slate falls everyone would know where they were and be able to compare their standard of play with the professionals. Of course you would then have to standardise the cloth, which would be even more difficult.

The IBSF templates, intended for the amateur game and I understand undercut - unlike the current professional templates, have not arrived with me yet so I can't say definitely what standard they are based on.

It may be that pockets accurately set to the professional template would be too much of a test for a less than average club player, however there is some evidence that suggests that the professionals themselves asked for the pockets to be eased from the earlier billiards template (also not undercut) when the game moved to television.

[davybull]

There is a vast difference in pockets. When I played regulally I used to play on old billiard tables which, let me tell you, were bl@@dy tight. No way on earth could you even slightly force a ball down a cushion into the pocket.

On more than one occasion when playing an away match on a generous table I walked away from the table thinking I'd missed a shot only to see it go in!!

Dave.

[Son of Cliff]

There is a vast difference in pockets. When I played regulally I used to play on old billiard tables which, let me tell you, were bl@@dy tight. No way on earth could you even slightly force a ball down a cushion into the pocket.

On more than one occasion when playing an away match on a generous table I walked away from the table thinking I'd missed a shot only to see it go in!!

Dave.

Yes I play on an old billiard table, you can tell a billiard table they have a top plate brass pockets, the middle bags are a nightmare due to the plate being too far into the pocket which causes the balls to jump out

[TheStranger]

Speaking of painfully tight tables, I brought a ruler with me to the local snooker hall out in Franklin and its one 5x10 table...

The center pockets matched the dimensions in moglet's templates (from previous pocket-size discussions) but the corner pockets are MORE DIFFICULT by far. I think the measurement at the slate edge is supposed to be 3.3 inches?

Well, I took out my ruler and... 2.75 inches. No wonder potting on that table is extremely spotty at the corners!