Table maintenance

[bongo]

Sue Thompson the UK 8 ball World Champ uses a normal iron on her table.

If it works then fair enough!

EDIT - I would agree that a proper table iron would be better though.

[Watford]

Red and Yellow are by far most common in pubs!
I do like Spots (solids) and stripes though.
US spec tables always have stripes/solids so that you can play different games. The UK spec tables are everywhere there is at least 50 bubs with teams in my town and loads of pubs with tables and no team. The US tables tend to be in larger clubs and Snooker halls, they are getting more popular.

[TheStranger]

Yeah!
It's legal to play with spot and stipes as well. My table has a red cloth, so I play with blue and yellows.

Which type of groups/suits (stripes/solids or red (blue)/yellow) are more common across the pond nowadays?

[Watford]

Yeah!
It's legal to play with spot and stipes as well. My table has a red cloth, so I play with blue and yellows.

[TheStranger]

Sorry for ranting!
These are the rules I play: http://www.epa.org.uk/wrules.php
The priciples of the game are the same it's mostly little rules that only come into play in tactical games that cause trouble!
The balls and the table are the biggest difference between UK and US!

So essentially, while they have the "blackball" look (one black, 7 reds, 7 yellows), it functions more like American 8-ball than what Wikipedia would have us believe?

[Watford]

Sorry for ranting!
These are the rules I play: http://www.epa.org.uk/wrules.php
The priciples of the game are the same it's mostly little rules that only come into play in tactical games that cause trouble!
The balls and the table are the biggest difference between UK and US!

[TheStranger]

Generally English pool tables have nap but you see the odd one with a speed cloth!

Blackball!!! Now this is making me angry.
I will be changing the Wikipedia entry for this!

Blackball is the least played of three main sets of rules to govern 8 ball pool in the UK. This makes it sound like we all play these rules and the games called Blackball, it bloody isn't!

I play World rules the EPAs proper rules that are the ones played in the UK, Austraila etc the ones that the professionals play on SKY TV and the rules that all the town and County matches are played under. - BAPTO rules are big in Scotland and Wales and basically no one plays Blackball. It's a combination of the two main rule sets that hasn't caught on!

I wished you'd not posted this I'm not happy now!

If you can correct those articles, go ahead, as I don't live in England it's good to hear that you have a better grasp of the way 8-ball is played out there. (Here, I generally play it the traditional style with friends: all but scratches are standing fouls, scratches force a placement of the cue ball into the baulk/kitchen with the same baulk rules as billiards, and potting the 8 illegally is an immediate loss.)

As for table nap...I don't think the ancient 5x10 tiny-corner Brunswick snooker table I've played on in Franklin has napped cloth, but I can't say that with 100% certainty, as it's not something I'd recognize immediately (given that American pool tables for the most part are napless). I do know that that cloth is surprisingly fast.

[Watford]

Ball colorings are different between American 8-ball and British blackball (though ironically, the latter was not only the original variant of the game, but the original one to come out of the States).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/8-ball
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blackball_%28pool%29

The Wikipedia billiard ball article also notes that American pool balls (at 2.25 inches wide) are a quarter-inch larger than British blackball ones - with the blackball balls being 1/8th inch smaller than snooker balls:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Billiard_ball

Generally English pool tables have nap but you see the odd one with a speed cloth!

Blackball!!! Now this is making me angry.
I will be changing the Wikipedia entry for this!

Blackball is the least played of three main sets of rules to govern 8 ball pool in the UK. This makes it sound like we all play these rules and the games called Blackball, it bloody isn't!

I play World rules the EPAs proper rules that are the ones played in the UK, Austraila etc the ones that the professionals play on SKY TV and the rules that all the town and County matches are played under. - BAPTO rules are big in Scotland and Wales and basically no one plays Blackball. It's a combination of the two main rule sets that hasn't caught on!

I wished you'd not posted this I'm not happy now!

[Semih_Sayginer]

As I understand it, pool table cloths do not normally have a nap. I was told by a wizened old billiard table fitter (whose wisdom has recently been called into question) that one purpose of the straight edges of a billiard table iron was to lay the nap in a consistent direction. Whether this is true or not I wouldn't like to say, and even if it were then perhaps it is less relevant in these days of very short napped snooker cloths.

you wouldnt normally iron a napless cloth (though ive heard of folk doing it to take hints of over moisture out of it?).

for napped cloth a household iron does the job, but in the long run its easier to use the "proper iron"

[TheStranger]

As I presumed, and thanks, it appears we English are died in the wool (sic) and still persist in using napped cloth in our (is it?, is there a difference between US and UK 8 ball pool?) version of your game.

Ball colorings are different between American 8-ball and British blackball (though ironically, the latter was not only the original variant of the game, but the original one to come out of the States).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/8-ball
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blackball_%28pool%29

The Wikipedia billiard ball article also notes that American pool balls (at 2.25 inches wide) are a quarter-inch larger than British blackball ones - with the blackball balls being 1/8th inch smaller than snooker balls:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Billiard_ball

[moglet]

If I'm not mistaken, American pool tables have napless baize; I don't think ironing is common at all out here in the States for pool tables.

As I presumed, and thanks, it appears we English are died in the wool (sic) and still persist in using napped cloth in our (is it?, is there a difference between US and UK 8 ball pool?) version of your game.

[TheStranger]

Well spotted 100-uper, but in this world of shifting sands can we be sure that that particular table was covered with napless worsted cloth? I don't follow the technical stuff about about pool tables and their preparation too closely so I'm not certain whether the Americans iron their pool tables.

If I'm not mistaken, American pool tables have napless baize; I don't think ironing is common at all out here in the States for pool tables.

[moglet]

Well spotted 100-uper, but in this world of shifting sands can we be sure that that particular table was covered with napless worsted cloth? I don't follow the technical stuff about about pool tables and their preparation too closely so I'm not certain whether the Americans iron their pool tables.
Leastwise, most fitters here seem to use the iron at an angle whilst making the run up the table, this is the way I do mine and it makes a better job than taking the iron up square to the table which tends to produce the "striped lawn" effect.

[100-uper]

As I understand it, pool table cloths do not normally have a nap. I was told by a wizened old billiard table fitter (whose wisdom has recently been called into question) that one purpose of the straight edges of a billiard table iron was to lay the nap in a consistent direction. Whether this is true or not I wouldn't like to say, and even if it were then perhaps it is less relevant in these days of very short napped snooker cloths.

[Watford]

Sue Thompson the UK 8 ball World Champ uses a normal iron on her table.

I was at a game in Preston last year and a lad cleaning the tables put the iron on a table before the game. He got called to the bar and left the iron on the table. After a while smoke started to fill the room. It was quite funny!