Star Quality

[hotpot]

Im sorry i cannot accept the premise that you need to practice on star tables any more than you needed to play on rileys or bces before them.
Its a very easy excuse for playing poorly,the favourites who have got beat this week played very well in other tournaments this year on the same tables.
A more logical reason for some average play so far this week is the pockets which vary tournament to tournament due to how the fitter has done his job are on the tight side this week.
And as for amateurs if they start thinking they need certain conditions to have a chance they are in trouble.
If the table they practice on has a newish decent cloth either hainsworth match or strachen and the balls are fairly new they will be ok.

I dont think its a matter of having to practice on a certain table but the point being that players who are practising on these tables benefit from the the way they play and gain an advantage over someone who dont play on them that much .

Its like playing home and away in a league , it,s a big advantage playing home .

[s.h442]

Are the Star Tables generally better than riley?

[JanieWatkins]

I once watched Ray Reardon at Prestatyn,a long time ago on one of the upstairs tables. Tha table was dreadfull and very damp. Ray kept leaving himself half ball or thinner shots especially noticible with the black. No screw/stun or soft screw shots. He told me afterwards that it was deliberate and the only way to play in those conditions and keep some contral of the cue ball.
This does show how adaptable the best players can be once they recognise whats wrong with the table. I have allways thought that players should be able to adapt to different conditions as long as the table is good, but just different.
A rank bad table is another matter ,stay away from them if possible.
Roy Bacon

that's a really good point Roy - and Happy New Year to you.

From what I see these days, the players a few years ago were far more able to adapt quickly to various conditions.
They played countless exhibitions etc and learned to adapt very quickly to how they needed to cope with a table.
Although I do remember the famous incident when John Pullman had a bigger problem than that. He turned up to do an exhibition, asked the organisers where the tables was so he could practice and they said "Oh, we thought you'd bring a table with you"!!!

[roykay]

Thanks Janie,and happy new year to you.
As long as a table is good,ie not a worn out cloth or cushions that bounce players should quickly catch (as they say in Scotland) the table.
Ronnie came to my house a few years ago for some practice. The cloth was worn , sluggish and difficult to play on as I was waiting for the fitter and a recover .He was one match in at the Crucible so had been playing in exactly the opposite conditions. He made a max,did not even mention the conditions,he just tuned in to it straight away.

Roy Bacon

[franksandellsnooker]

Janie, I think you'll find the player who arrived to play and found no table was actually Fred Davis.
Roykay. Again I,m of the same opinion as you and have had a similar experience when R. O'S used my table for practise a few times.

[JanieWatkins]

Janie, I think you'll find the player who arrived to play and found no table was actually Fred Davis.
Roykay. Again I,m of the same opinion as you and have had a similar experience when R. O'S used my table for practise a few times.

Hiya Frank - how are you?
thanks for correcting me.

Oddly enough, and maybe we're both wrong, I've just heard Willie Thorne relate the same story tonight on the snooker and I thought I heard him say Pullman... maybe he read what I wrote this morning!!!

[franksandellsnooker]

Janie, Happy New Year. It was a hell of a time ago but I believe it was Fred himself who told me. Bol. F. As a second thought he could have had Pully with him!.

[davidwu]

Are the Star Tables generally better than riley?

i really doubt it. personally i think it is the opposite. how could a newly developed company beats a company (in term of craftsmanship) that has been dealing with a type of product for so long without a major advantage in technology? especially when u consider that the best chinese pool table (a smaller version of snooker table) manufacturer in china is Joy. all the people i met in china told me that the star chinese pool table is definitely worse than joy's pool table, and star may be more popular for snooker table but their quality is not any better if not worse than Joy's. how could the best english snooker table manufacturer got beaten by a chinese manufacturer which is not even the best in china?

star tables are used mainly for commercial reasons.

[s.h442]

i really doubt it. personally i think it is the opposite. how could a newly developed company beats a company (in term of craftsmanship) that has been dealing with a type of product for so long without a major advantage in technology? especially when u consider that the best chinese pool table (a smaller version of snooker table) manufacturer in china is Joy. all the people i met in china told me that the star chinese pool table is definitely worse than joy's pool table, and star may be more popular for snooker table but their quality is not any better if not worse than Joy's. how could the best english snooker table manufacturer got beaten by a chinese manufacturer which is not even the best in china?

star tables are used mainly for commercial reasons.

I thought at the time it was strange that riley tables were being replaced by star as official supplier. Saving money was ovbiously favored over quality

[davidwu]

I thought at the time it was strange that riley tables were being replaced by star as official supplier. Saving money was ovbiously favored over quality

not just saving money but also increase the income, since snooker is very popular in china now, so by using chinese tables, there will be high demand for these tables hence more sponsorship from the Star.

[maryfield]

Star have greased the palm of World Snooker with more money than BCE/RILEY were prepared to do. I am friends with a table fitter who has installed tables at the World Championships and he says that the build quality and materials used in the Stat table are very poor. He doubts they will last very long beng moved from venue to venue.

[davidwu]

Star have greased the palm of World Snooker with more money than BCE/RILEY were prepared to do. I am friends with a table fitter who has installed tables at the World Championships and he says that the build quality and materials used in the Stat table are very poor. He doubts they will last very long beng moved from venue to venue.

like i said, there is no way that the chinese tables can compare with the english ones, at the moment. it is all about markets.

[s.h442]

I also think i remember the commentators saying the star tables are very difficult to play on. Maybe it is just me but it seems that shots along the cushion ect are missed more often that when the riley tables are used.

[davidwu]

I think it is shame that they switch to star tables, since there are many other ways to draw money from the Chinese market. Eg more Chinese adverts and sponsorships

[JanieWatkins]

I also think i remember the commentators saying the star tables are very difficult to play on. Maybe it is just me but it seems that shots along the cushion ect are missed more often that when the riley tables are used.

You've come back to the point I was making in the first place.

Star ARE different to Rileys or BCEs or whatever. Whether they're better or worse wasn't the issue.

The point was that they play different and players need to practice on them and get table time on them if they're going to be properly prepared when they have to play tournaments on them.