Making century's on club tables compared to tv tables

[vmax4steve]

I agree about the crystallates and the ivories before that. But I thought Davis grew up on super crystallates and these were roughly the same weight as Aramith TC 1Gs? With a weight of 140g and specific density of 1.87, aren't the 1Gs very similar to super crystallates of old? It's been a while since I played with SCs but I seem to remember them easier to play with than 1Gs. My memory could be wrong though.

We have both supers and TC's in our club and the difference is clear. The TC's have a different sound when they contact, a softer click that is almost a clunk, they kick far more often and bad contacts, where the object ball goes straighter than the actual contact made, is more frequent than in pro conditions.
This doesn't happen with the supers, they only kick when dirty and positional play is easier on the heavy club cloths we use. Put them on the radiator half an hour before you play and they respond brilliantly even though they are over forty years old.

[lennon11]

Too much throw or not enough or too much side from very little left/right of centre?

The cue ball just pushes into the object ball ...so if playing with right hand side the ball will push to the left....as most pros
prove centre ball striking really is an absolute must most of the time.....

[vmax4steve]

It's a shame that Aramith bought them out, and crystallate was no more. I wonder if the equipment to make them lies idle somewhere?

Saluc, who own the Aramith tradename, deliberately bought out the Super Crystalate Company in order to control the market for snooker with their new phenolic resin composite. They have the patent for super crystalate but ceased it's production so that new sets could no longer be bought. That left the WPBSA and the amateur ruling body in a quandry about what balls to use as the rules of the game at the time stated that the game should be played on a twelve foot by six foot table using super crystalate balls.

All affiliated leagues had to comply and all clubs in affiliated leagues had to comply as well. The new snooker clubs who joined our league in the late 80's used very inferior Aramith balls and were told to get sets of super crystalate for league matches, this they did but they weren't the same, you knew when you went to these clubs that it was different, the contact between the balls wasn't uniform, they were harder to move around.

In the late 80's I was secretary of my local league and we made a decsion to buy a set of new balls to be used in all our league finals and inter town matches. The box the balls came in stated Super Crystalate but the small print said made from phenolic resin, mystery solved. Super Crystalate was now simply a tradename owned by Aramith and could be used as such.
This was a deliberate misnomer by Aramith/Saluc to circumvent the rules at the time, I spotted it and I'm sure that anyone at both ruling bodies must have done so as well, but they were in a position where nothing could be done about it but change the rule.

That rule now states that officially recognised balls should be used but World Snooker doesn't state which balls they officially recognise (maybe they do but they didn't tell me when I wrote to them) but have chosen to go down the phenolic resin route despite all the problems these inferior balls brought to the game.

I remember Alex Higgins complaining bitterly about the constant kicks near the end of his career when these balls were first introduced late 80's early 90's, which was round about the time that Davis' game started to slide along with the rest of the old pros. Jimmy White continued throughout the 90's but his game lost it's edge, and a thick contact on a black off it's spot could well have cost him at least one world title.

[Byrom]

The East End Liberal Club on Heaton Road has an old billiards table in it and it's bloody awful, the worst thing is they have two teams in the league which means i have to play on it twice a year

Yeah - terrible tables - bet you look forward to those matches

Hint be nice to captain and tell him you have to shoot off quick and go on first on those away nights