The Les Edwards Snooker Challenge Thread

[Terry Davidson]

Duplicate post for some reason

[Terry Davidson]

I would just like to announce that Les won his first match 3-2 in our tournament yesterday (never mind it took 4hrs, a win is a win). He then lost his next match against a pretty good player 3-2 on the last black when he only needed blue at the end of the frame.

The biggest problem we are having with our series of tournaments is first getting the players out and also we can't get the tables up to speed. Our venue has 8 x Shender tables with Hainsworth Match cloth but they are never blocked and ironed so they remain very slow.

There were 2 regular players who showed up and stayed all day at the venue but didn't want to play. I had a discussion with one of them who figured it was quite alright for our main association to hold back 70% of the entry money because he thought they were paying it all out in the Provincial Championships and chooses to ignore the figures posted on their own website. I guess some players don't give a damn as long as someone else is running something for them. He didn't want to pee them off by playing in ours even though we are not competing with them, just offering what we feel is a better option.

Unfortunate but true.

[lesedwards]

I would just like to announce that Les won his first match 3-2 in our tournament yesterday (never mind it took 4hrs, a win is a win). He then lost his next match against a pretty good player 3-2 on the last black when he only needed blue at the end of the frame.

The biggest problem we are having with our series of tournaments is first getting the players out and also we can't get the tables up to speed. Our venue has 8 x Shender tables with Hainsworth Match cloth but they are never blocked and ironed so they remain very slow.

There were 2 regular players who showed up and stayed all day at the venue but didn't want to play. I had a discussion with one of them who figured it was quite alright for our main association to hold back 70% of the entry money because he thought they were paying it all out in the Provincial Championships and chooses to ignore the figures posted on their own website. I guess some players don't give a damn as long as someone else is running something for them. He didn't want to pee them off by playing in ours even though we are not competing with them, just offering what we feel is a better option.

Unfortunate but true.

Well Terry beat me to a post about our Tournament but I would like to add something very important about my game that I found out yesterday. I noticed towards the end of my first match that my cue hand was developing two blisters from holding the cue so tight which Terry has told me in the past. By the time I started my second match my hand was getting very soar so the lighter I held the cue the better I played. I was very impressed with my performance and my opponent mentioned after we finished that I played very well for only playing for two years and if I get to the point where I can run 30's and 40's I will be a tough competitor as he said my safety game was exceptional. I left him in some very tough situations. Back to the practice table today.

[Terry Davidson]

Well Terry beat me to a post about our Tournament but I would like to add something very important about my game that I found out yesterday. I noticed towards the end of my first match that my cue hand was developing two blisters from holding the cue so tight which Terry has told me in the past. By the time I started my second match my hand was getting very soar so the lighter I held the cue the better I played. I was very impressed with my performance and my opponent mentioned after we finished that I played very well for only playing for two years and if I get to the point where I can run 30's and 40's I will be a tough competitor as he said my safety game was exceptional. I left him in some very tough situations. Back to the practice table today.

Les:

If you think about it at the start of this season you wouldn't have been able to win a match even against Pat but now on tables that are playing very poorly you not only beat Terry (for others that's a different Terry) but also came very close to beating Jerry and both of them are pretty good players. Your safety game kept you in there and since no one is making any good breaks on these tables with the condition they're in most frames the colours are getting screwed up and the frames are all going into the colours at the end.

Also, I hope you've taken to heart what you discovered regarding your grip and every time I've seen you play I've told you your grip is way too tight. As I've said many times before just let the cue lay in the fingers (can't take credit for that as it's from Joe Davis). Joe played with much heavier cloth and also heavier balls and he knew what he was talking about. The other thing is with a relaxed grip you will find you have to punch through the cueball because just the weight of the cue itself will force you to follow-through much better.

Work just on keeping the grip relaxed and use simple shots but use power as it's when a player uses power he will unconsciously tighten the grip too tight and too early in the delivery (as I well know since I do it myself a lot of times and cue across the ball right-to-left). When you can get the time come up here for another coaching session and we'll try and get this solved for BOTH of us.

[j6uk]

Also, I hope you've taken to heart what you discovered regarding your grip and every time I've seen you play I've told you your grip is way too tight. As I've said many times before just let the cue lay in the fingers (can't take credit for that as it's from Joe Davis). Joe played with much heavier cloth and also heavier balls and he knew what he was talking about. The other thing is with a relaxed grip you will find you have to punch through the cueball because just the weight of the cue itself will force you to follow-through much better.

Work just on keeping the grip relaxed and use simple shots but use power as it's when a player uses power he will unconsciously tighten the grip too tight and too early in the delivery (as I well know since I do it myself a lot of times and cue across the ball right-to-left). When you can get the time come up here for another coaching session and we'll try and get this solved for BOTH of us.

have you always had problems with your so called grip tel? it sounds like it. if so i guess you've always been very inconsistent..
i found that the problem is in the word itself to describe holding the cue, it only helps to reinfoce tension and that in some way a player cues and hits the ball with the so called grip

[lesedwards]

have you always had problems with your so called grip tel? it sounds like it. if so i guess you've always been very inconsistent..
i found that the problem is in the word itself to describe holding the cue, it only helps to reinfoce tension and that in some way a player cues and hits the ball with the so called grip

I would have to say yes, inconsistent would be the perfect word for it. Not realizing it was happening but as the match goes on the tension mounts and the grip becomes even tighter until I cannot put a thing but when practicing at home everything flows as there is not tension. Playing matches against my son does not really count as there is not tension. More matches can only help this.

[markz]

Well done Les on your improved match results. You must be gripping the cue ridiculously hard to be getting blisters, I've never heard that one before. Why are the tables so bad? Even bad after preparing them for the tournament start?

[DeanH]

the only time I knew of anyone getting blisters was when some friends and I did a pool marathon for charity of over 5 days!
Les, well done on the win and increase confidence to move onward

[lesedwards]

Well done Les on your improved match results. You must be gripping the cue ridiculously hard to be getting blisters, I've never heard that one before. Why are the tables so bad? Even bad after preparing them for the tournament start?

Thanks I am improving.
Like most clubs around here the tables get neglected and then they think a quick brush block n iron will bring them back to original. Not a chance with that cloth they need ironed about every two days and brush and blocked everyday.

the only time I knew of anyone getting blisters was when some friends and I did a pool marathon for charity of over 5 days!
Les, well done on the win and increase confidence to move onward

Thanks Dean, hard to believe that tension would all end up in one spot my cueing hand but I would get to the point where I could not even get through the shot. When I post that I ripped my cloth because my cue went flying out of my hand you will know I have gone the other way....

[Terry Davidson]

have you always had problems with your so called grip tel? it sounds like it. if so i guess you've always been very inconsistent..
i found that the problem is in the word itself to describe holding the cue, it only helps to reinfoce tension and that in some way a player cues and hits the ball with the so called grip

I agree with you, and yes my inconsistency does come from 'gripping' the cue too tight and too early, especially on power shots. I prefer to use the word 'hold' and both believe and teach the delivery is done with the elbow and the configuration of the 'hold' on the cue should remain stable so the hand is just an extension of the forearm driven by the elbow and the contraction of the lower muscle of the upper arm, with no input by the shoulder muscle.

Unfortunately myself along with a pretty good majority of players learned or were taught that 'grip' is what we do with the butt of the cue and this leads many a player down a rocky road until he learns not to tighten that 'hold' until well after the strike and ideally not until the back of the thumb strikes the chest and also accelerating the cue all the way to that point.

I often thought if a player had somehow lost his grip hand just above the wrist joint and with a mechanical hand/wrist he could only hold the cue with his mechanical forefinger and thumb and couldn't change the pressure at all during the delivery he could only drive from the elbow and would very likely deliver that cue pretty straight. Of course I'm not about to cut off my right hand to test this theory out. Maybe I can find somehow to lock the hand and wrist in one position and see how that works but I think I would need a large washer or something to stop the cue from shooting across the table.

It's very frustrating to use the spotted cueball on a dead-in shot with deep power screw and see the cueball coming back with a left-hand side spin when I was trying to hit centre-ball. I only just discovered this last week after playing really bad on a slow table and losing my first match 4-3 when I should have won. Every long pot with power had the object ball going to the left and that is the reason why, I'm actually cueing right-to-left because of this 'grip - hold' problem I'm doing unconsciously. I don't think I had this problem in the 80's and frankly it's pissing me off BIG TIME! But I'm working on it for the next month before our next tournament which will be on these slow tables again.

I have to learn to control the hold and stabilize it and also for the slow tables get used to using a long backswing on every shot.

[Terry Davidson]

Well done Les on your improved match results. You must be gripping the cue ridiculously hard to be getting blisters, I've never heard that one before. Why are the tables so bad? Even bad after preparing them for the tournament start?

You would think a club owned by 2 ex-pros (of which 1 still plays) would have good and fast cloths, but as Les says doing a quick brush, block and iron before the tournament which means once every month doesn't do a damned thing. Les and I were going in early to do that before our own tournaments but we found we were the only ones doing any work. I hope to be able to talk to Jimmy Wych and convince him that their thicker Hainsworth cloth needs to be ironed every day for at least 2 weeks and then maybe 3 times a week after that, but I don't want to **** him off by complaining because otherwise the club is a great venue.

There is not one club I know of here in Canada that keeps their snooker tables up to scratch.

[markz]

You would think a club owned by 2 ex-pros (of which 1 still plays) would have good and fast cloths, but as Les says doing a quick brush, block and iron before the tournament which means once every month doesn't do a damned thing. Les and I were going in early to do that before our own tournaments but we found we were the only ones doing any work. I hope to be able to talk to Jimmy Wych and convince him that their thicker Hainsworth cloth needs to be ironed every day for at least 2 weeks and then maybe 3 times a week after that, but I don't want to **** him off by complaining because otherwise the club is a great venue.

There is not one club I know of here in Canada that keeps their snooker tables up to scratch.

I had similar issues with the four tables at the club I use. 2 match tables got new cloth 6 months ago but as time gone by they have become really slow. I was that frustrated that I've started looking after the tables myself. Got new cloth on other 2 tables 3 weeks ago and I've been looking after those. They play amazing and last Wednesday night I made my first ever century in a game, had a few in practice but first time against opponent 112.

[j6uk]

You would think a club owned by 2 ex-pros (of which 1 still plays) would have good and fast cloths, but as Les says doing a quick brush, block and iron before the tournament which means once every month doesn't do a damned thing. Les and I were going in early to do that before our own tournaments but we found we were the only ones doing any work. I hope to be able to talk to Jimmy Wych and convince him that their thicker Hainsworth cloth needs to be ironed every day for at least 2 weeks and then maybe 3 times a week after that, but I don't want to **** him off by complaining because otherwise the club is a great venue.

There is not one club I know of here in Canada that keeps their snooker tables up to scratch.

that would reflect the state of snooker there aswell as other places suffering the same, in general, crap conditions crap players.

[Terry Davidson]

that would reflect the state of snooker there aswell as other places suffering the same, in general, crap conditions crap players.

Yes. They say they want to make this the premier billiards club in Canada and it is for the pool tables (they have about 30 of them) but the 8 snooker tables need work and no one is ready to do that. They are hosting the Canadian Championships in June and will install new 6811's but a month later the tables will be back to their present condition.

One of their managers is a top player and even he complains about the speed of the tables so maybe I can get him to talk to the owners.

[markz]

Yes. They say they want to make this the premier billiards club in Canada and it is for the pool tables (they have about 30 of them) but the 8 snooker tables need work and no one is ready to do that. They are hosting the Canadian Championships in June and will install new 6811's but a month later the tables will be back to their present condition.

One of their managers is a top player and even he complains about the speed of the tables so maybe I can get him to talk to the owners.

There must be some players like yourself that are serious about the game to volunteer to maintain the tables. Maybe it should be the clubs responsibility but if they are not doing it the tables are just gonna get worse. I'm doing the tables at the club I use twice a week and they are so much better, nobody got the excuse now of blaming a slow table. Most players got a list of excuses but at least slow table not one of them now lol