Line up top break

[cueboy777]

Did play for an hour today...(sorry). I don't take my own set about, remember people use to carry there own cue balls round back in the day.

[itsnoteasy]

Interesting that you own your own set or sets
Is there a big difference between the ones you own and the standard club balls. ?.
Is it common practice now for more people to take their own balls to their local club ?.

Our club whites were horrendous, although we have just bought 15 new TC ones and it's made a big difference I weighed them once and they were between 129-136g my TCs are 141 you hit a 141g ball with a 129 g one and it's all over the shop.
of the other older sets the original SC balls were 142 all the way across the set, including the cue ball which surprised me and were in immaculate condition when I got them. Curiously the best set of the lot are illegal as they weigh 144g ( I think 143g is the heaviest you are allowed) across the set but they run and react the best.
I bought the other sets out of curiosity to see how they played and to get a feel of what players in the seventies/ eighties / nineties etc played with as I didn't play then and they were dirt cheap,
lots of players in our club have their own balls, you really can't beat playing with a new set of 1gs.

[Starsky]

Our club whites were horrendous, although we have just bought 15 new TC ones and it's made a big difference I weighed them once and they were between 129-136g my TCs are 141 you hit a 141g ball with a 129 g one and it's all over the shop.
of the other older sets the original SC balls were 142 all the way across the set, including the cue ball which surprised me and were in immaculate condition when I got them. Curiously the best set of the lot are illegal as they weigh 144g ( I think 143g is the heaviest you are allowed) across the set but they run and react the best.
I bought the other sets out of curiosity to see how they played and to get a feel of what players in the seventies/ eighties / nineties etc played with as I didn't play then and they were dirt cheap,
lots of players in our club have their own balls, you really can't beat playing with a new set of 1gs.

Thanks for that Itsnoteasy

I do remember people in the 80’s bringing their own cue ball to play with in the club I played and worked at . TBH at the time it was so rare that it always got some funny comments especially if you wasn’t a good level. I guess things have changed nowadays which is good.
Personally if you played competitively it made sense to play with different balls and not get used to the same set in those days. Every club you played in had different balls which played differently .
The hardest adjustment was the difference in tables which was a much bigger issue as it probably still is between clubs.

I might have a look at getting myself some just to practice with by myself when my local club finally opens to see what the difference is. I still think it’s important though to play against people on different tables and with different sets of balls.

[itsnoteasy]

Thanks for that Itsnoteasy

I do remember people in the 80’s bringing their own cue ball to play with in the club I played and worked at . TBH at the time it was so rare that it always got some funny comments especially if you wasn’t a good level. I guess things have changed nowadays which is good.
Personally if you played competitively it made sense to play with different balls and not get used to the same set in those days. Every club you played in had different balls which played differently .
The hardest adjustment was the difference in tables which was a much bigger issue as it probably still is between clubs.

I might have a look at getting myself some just to practice with by myself when my local club finally opens to see what the difference is. I still think it’s important though to play against people on different tables and with different sets of balls.

Times have changed, what you say about getting used to different conditions is spot on but people have more disposable income now and want to play with what they see on the telly, I guess that's why folk will spend ?2,500 on a pointy stick that says Parris on the end of it.

[Starsky]

Times have changed, what you say about getting used to different conditions is spot on but people have more disposable income now and want to play with what they see on the telly, I guess that's why folk will spend ?2,500 on a pointy stick that says Parris on the end of it.

Yes, I completely agree .

[vmax]

On the subject of balls, our club have just 'invested in new sets of Aramith premiers for all three tables to be used as match balls in league matches. The TC's they bought a few years ago are now designated as practise balls. I've tried to tell them that the premiers are lighter and of lesser quality but they look at me like a dog that's just been shown a card trick.
Meanwhile me and my mate practise with my old set of SC's and play so much better with them as they are the balls we both learned with and they react as we expect them to so our positional play is better, and only about four kicks per session as opposed to four kicks per frame with the Aramith's.

There might be some doubt regarding the black box sets of SC's made in belgium as to whether they are SC's or Saluc's own phenolic resin; the term phenolic resin is used for a certain class of plastics that are cold poured and set hard through a chemical reaction rather than heat melted and set cold such as the stuff I use at work everyday, and super crystalate is classed as a phenolic resin although a different one than Saluc's own which is marketed as Aramith. SC is a harder substance than Saluc's phenolic resin and can be more highly polished so the surface of the balls have less friction between contacts, less friction = less kicks.

There was talk on the forum a few years ago about exactly when the Aramith balls were first used in the pro game, I know through first hand experience that when the new snooker clubs opened in Barnstaple in the mid 80's they were using cheap Aramith balls and they were quite frankly crap, kicked all the time, half the time run throughs became stun shots and screw backs stop shots and deflection and throw with sidespin was a nightmare.
There was also the extreme ball cleaning going on in the pro game in the late 80's, especially Alex Higgins, who wasn't getting the reaction from the cue ball that he was used to and expected, so it could be that Aramith balls were introduced then, found not to work very well, and maybe Aramith were told that only SC balls were endorsed by the WPBSA and they should only be supplying them for snooker, and as Saluc held the patent for SC after their takeover of the Composite Ball Company they manufactured them again for a while under the 'Super Crystalate made in belgium' branding until the problems with their own material were ironed out.

Those problems were partially overcome with more closely weighted sets, very finely napped cloths and table heaters and Aramith then stopped production of SC and only supplied their own phenolic resin balls thereafter, when that was exactly is unknown, so it could be that the black box SC's are genuine even though the small print says phenolic resin.
I have a set of black box SC's and they do indeed play very well and it would have been nice for world snooker to have let on what exactly was going on in the late 80's early 90's regarding the balls being used because it seems to me that for many seasoned pros of the time, their form went downhill quite quickly and they dropped down the rankings pretty fast.

Regarding original SC balls, they were not supplied in different 'grades' and priced accordingly like the Aramith's are, their sets were more uniform and only varied in weight about two or three grammes, the black box SC's seem to be the same, they're not boxed as premier SC's or Tournament Champion SC's or 1g SC's like Saluc's Aramith brand snooker balls are, so it could be that they are in fact genuine SC only made by Saluc and marketed as SC balls as the brand name Aramith doesn't appear on the box.

Who the hell knows, someone at Saluc and at the WPBSA that's for sure, or maybe I'm just a conspiracy theorist who now has far too much time on his hands at this moment.

[itsnoteasy]

Really good post Vmax, I didn't know any of that about the different plastics and when PR replaced SC. If the black box are SC they play better than my TCs but I still give the edge to my pals 1g set and I don't suffer from kicks that much from any of the sets. One thing the black box and the 1gs have in common is they are both heavier than my TC set , the 1gs are between 142-143 , black box 144 and my TCs are all 140/141 except the green that's 142. Maybe that makes a difference, I feel there is more life in the 1gs, I had put it down to them being newer, do PR balls have a lifespan?
just adding, my condolences on the premiers they are awful.

[vmax]

Really good post Vmax, I didn't know any of that about the different plastics and when PR replaced SC. If the black box are SC they play better than my TCs but I still give the edge to my pals 1g set and I don't suffer from kicks that much from any of the sets. One thing the black box and the 1gs have in common is they are both heavier than my TC set , the 1gs are between 142-143 , black box 144 and my TCs are all 140/141 except the green that's 142. Maybe that makes a difference, I feel there is more life in the 1gs, I had put it down to them being newer, do PR balls have a lifespan?
just adding, my condolences on the premiers they are awful.

I don't play league anymore so don't have to use them
As for PR balls lifespan, unknown to me.
There used to be an old set of crystalate balls in our club, must be over fifty years old as the supers came into the game in 1973; the set is no longer complete but I took one home and weighed it and it was 155 grammes, a real pig to screw back with.

What I don't understand is why Saluc stopped production of SC in favour of their own PR that clearly didn't work on the more heavily napped snooker cloths as used back in the day, they have the patent for SC so why not keep making them. They also took over the company that made american pool balls, but seeing as they are bigger and heavier and use napless cloths the bad contact problems on a US pool table are a lot less and probably not that noticeable, but Saluc under their brand name of Aramith supply most US pool balls and also make the Brunswick Centennial balls, so effectively have a world monoply in billiards as a whole.

You can get balls from other manufacturers but they are mostly made from polyester resin and simply don't last as they mark and chip easily, most pub pool balls are polyester resin, but I have a set of polyester resin 2 & 1/16 inch pool balls to be used on a snooker table and they hardly ever kick. World Snooker don't insist on a particular ball like they used to with SC, their rules simply state that balls used must be endorsed by the ruling body but they don't say which ones they are

[Csmith]

I started doing averages of my practice routines last year. I would do 5 attempts on a drill and then average it out. It's a good way to stay focused and work on consistency as opposed to chasing the high break. Consistency is more important than chasing a 147 all session. The key is to be honest and not disregard an attempt where you missed the second black or something. My best average over 5 attempts so far is 82 and in the T drill, I got a 68 average.

[cueboy777]

That's a good idea, remaining focused is the key to any practice session/routine I think. Out of interest what are your high breaks in both line up and T?

[Shockerz]

I don't count anymore, but remember my best because I cleared the last 8 reds and all the colours for 82. Someone once said to me "just see how many misses you can complete a line up in" The idea being you don't best yourself up when you miss you just put the ball in the pocket with your hand and carry on as if you didn't miss. It stops frustration building and still makes the routine worthwhile when you miss. That 82 session was my best in that respect too, as I missed twice.

Not brilliant I know, but I'm not the best with routines as I get bored and lose focus. I feed off the buzz of a real break in a game, but am still a big advocate of the routine.

Hi Crafty

I had a 134 a while back when I was doing it when we had a week to get the highest out of the league players. Someone had a 135 and I thought I had just beaten it but added it up wrong and it was on video. I punched the and had lost so got ribbed something cruel.

I quite fancy having a go at Vmax's red sup the baulk end, that would be interesting.

Got to be honest, if I could even touch a table at the moment I'd have a permanent grin!

[Cue crafty]

Hi Crafty

I had a 134 a while back when I was doing it when we had a week to get the highest out of the league players. Someone had a 135 and I thought I had just beaten it but added it up wrong and it was on video. I punched the and had lost so got ribbed something cruel.

I quite fancy having a go at Vmax's red sup the baulk end, that would be interesting.

Got to be honest, if I could even touch a table at the moment I'd have a permanent grin!

Great to hear from ya Bud and good to know you are well!

OMG - How good would it be to get out and play! .....:snooker:I had hardly been doing any routines at all when we were "free" Lolz, just playing friendly and club matches all the time. I'm pretty useless at routines TBH, always feel like doing "Homework" when i was at school, and was sheeite at that too!!

[Shockerz]

Great to hear from ya Bud and good to know you are well!

OMG - How good would it be to get out and play! .....:snooker:I had hardly been doing any routines at all when we were "free" Lolz, just playing friendly and club matches all the time. I'm pretty useless at routines TBH, always feel like doing "Homework" when i was at school, and was sheeite at that too!!

Yes mate, I've got out of the habit.

I used to do them twice a week but for months I have been playing a guy instead on Sunday mornings and just trying to move the snooker website on a touch.

When this thing lifts I'm definitely gonna commit to more practice as you don't realise what you have until it's gone!

I've had loads of trouble getting on the forum for a while. I either get pop ups saying not trusted sight, balloons or gambling websites or just warning notices from my anti-virus. Even tonight the login was missing but would appear if I went on another page. Go figure.

[Cue crafty]

Yes mate, I've got out of the habit.

I used to do them twice a week but for months I have been playing a guy instead on Sunday mornings and just trying to move the snooker website on a touch.

When this thing lifts I'm definitely gonna commit to more practice as you don't realise what you have until it's gone!

I've had loads of trouble getting on the forum for a while. I either get pop ups saying not trusted sight, balloons or gambling websites or just warning notices from my anti-virus. Even tonight the login was missing but would appear if I went on another page. Go figure.

yeh - ive seen that when trying to join via mobile/tablet devices but seems fine on the PC, which is what im using currently working from home. The old PC security stuff doing its job well obviously!

[Csmith]

That's a good idea, remaining focused is the key to any practice session/routine I think. Out of interest what are your high breaks in both line up and T?

I have a 147 in the line up, only once but I'll take it. And in the T routine, I don't honestly know what my high is. I've had some clearances but I've only recently started counting regularly. Other than that I've had another 147 in the cross routine (set up like an X). No maxes or clearances in proper frames, unfortunately.