Table Condition at This Years Grand Prix

[Nat5guns]

It's funny really, i think the tables in this tournament have been the tightest for a good while, the middles especially. They are virtually identical to the ones used at pontins, which is a good thing because they are tight.

[vmax4steve]

It could be my brand new Panasonic plasma tv and the fact that I can now get digital for the first time, but I can definately see finger marks on the cloth for the first time in years. Is there some nap on the cloth again ?

In response to cueman:
Some of us play on tables that are over thirty years old, in my case fifty years old. The balls that go in off the near jaw at pace on tv will not even drop in slowly on the table I play on. Why should the pros, who are better players, have it easier than me ?

[wildJONESEYE]

The most generous table I've seen recently was the one in the Premier League for Hendry/Trump, some of the balls going in there were absolutely ridiculous.

Agreed that table was a disgrace .

[Mal]

Yes, the game should not be made easier - In the eighties (and perhaps later) the pockets may have been the same, but the nap of the cloth made it much more difficult and speed of the table was slower and thus made for a different more tactical game. Today's game caters for breakbuilding and as on earlier posts there needs to be a happier medium. Talk was made of a red that Stephen Hendry potted in his maximum - same applies a couple of years ago in Andrew Higginson's max - look at the black for 112.

That would never have dropped in the 'good ol' days.' The game has in my opinion become LESS appealing as the result of the changes and in my opinion it brings the standard of players closer together as it makes the game easier. It took much more talent to clear the table on slower and tighter tables than it does now.

[vmax4steve]

Yes, the game should not be made easier - The game has in my opinion become LESS appealing as the result of the changes and in my opinion it brings the standard of players closer together as it makes the game easier. It took much more talent to clear the table on slower and tighter tables than it does now.

Agreed Mal, the easier it is the less talent you need, if the tables were made tighter, Ronnie would be head and shoulders above everyone else, just like Steve Davis and Hendry were.

[Monique]

The most generous table I've seen recently was the one in the Premier League for Hendry/Trump, some of the balls going in there were absolutely ridiculous.

Well apparantly they corrected that. Last Thursday Robertson said in his postmatch that the table they played on was very tight. The cloth still fast of course but that doesn't make it easier. It makes some things easier, like splitting the pack but it makes positional control harder.

[Odrl]

Well, I think the tables are OK today, and yesterday as well. They rejected a couple of balls that I would have expected to go in on Saturday's tables.

I assume nothing has been changed since Saturday, so it might have been a bit of an overreaction.

[RGCirencester]

during hendrys century he played one down the side cushion which hit the cushion halfway up and still dropped. But i'll let that go as he did deserve that century. But overall the tables are playing ok. Just the occasional ball going in off the jaw that shouldn't in my mind. Certainly not a bad table by any means though.