Balls - An argument in a club about what type...

[vmax]

If I was playing snooker 35 years ago in a working man's club, what balls would I have been likely to play with Vmax? Assuming SC's.

Thanks.

It depends really, Aramiths were available then but SC's were the only balls endorsed by all the ruling bodies for inter league, county, amateur and pro competitions so if your club was involved in a league that played inter league and put players available for county matches then they had to use SC's.

A few years ago a poster on the forum said that Aramith actually made genuine SC snooker balls for a few years after their takeover of the Composite Ball Co because of the SC balls only rule in snooker but made a decision to stop production and only make their own phenolic resin balls for snooker in future as all their other balls for pool and carom etc were of their own material. Then they made snooker balls badged as SC's but made from their own material, this was on the small print on the boxes, they could do this as they had the patent for the material thus also the name, but it was a con and those balls were no different to their TC's.

When that actually happened is anyones guess but that's when the table conditions and cloths had to change to enable the new balls to work because as far as I know only snooker and english billiards used a napped cloth (UK 8 ball did in pubs but that was cheap baize) so table heaters and finer napped cloths came to the pro game, still not good enough, so 1g balls and even finer naps introduced, then a ball polish, then special chalk at 15 quid a block. Yet once there's a little moisture in the air and the cloths get a tad heavier the bad contacts and kicks go up, side behaves differently and the ton fest ends.

I feel that one day snooker and english billiards will move to napless cloths and the older players like myself who have learned to use sidespin according to the way the balls behave on well napped cloths will have to adapt to the diffference, play mostly centre cue ball or will be dead anyway :uncomfortableness:

[tomwalker147]

What happens mate is that league teams etc start off with a nice set of TC's at 142g and through time the white might get a bit chipped. What do they do? They go and purchase a new "ordinary" club ball white which might be around 139g or worse still they get hold of an Aramith Premier white at around 129g. Creates mayhem for the good players!

I'm a century break player, fairly decent amateur and on saturday I played a mate at his club, we used the club balls (neither of us have our own set) and I lost 11-0, my highest break in 11 frames was 22.
The white was light, it was ridiculous and I just could not adapt, I was playing to stun the ball and screwing it back a foot instead.
It's so frustrating using rubbish balls/light whites, complete leveller and makes you wonder why you bother to practice at all.

[Cue crafty]

I'm a century break player, fairly decent amateur and on saturday I played a mate at his club, we used the club balls (neither of us have our own set) and I lost 11-0, my highest break in 11 frames was 22.
The white was light, it was ridiculous and I just could not adapt, I was playing to stun the ball and screwing it back a foot instead.
It's so frustrating using rubbish balls/light whites, complete leveller and makes you wonder why you bother to practice at all.

Worth buying just a TC cue ball maybe Tom? Far from a perfect solution as they generally slightly heavier than club sets but you can work with it?

Ive started playing a few league handicap matches down my club, which has players ranging from -50 to about +20. I take my ball and ask people i play if they are happy for us to use it, the high handicapers dont care because they cant tell the difference and low handicapers like it because they gain better control. Just makes it more interesting, I cant be bothered playing at all with the light whites, its just a lottery.

[tomwalker147]

Worth buying just a TC cue ball maybe Tom? Far from a perfect solution as they generally slightly heavier than club sets but you can work with it?

Ive started playing a few league handicap matches down my club, which has players ranging from -50 to about +20. I take my ball and ask people i play if they are happy for us to use it, the high handicapers dont care because they cant tell the difference and low handicapers like it because they gain better control. Just makes it more interesting, I cant be bothered playing at all with the light whites, its just a lottery.

Glad you've found a workable solution mate, thanks for your input.
I played last night for the first time since saturday using a proper set of balls, first frame I had 48 and 69 clearance and in the 5 following frames runs of 82, 76 and 64. It really is staggering how much difference a proper set of balls can make to your game. like you say, it's a lottery without!

[Shockerz]

Interesting topic this and I haven't read all the pages.

Our club is pretty small and uses TC 3g balls as standard and all the balls I supply to the smaller clubs tend to use the same.

We had the wrong whites sent once that were lighter and the reaction was crazy but not really realistic as it's different when you go elsewhere (we changed them!).

It might be a good idea to have a decent white of the right weight / type just in case you have to play on a table with a poor one (or with chips!).

We had a past pro play once and he hit two shots and knew the white was from a 3g set and got his 1g balls out; when you know you know!