9-Ball
Topic: Alex Lely Comment

Just finished watching the world cup on sky sports and alex made an interesting comment about how the pool halls in europe are too commercial and unlike america won't have tables with tight pockets new cloth.

My question is why do we have to suffer with bad club conditions and then if you try and ask politely if they would upgrade conditions its a no go zone.

what are your thoughts.

I think its because there are too many people in the UK that would abuse the new cloth's ect.

Alot of people go down pool halls for alcohol and with it, comes spillages and misscues and ripped cloth's.

The only way around this would be to have a small hall, maybe with about 4 or 5 tables, of good quality, with no alcohol, so that the players that take the game seriously could practice in good conditions.

Again the only problem with this is that you may have to set the prices high to cover costs ect.

pool clubs in u.k are classed has commercial halls, mostly are clubs 9ball are aimed to attract students the guy off the street etc so the equipment to them will do .the top players who are used to good quality tables cloth mighty be lucky to get one decent table in the club. has 9ball progresses in this country am sure new clubs will open and cater for the better players.

plus tight pockets = harder to pot in!! Therefore it will put the average joe off from coming and getting inebriated, lol!!

The feeling I get about pool club operators in the UK is that there is only one thing on their minds which is profit.

We had a club that opened up our way (not a rileys) and when it did open, it was great. The honeymoon period as you call it, all the staff were really nice, couldnt do more for you.

And then......all of a sudden it started to change.

This could have been because of profit not being met, or other factors but one thing I can say is that the mood changed slightly!

And hopefully you will all laugh at this........I was barred for tapping the balls in!! There was no negotiation from them at all to let me explain why I was doing it!

But anyway I dont care as I reside at Club Smith.

Incidentally, did anyone notice the South Africans cues had metal ferrules on them?
I thought they were banned from pool at that level, or did I imagine it?

Different competitions, different rules.

On 2008-01-16 22:45 , TheWasp Wrote:

Rules that govern our sport should be uniform throughout the world as they are in soccer, cricket tennis etc.

The recognised governing body for Pool is the World Pool Billiard Associtaion (WPA) and South Africa through the AAPA is a member of the WPA and presumably play the WPA Rules which do not ban metal ferrules on cues.

I nearly got barred for playing one handed and for doing really tight swerve shots (not at the same time though, that would be stupid!).

I tried explaining that I was good enough to do those types of shots and have never ripped or damaged a cloth in my life and they reluctantly let me stay.

The annoying thing was, later on there were drunk guys putting their pints on the table and banging cues yet they didn't get spoken to even though there was greater risk of them damaging the table.

Seems the owners were either jealous or just didn't have a clue!

Why would metal ferrules be banned by the way?