What's your Cue?

My cue is a standard BCE Ronnie O'Sullivan cue with two parts. The tip is as big as I will ever want it at 10mm it's also called a blue diamond tip!
I would like a 6mm tip but hey I can't always get what I want ;) Also came with a hard cue case which then my Dad and Peter later copied ::) :P

My older cue was given to me on my 10th Birthday and I got this "newer" cue in October 2005 when I joined the White Swan (which I now regret but have since started to get used to it now).

What cue do you lot have then? Also how old is it?

Mine's a one-piece, one of three commissioned from Rod Tarratt in 1973. My first wife once tried to break it over her knee in a fit of anger and it didn't snap ! But it then took me half an hour each night for a month to patiently bend it back into shape. :o

Thanks for asking ! :)

[fazza]

I started playing competitively in Sept 1971 ( I must have been about 4 yo, I think ). My new wife at the time bought me a one-piece 17 oz cue for Christmas that year and I have played with it ever since. I always keep it in the case, so it is still straight. I am now thinking of letting it bend to help with the curvy shots in my old age.

It has strangely survived all those Flybe trips to the Channel Islands, just....

[Colemanator]

As I said in another thread, my cue belonged to my Great Grandfather, The only marking on it is the 16 1/2 ounce stamp, there is no manufacturers name, I've had length taken off it over the years, which I now regret as it's length is now 53 inches, it has a 9mm tip, the cue is over 100 years old, is made of ash and oak.

[Chris_Sav]

I started playing in 1966, so forty years this year!! Played my first league season in 1968 and won my league's open individual!! Then got brained falling off a motor cycle and had double vision up until three years ago.

I played for very many years with a light full length two piece ash cue, not expensive but good grain and light profile. This did not survive Jersey when FlyBe kindly converted it into a three piece free of charge, about five years ago.

I repaired it but it never felt the same. I hunted high and low, but could not find a light enough two piece cue. At home I had a 16oz light profile Peradon cue, too light for snooker. I thought Ah Well and drilled the lead out of the base and tapered the profile of the top couple of feet. Got it down to 12oz and 9mm tip. That cue has been great, though would like a little more taper.

The rocket launcher 6ft of 4" drainpipe I carry it in has never been convenient, especially now I ride my BSA Super Rocket all over the place. So I investigated converting it to two piece with Mike Wooldridge cues. Couldn't take the risk, so have bitten the bullet and have him making me a two piece ash cue to my spec. narrow straight grain, 11 - 12oz, 8mm tip, narrow profile 18 - 19mm diameter at the half way mark


My opinion, for what its worth, is 17 ounce pool / snooker cues are too heavy and not enough feel for the fast match cloths, especially i Jersey. Straight grain is vital, if the cue is not to warp over the years.

Chris.

[Kevin Pringle (R.I.P.)]

My toothpick weighs 16oz in its case :)
Actually its 10oz, two piece, started life as a £35 9mm tipped and had a saw taken to it 20 minutes after I purchased it, cut to 2" longer than a std table cue. Removed the weight, planed on a new 'flat' and replaced the rubber bung.

Agree with Sav on heavy cues and fast 'touch' tables, but the opposite can be the case on very slow ones, so have to eat more weetabix on those days.

I must admit, I didn't know people take great notice of the weight in ounces :o
All I know is my cue is just right for weight, put people like Keith might argue otherwise after Monday :-[ ;)

[CraigC]

My cue is one of the much derided 2 piece pool cues, and probably is too heavy (although many of the tables in our league are more suited to heavier cues). Will probably get a lighter cue in due course, especially with Jersey in mind.

Two members of my team play with traditional 1-piece cues taken from the side of bar billiard tables 15 years or more ago, both players prefer them for bb, but use different cues for snooker.

[Kevin Pringle (R.I.P.)]

craicc said:

.......although many of the tables in our league are more suited to heavier cues.....

A '5 Iron' would suit some :)

Just kidding Craig, most are fairly consistent just a bit slow, a bit like me to the bar (thought I would get that in before Sav does). :D

[CraigC]

Well Kevin, things are looking up at the Market Inn - new landlord who is an ex-player, used to play in the Canterbury league. Only started last friday, within a couple of days he'd arranged for the top to be recovered. Will be looking after it himself. So the table is going from a "ploughed furrow" (Sav's description) to the 18th green.

[Chris_Sav]

LOL Craig, good news.

Let me know when its recovered, we are still nomads!!!! just need a mortgage to buy a beer there!!

Chris.

Thought I'd bump this thread as cues have been a topic off-Forum in the last week.

Vernon Sparkes appears to have lost his, he was wandering around like a lost soul on Tuesday - someone must have taken it by mistake.

The Redhill players (DC, Vernon, Laurie) tend to play with pencil-sharpened-thin cues.

MrMike007 has been unhappy with his new cue all season, but finally got round to having a couple of inches chopped off the end and found it much better last night.

I have borrowed Margo's 2-piece cue to play with for the whole of this season (including Jersey) and although the balance is strange (it too has had two inches lopped off the end) it has one of the Milko-recommmended Blue Velvet tips which I obtained from Sparky.

I have come round to thinking that the tip is all-important, more so than the cue. :o

[Chris_Sav]

Good one Clive.

Follow up from me, the Mike Wooldridge cue has felt superb, liked it the moment I picked it up, as it was built exactly to my specifications. Should have done it years ago and not when I'm retiring!! Two piece all ash, lovely close grain, 12oz, 8mm ferruless tip. Elkmaster tip which I have moved to from blue diamond.

I took the tip off my old cue to stop me prevaricatiing!! didn't need to as its still off!

Sav.

[Josie]

tommo said:

I have come round to thinking that the tip is all-important, more so than the cue. :o

Oh no Tommo - my cue is my cue - nothing could replace it. It was stolen . . . . eeeeerrrrrrrrrr sorry . . . . adapted for me by a very good friend and I would be absolutely lost without it. Being such a short ar*e it is only little and any other cue just seems too long! As the Reaper pointed out on Tuesday, the tip is in serious need of some TLC - but as long as its on the end of my cue then I don't mind what tip is there!!!!!! 8-)

Philistine me then, Josie, I feel I can play with any old bit of wood so long as it has a half-decent tip on it. One that accepts chalk rather than rejects it. I've been known to pick a cue off a table and play with that !

You are undoubtedly from the John Turner school of thought, and I can tell you a funny (hope it's funny) story about your teammate.

About four years ago, I was picking John up in my car ready for our League match in Redhill. John's road is a crescent, with cars tightly parked on either side of the road, and not many places to pull in. I'd stopped outside his house in the middle of the road with my hazard lights on. John did his usual thing of throwing his cue in the car and jumping in quickly afterwards and closing the car door quick before anything coming the other way took the door off.

But this time as John jumped in there was a sickening "crack" - in his haste he had sat on his cue ! :o :o :(

"Oh no !" he yelled "I've only gone and broken my f***ing cue ! That's it, I won't be able to play tonight, it's the only one in existence like it, I've had it 30 years, it's one of only two made together at the same time and Andy Finn had the other one off me on permanent loan !" And all the way in the car from Crawley to the Flying Scud the air was blue, I heard swearwords that I'd never heard before and didn't even know existed !

Anyone who knows Andy Finn will realise by the way that it is difficult enough trying to get a fag back once he's bummed one off you, so getting the cue back - well John might as well forget it. As for the cue, it obviously has magical properties, as many would testify judging by the amount of jammy shots that rolled off it week in, week out. So we already used to refer to it as "Turner's magic wand" so the fact that it now lay fractured in my car was a cause for alarm. Would it have the same powers as a two-piece ?

So we got to the Scud and Mike the landlord (a rather military looking fellow with a handlebars moustache) listened to John's saga of woe with a sympathetic ear, and said to John "tell you what, for tonight you can borrow my cue". He went out the back and returned with a cue in a case which looked brand new, as if it had never seen the light of day, let alone ever been used. John viewed with suspicion and said he'd give it a go.

He was on first, got the break in twice, missed the one-up and threw Mike's cue down in the corner, saying "I can't play with a stick like that !" Well to hear Mike's pride and joy described at a "Stick" and not even a cue was hilarious for some of us, but we had to contain our mirth when we saw Mike's lip trembling.

Anyway, cut a long story short, JT managed to glue his wand back together again in a near-invisible mend, which restored most of its magic powers. It has been running at about 75% strength ever since. Close examination reveals a jagged mark, that's the only visible sign. Hardly a week goes by that we don't see some sort of jammy shot though.

I can post this with impunity as he's abroad in Spain at the moment. ;D

[Josie]

ROFLMAO - very good Tommo. I can just see it. ;D

But yes, that would be my reaction too. When it's working well it is an extension of my right arm. No other cue could do that!!!!!

[Martin Leach]

My cue is a Riley two piece which was bought for me as a 20th birthday present by my then girlfriend, now known by all as Sue Atkins (Hi Sue and Den if you're reading this!).

I have played with this cue for 30 years, occasionally trying others like one that was custom built for me, but none of them feel like my old beauty. It's never spent more than a few days in a case, yet it's as straight as a die. The ivory (plastic) thingy has broken off the butt end which leaves a lovely worn out dip that my little pinkie fits in when I play.

M.

It's as well to have a distinguishing feature or blemish from which you can recognise your baby.
A second of the set of three from 1973 which I mentioned earlier has a regular outing on Wednesdays (Barry Timson's) and both of our cues have the original red and white sticky band round them which Bob Mobsby put on them way back before he emigrated to Oz.
If I ever needed to borrow a cue (before I took a liking to Margo's) Barry's was the one I'd ask for as it has the perfect weight and balance.

[Lord Cheeky]

As i have only been playing the game for five years my first cue was a run of mill two piece which i happened to find stuffed in a corner at the Loci, and did me very well for my first two years. Then i found out i was tending to hit the ball to hard and was holding the cue about a good 6-10 inches from the butt so i went to see chap in Tarring called Frank Sandell who has his own snooker room in his garage and a wide selection of cues. On having a meeting with Frank he set me up with a nice five piece cue of which three of the pieces made a cue of perfect size and weight. Again this cue was great for me for two years but found that when playing one of the joins in the cue was catching on the edge of the table and this was starting to annoy me. So now i have had one custom made which i have to say is fantastic, its 52" long 12oz in weight 8mm elkmaster tip and is one peice ash with a little rosewood insert. This cue was bought online from cuewizard.com a wonderful site where you can make a cue of your choice, all i have to do now is learn to play bar billiards :-)

cheeky said:

all i have to do now is learn to play bar billiards :-)

For those who don't know him, Lord Cheeky's tongue is firmly in his cheek, as his position near the top of the averages bears witness to ! ;)

Great post by the way, your "where to buy" recommendation could prove useful to others.

[Lord Cheeky]

Cheers Tommo see youi Sunday evening if your playing

Yep Jason,
See you Sunday hopefully - even if I'm not playing. :-/

Mar 30, 2007 11:51:07 GMT tommo III said:

It's as well to have a distinguishing feature or blemish from which you can recognise your baby.
A second of the set of three from 1973 which I mentioned earlier has a regular outing on Wednesdays (Barry Timson's) and both of our cues have the original red and white sticky band round them which Bob Mobsby put on them way back before he emigrated to Oz.
If I ever needed to borrow a cue (before I took a liking to Margo's) Barry's was the one I'd ask for as it has the perfect weight and balance.  

Bob has sent me this:

A long shot i know, but do you still have my cue? If so could i send you the money and get you to ship it to japan for me. Would like to brush the rust away with a bit of practice, bob

So with Barry or myself unlikely to want to part with ours (vital to the success of the Z's ! ;D), the question is, what happened to the Third Cue ? :o :o

[bobmobsby60 (R.I.P.)]

thanks Tommo. By the way when is the World Championships in Jersey. Wouldnt mind making an appearance for old times sakes.

[bobmobsby60 (R.I.P.)]

mine was made by Rod Tarrat when I joined Sam VandenBergs Five Oaks team all those years ago with the Rod, Mick Foskett, Jim Baker and the boys. A wonderful time and would like to track it down. It also has the stripes.

Sept 14, 2011 14:30:36 GMT bobmobsby60 (R.I.P.) said:

thanks Tommo. By the way when is the World Championships in Jersey. Wouldnt mind making an appearance for old times sakes.

Entry form here:
www.aebba.org.uk/Entry%20Forms/Jersey_Singles.pdf

This is available on the AEBBA website (links to this at top of page).
For history of this competition, which has been running for 30+ years, you can either trawl through the Jersey board on the forum, or find hard cold stats on the AEBBA Website.  
Happy hunting !

[bigjimsilverfox]

Well I started with a 2 piece pool cue which Big Bro won for getting to the final of The Redhill Gen Hospital Club singles final back in 1976! (Which he won 8-) )
He didn't want to play with a two piece so was handed to me!
Did quite well with it really! But like golfers change their putters from time to time I fiddled and made adjustments tried different tips you know the score.

But this year I have just changed to a Jimmy White 3 piece cue which is meant for juniors who want to play snooker, its perfect for billiards and being a three piece will fit nicely into a case for Jersey without that rip off charge for putting it in the hold!
I believe that fellow Sussex players Gareth Lloyd and Ricky Dewdney have the same cue too ;)

[RP (R.I.P.)]

Sept 14, 2011 18:04:54 GMT bigjimsilverfox said:

Well I started with a 2 piece pool cue which Big Bro won for getting to the final of The Redhill Gen Hospital Club singles final back in 1976! (Which he won 8-) )
He didn't want to play with a two piece so was handed to me!
Did quite well with it really! But like golfers change their putters from time to time I fiddled and made adjustments tried different tips you know the score.

But this year I have just changed to a Jimmy White 3 piece cue which is meant for juniors who want to play snooker, its perfect for billiards and being a three piece will fit nicely into a case for Jersey without that rip off charge for putting it in the hold!
I believe that fellow Sussex players Gareth Lloyd and Ricky Dewdney have the same cue too ;)

Or just travel with someone who takes a large bag ::) like Shaz ;D ;D ;D