Tournament Tables (AEBBA)

[milko]

As there have been a few comments made by tommo, barbelman and BB Warrior on another thread (barbelman’s 500th post) about how poorly they played the tables at the County Div 1 & 2 in Reading last week-end I thought I would start a new thread on it.

While I appreciate that someone has to offer to set them up in the first place and that not all tables should be easy to play, I still think they should be up to a certain standard, which some of them weren’t last week. The one good point about playing on a tricky table though is that if you are against the break then you have a good chance of being given a chance to win without someone going in with enough on their break.
Last week I played on two of the very tricky tables, those were tables 3 & 6 and unless you could put a lot of left hand side on the break shot then you would probably miss the white ball by coming inside the 50 pocket. This also meant that you had to use no side instead of the usual right hand side on the one up, I was actually putting left hand side on table 6 for the one up!!
Although I didn’t play it last week the other tricky table was table 7, some people said that they thought this was the most difficult, I did watch my son Steven struggle on it in his crucial win over Dave France and it did look hard to play.

I know that tables can change during the day and if the venue does not have a solid floor they can also change uphill when everyone has turned up, but I’m sure that the Post Office Club has a concrete floor so that wouldn’t apply there.

I also know that it was the likeable Dennis Atkins that set them up and know that when Dennis sets the tables up they sometimes do have a tendency to play as if they are uphill, but that doesn’t mean that I do not want him to set our competition tables up anymore, It’s just that the basic first shot we play in Bar Billiards is the break shot, so I think this shot should be as easy as possible and before people start saying that I’ve only wrote all this because I lost let me now state that I won 4 from 4 with an average of over 10,000!!

Keith

i did actually play on two of the tables mentioned, and agree that you really had to apply the side to the break shot on table 3.

I was well stuffed on table 7, but this was down to me not being able to match the array of shots all over the table demonstrated by Andy Chambers.

The table I couldn't make any sense of at all was the one next to it, table 8: Didn't do myself any favours by missing the break, but on trying to retrieve the situation I got some strange reactions off the right hand cushion and the balls didn't go anywhere near where they were supposed to go !

[BB Warrior]

I think that my comment (on the Latest Distinguished Member Thread) was more that I had played badly myself rather than about the tables...... ::)

However I would agree with Keith that, overall, the tables did not seem to play as well as usual and certainly not as well as they had at the Berks Open the week before at the Post Office Club...... ???

I played tables 3, 5, 7 and 8 during the course of the day and watched games on most of the other tables at some stage as well.

Table 5 seemed fine, table 3 needed care (and plenty of left!) on the break, Table 7 was certainly challenging and Table 8 was simply :-X :-X :-X :-X (in my opinion, anyway!)

Of the other tables that I watched, Table 6 certainly looked to be very difficult, Tables 1,2 and 4 all looked reasonably good.

Having lost all 4 of my games, I could easily blame "the tables"..... however I know that I didn't play well myself and the simple fact is that my opponents performed better than I did on the day. :-[ :'(

Part of the enjoyment of this game is that all of the tables play slightly differently and it is up to the players to adapt their game to meet the challenges offered by each table...... however, a normal (good) shot should be rewarded with at least 1 ball going in the hole, which was not always the case with some of the tables last weekend. ::)

This will put people off going to events :-/
Travelling 318 miles round trip to places like portsmouth and reading (which is roughly 222 miles round) to play on national tables which are as you say :-X
Nice challenge if you don't get frustrated however we are all human!

Is their a commitee for the tables to look after the conditioning, etc...?

[davejones]

While I agree with all comments so far. The tables were tricky but playable.
My first game was on table 6. (which I was lucky enough to beat KT on). The break was just about achieveable if you played it at perfect pace. But I won the game mainly at the top of the table and KT not able to achieve the break shot!

I was watching one of Nigel's games, on table 3 I think.
He was hitting the breakshot really hard in an attempt to make the balls drop cleanly, and didn't look his normal comfortable self at all. :o

[NigelS]

I would agree some of the tables were tough last weekend, probably tougher than the week before at the open. The break was a struggle on table 3 - i made 4k only making three times down twice I think, but it still wasn't enough to beat Phil Hawkins...

I always try to setup a table a little downhill to start with because they seem to hit a "sweet spot" later in the day where they play better - thats just my experience. Setting them up where the break requires left hand side to start with only tend to get worse as the day goes on.

One thing I would say though is I am not sure how often the holes get properly cleaned with linseed oil or how old the cloths on the tables are - and do they need rcovering at some stage. I remember how much difference new sets of balls made to the Grand Prix last year.

Were they a lot more difficult than in previous years well here are the Division 1 player averages for the last 5 years,

Year Player Ave
2005 5,695
2006 5,362
2007 5,008
2008 5,498
2009 5,114

[milko]

Sept 25, 2009 19:48:58 GMT davejones said:

While I agree with all comments so far. The tables were tricky but playable.
My first game was on table 6. (which I was lucky enough to beat KT on). The break was just about achieveable if you played it at perfect pace. But I won the game mainly at the top of the table and KT not able to achieve the break shot!

You didn't watch me play it then Dave? ;D ;D ;D ;)

[milko]

Sept 25, 2009 22:58:13 GMT NigelS said:

I always try to setup a table a little downhill to start with because they seem to hit a "sweet spot" later in the day where they play better - thats just my experience. Setting them up where the break requires left hand side to start with only tend to get worse as the day goes on.

Nigel, this is exactly what I would do when setting tables up. O.k I know people will say that all tables should be level, but on our tables the chances are if you set them up level they will probably have a problem with the break. All my home tables have been a little downhill and the break shot has always been a piece of cake to get, so enabling big scores to be had by most players.

I must say that it's always good to go and play on the tables in the Channel Islands because you know that you will be able to get the break shot without much difficulty and you won't need to apply left hand side on the cue ball for this shot either. This is due to the fact that 1.The 50 pockets are in slightly further from the cushions on their tables, 2.The break off spots are positioned further apart than ours and 3.The pockets have got less of a rim on them so drop instantly. 8-)

The main problem is the one up as you will need to put some or a lot of right hand side on the cue ball to get it. I remember when the tables were at the Inn On The Park for the B.I.O.C it was nearly impossible to get the one up on some tables in the conventional way, especially if you wanted to leave it for the split shot, as they were also very speedy cloths. I remember seeing lots of variations to get over this. :o

So come on everyone get booked up and go and enjoy the experience, even if it is getting a little bit expensive. :(



Keith.