Blue Hog ridr said:

Hi folks, I haven't been around for quite a few Moons now. Too long. Last couple of days, I have been doing an inventory on my small collection.
At 68, thinking about Thinning the Herd a bit. I have a couple of custom Sneaky Petes. One is an ordinary Pete, the other is what you might call,
"A not so Sneaky, Sneaky Pete". All fancied up and such. I can't remember the makers name now. We used to chat frequently. I know there is more than one
cue maker that makes Petes. But, if members would toss a few names at me, I know that I would know it as soon as I saw it. I did a few different AZ Search queries which all came up blank, I even tried Face Book. He may or may not still be around. I'd appreciate any help with this. All My Best. Terry.

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Nice to see you again my friend. If I remember correctly, one of your cues might have been a Lee Peppers.
Welcome back!

My sincere condolences to his family and friends.

I fat-fingered the enter button, and you caught it while I was editing.

I have a Andy Gilbert
It’s used cue so has blemishes in butt
Asking 500

What’s your price range?

hunger strike said:

... You are correct, leather was used before Mingaud, but my long-considered guess is that it was used to strike but not to spin the ball. This seems to be the only possibility, that Mingaud invented the cue tip for spin. Because nothing else explains why he was able to mesmerize crowds and make a living with exhibitions. ...

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I've seen reports of players getting a limited amount of spin with no tips prior to Mingaud, and I've done that myself in a rec room where there were no tips on the cues. It seems reasonable that Mingaud figured out how to press or treat the leather so it could last. Tip leather seems a lot harder than most of the other leather I've seen. I don't know of any contemporary sources that discuss tip evolution around 1800.

What’s your price point?

Rocket354 said:

It's between Rita and Chezka for the title of best current female player*.

*who actually plays tournaments regularly. The reclusive Siming Chen remains an enigma.

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Where would you place Jasmin Ouschan and Seo Seoa?

JohnnyOzone said:

Don't know if anybody's been watching any of this, but Savannah Easton's game has taken a quantum leap in this tournament. She's into the Finals after beating Wei 8-3. I've watched her last 4 matches and I haven't seen her play anything close to this level before.

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The fact that she's that good at 16 is incredible.

Pictures and specs would probably help.

I may have seen him a couple times in the 70s. RIP

In the 90's when I started playing, there was a shoemaker who had his shop down the street from the poolroom. He was about 75 years old at the time, and I believe was even a 2nd or 3rd generation shoemaker. He made his own pool tips for his personal cues using leather from his shop. I'd imagine a lot of super old cue tips were made the same way, using a scrap of leather.

Bump

Bob Jewett said:

It was about 1810. It turns out that it had been tried before but he perfected the process somehow.

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Bob, if you remember the crossed mace implements above my billiard room door, one of them is the highest quality maces I ever saw, very whippy wood, bone ferrule, silver monogram, maker's mark too.
But the other is the real treasure. It was given to me as a gift from a French billiard table restorer about 20 years ago before he retired. The rounded handle looks like a lathe turning. It is actually spoke-shaved. The stepped pyramid shaped business end has carved grooves in the sides of the steps. It enlarges to a rectangular head. This striking surface is covered in thick leather. It has an ivory inlay on the bottom to slide on the cloth.
You are correct, leather was used before Mingaud, but my long-considered guess is that it was used to strike but not to spin the ball. This seems to be the only possibility, that Mingaud invented the cue tip for spin. Because nothing else explains why he was able to mesmerize crowds and make a living with exhibitions. It must be also why the novelty of the ball-spinning shots in his 1827 book caused Thurston's in England to publish their translation of his book in 1830. I trust your wisdom, let me know what you think. I have an unopened bottle of French cue tip glue that says, in French, "company founded in 1828." This bottle was from the same table restorer. He sent me a rounded, rough, white stone, with a rounded cavity in the center. It is a primitive tip scuffer. Now do you see why I need help building a museum website? Regards, JW

fuggles said:

As it happened people around the room, and someone on the mic were commenting about how there were 2 "low" skill level players in the final. It was a rare occation. I'm pretty sure if we look back on who has won it wouldn't be a 601 rated player. I believe Chad won last year. I don't know Eric, but I think it is safe to say he had the tournament of his life. Also he was fortunate that Chad, Victor and Alex had to play each other in the first few rounds. I've been very bad and pretty good. Last event was pretty good. Played well in Scotch, Singles and Teams. Added 10 pts to my fargo and I have 1000 robustness.

Edit: just looked up last year, Damian beat Chad in the finals. Double dipped. Ouch.

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Eric beat Victor 6-4 in the third place match after losing the chair. He didn't dodge him.

This was the first year players from 600 to 625 were pushed to the elite. Last year they would have been in the platinum but the idea I think was to increase the size of the field in the elite. So last year both the finalists wouldn't even have been in the elite division unless they decided to "play up". It was pretty interesting actually the way it played out but also most of the really heavy hitters weren't there. Randy Baker may have had the highest fargo in the event.

My money is always on Pedro. He's about two tenths ahead of the field still.