Recent content by Bert van Manen

I bought a cheap one in the Netherlands for 60 Euro, built like a tank, never a problem. It does three balls, not six, but so what? Takes you four minutes now, instead of two.

If Bob & Bert firmly agree, resistance is futile.

One note: in the free game (at competition level) there is no choice in case of a frozen ball. You go straighr to the break-off. In balkline, you can ELECT to play the break-off, but you can also solve some situations with an "in-and-out" pique. Or, out-and-in, rather.

Great to see that the classic disciplines simply refuse to die. There's no money to be made, international tournaments are scarce, but the game simply has a reason to exist because it's basic, brilliant and beautiful. I have no idea about your current average in the free game, so forgive me if...

Here's my suggestion for the USBA: all external communication should be in four languages: English, Spanish, Korean and Vietnamese. 3-cushion in the USA leans heavily on players with an immigration background (95 % of Nationals winners in the past 40 years?), so deal with it in a practical way...

Sadly for Salazar, there are no world records for matches to 30 points. Nobody has ever kept track (which would be undoable by the way). I have seen a bunch of 30 in 4's before, can't really remember if I've ever seen a 30 in 3. Several players have been over 30 AFTER 3, in matches to 40 or 50...

Can't tell you how silly this is. The line in the second diagram is very sensitive to (even minimal) english, but it is EXTREMELY sensitive to speed. And age of cloth, btw. A little too firm and the ball will lock up between the long rails making the line way too short. Not enough speed, it will...

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

I've not been privy to any of the negotiations, but this is what I think is the construction: Drawshots, which is a private company, proposed a mini-tour intended to promote 3-cushion. You can only invite two ranked players to an invitational, any more and you'll have to pay a significant fee to...

Would be pretty pointless to try and organize a World Cup in the USA right now. For starters, half the field would say thank you but no thank you.

If you want to read anything into it: the three major disasters in the past 15 years have been a cancelled World Cup in Mexico (when players had already booked), a dumpster fire of a World Championship in Bolivia, and this Bogota cancellation. I'm not counting the cancelled World Cup in Turkey...

I think he's 1.94, I may be off by a centimeter. As for the cue: not that I know of. The fact that 1.94 guys and 1.62 guys play with - just about - the same length cue is one of the mysteries in our sport.

Raymond once told me that he hardened Peter, when his grandson was a young lad. "We'd play 30 points, and I'd let him get to 27 or 28 and kept him there as long as I could. You need to be able to deal with frustration in this game, and those practice matches where I beat him 30-29 helped. And...

As for the PBA events: I don't think you miss much. They appear to favor "professional presenters" over insiders with knowledge of the game. A friend of mine who is fluent in Korean says the commentary is disappointing. Jae Ho Cho, who sometimes sits in, is the positive exception. He is -...

He may be 88 years old, but he can still hit the ball where he wants to. Yesterday, Belgian League, against seasoned opponent Freddy Staelens, Ceulemans needed 15 innings for his 40 points. Quite a few seriously decent players have not done that in their entire career, and he does it at the age...