Neil, even if I may have seemed skeptical at times in the past, I honestly always believed that bending a bank short was "possible." In fact, for many years, I have had on my website physical explanations for how and why it should be possible (although, I never had convincing videos available until fairly recently). And for those who still might doubt it, check out the demonstrations of banks being bent on the bending a bank resource page and in the $2000 Bank bend Challenge introduction video.The problem I have with you and Bob, and that you both devised the test thinking that a ball could not be bent at all.I admit that, at first, I was disappointed by cleary's dishonesty, attempted cheat, and attempted slander; but now I am glad, because Bob and I have both learned some valuable lessons about video editing and how to detect cheats. It has also been interesting (and scary) to see how many people cleary was able to deceive.
What I did always doubt is that a bank could be banked short a "useful" amount in a consistent and accurate way to make it a valuable technique at the table in a real game situation (even if it can happen). BTW, the goals for our challenge are stated very clearly on the $2000 Bank Bend Challenge page:
1. To see how much bend is possible.
2. To find out what types of shots and equipment are most suitable for bending.
3. To assess the difficulty and practicality of using bank bend effectively in a game situation where both accuracy and consistency are required.
I agree that the shot setup does take some care and time, but we thought it was necessary to achieve the challenge goals. However, once you set up the layout, you can quickly attempt the shot over and over until you get one that works well, and then you can complete the ruler-measurement procedure. It didn't take much time at all to create the example submission videos currently on the $2000 Bank Bend Challenge page, and the examples do satisfy all of the challenge rules and requirements (although, the bend achieved was admittedly not very good). I am still very surprised nobody has beaten them yet for the guaranteed $200.you devised a test, that while I think that you devised it in good faith, the test was flawed to start with. Too many stipulations that essentially make it where you had to be able to repeat the bend to have it valid, or you had to go through all the filming prerequisites on each and every attempt at the shot. Hardly anyone was going to be willing to do that.
Regards,
Dave