5x10 Foot Tables Questions?

Medalist

Medalist

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
This is directed toward the more mature guys who would remember the 5x10 era. I have a few questions.

1. How fast was the cloth on these back then?

2. How big were the pockets and did they have a deep shelf and bobble balls or freely accept them?

3. How big were the high runs on these in 14-1?

4. Did you like playing on them?
 
Medalist said:
This is directed toward the more mature guys who would remember the 5x10 era. I have a few questions.

1. How fast was the cloth on these back then?

2. How big were the pockets and did they have a deep shelf and bobble balls or freely accept them?

3. How big were the high runs on these in 14-1?

4. Did you like playing on them?
Click to expand...

Here in Canada the only ones I have seen had snooker pockets, rails and cloth. They played fast until cloth was cleaned wrong. The pockets played tight and the balls where smaller
 
When I worked in a pool hall back in 1965 (George Baker's Pool Hall in Fuquay NC), they were equipped as such:

1. They had the "nappy cloth" (required a serious stroke because this is SLOW cloth, especially in the south with the moisture conditions we have there.)

2. The Brunswicks we had, had deep shelves, i would rate them in difficulty between a hard diamond and a hard gold crown, pocket wise.

3. I personally saw Luther Lassiter run 142 and out on one. I never saw Mosconi on a 10 footer but I am told that he had numerous larger runs than this.

4. I wish I had one but with Simonis 860 on it because, to me, nothing is more challeging than having a true full sized table to practice on. Dont get me wrong, 9 footers can be challeging but for me nothing is like a good ten footer.

In general, you will hear people that never lived back during this time say that the conditions were easier than todays conditions but I disagree because of the distance, cloth type, type of balls and the cues today are BETTER, period.

Hope this helps.
 
10 foot tables

Yancey said:
When I worked in a pool hall back in 1965 (George Baker's Pool Hall in Fuquay NC), they were equipped as such:

1. They had the "nappy cloth" (required a serious stroke because this is SLOW cloth, especially in the south with the moisture conditions we have there.)

2. The Brunswicks we had, had deep shelves, i would rate them in difficulty between a hard diamond and a hard gold crown, pocket wise.

3. I personally saw Luther Lassiter run 142 and out on one. I never saw Mosconi on a 10 footer but I am told that he had numerous larger runs than this.

4. I wish I had one but with Simonis 860 on it because, to me, nothing is more challeging than having a true full sized table to practice on. Dont get me wrong, 9 footers can be challeging but for me nothing is like a good ten footer.

In general, you will hear people that never lived back during this time say that the conditions were easier than todays conditions but I disagree because of the distance, cloth type, type of balls and the cues today are BETTER, period.

Hope this helps.
Click to expand...
Irving crane preferred them. He ran ran 309 balls in Utah on one. He had run 150 and out, and the crowd urged him to continue.
 
Medalist said:
This is directed toward the more mature guys who would remember the 5x10 era. I have a few questions.

1. How fast was the cloth on these back then?

2. How big were the pockets and did they have a deep shelf and bobble balls or freely accept them?

3. How big were the high runs on these in 14-1?

4. Did you like playing on them?
Click to expand...


I've only actually seen one 5 x 10 table, it was quite old from the 1920's (greenleaf era). This table had been reclothed with simonis so I don't know how the original cloth played. The pockets played tough, I would say roughly 4 1/2". It was twice as hard to run 40 balls on it then it would be on a 9 footer with the same pockets. I enjoyed playing on it, probably because it was so hard.

The official high run on a 5 x 10 table is 309 balls, first by Crane, then later Mosconi tied it exactly with a 309 of his own. I believe Mosconi later ran a 353 but it's not official for some reason. Greenleaf's high run was 276 balls on a 5 x 10 table. He would regularly run 125 and out in exhibitions then stop the run and do a few trick shots. From what I hear, the crowd encouraged him to keep running after one of these 125 ball runs and he ran the 276, which leads me to believe he could have run 300 or 400 had he always continued his runs which he almost never did...I get the impression that record high runs weren't that important back then, the attitude was basically to win the match, after the match was over they didn't care about the run.
 
I don't know how they played but I have it on good authority that they were tough. They say that back in the old days in NYC, if you played 9 ball on a 5 x 10 all you would ever be spotted was the 8 ball, no matter who you were playing. That was considered a good spot. It wasn't until the smaller tables with big pockets came out that you'd see big spots like the 6 or 6 and out.
 
played for years on them and they were best for one pocket. most that i saw were brunswick anniversary or centennial tables and were the same as the nine footers just bigger. same everything else. you also learned how to shoot long shots from up on the rail and use the bridge.
 
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