I spent a few days in Hilton Head SC and was able to stop in a couple of times at SouthSide Billiards Club in Savannah GA. Jamie Sibley who is a forum member here at AZ has been trying to generate interest in the carom game by starting a monthly 3 cushion tournament on their 10 foot heated Sogard carom table. They are playing 10 points or 20 innings per match to make it possible to have a tournament on 1 table. The first tournament was won by Conrad Patenaude and yesterday the tournament was won by Jamie with Ed Wolfe coming in second.
Ed and Conrad are 9 ball players from Hilton Head who had never played a game of 3 cushion until about 6 months ago when Dan Bennicas got them in to the game with a set of carom pocket inserts. In the past 6 months Dan has developed a synthetic playing surface that goes down over the top of pool felt to simulate fast playing Simonis 300. In my opinion the results of the tournaments are evidence that the inserts and playing surface offer a serviceable alternative to practicing on a regular carom table.
By no means is this a perfect substitute, but for players like Ed, Conrad and myself we can now play both games although we only have room in our house for one table.
Ed and Conrad are 9 ball players from Hilton Head who had never played a game of 3 cushion until about 6 months ago when Dan Bennicas got them in to the game with a set of carom pocket inserts. In the past 6 months Dan has developed a synthetic playing surface that goes down over the top of pool felt to simulate fast playing Simonis 300. In my opinion the results of the tournaments are evidence that the inserts and playing surface offer a serviceable alternative to practicing on a regular carom table.
By no means is this a perfect substitute, but for players like Ed, Conrad and myself we can now play both games although we only have room in our house for one table.
