"Championship" Cloth and Nostalgia

sudocrushms

sudocrushms

Well-known member
Was feeling nostalgiac this weekend and went up to the NDSU Memorial Union in Fargo for the first time in 6-8 years. This place is the reason my grades sucked...

I had them put in tourney blue back in the day because the place was so dark. They've gone back to green and the lighting is SO MUCH BETTER. Also: 5gal buckets for pockets.

I have 2 questions:
1. What generation GCs are these? I think they're 2-3, but no idea.
2. This cloth is WEIRD. The foot spot stickers are "Championship". It rolls new (relatively fast), but has to be the grippiest cloth I've ever played on. Used to Simonis on Diamonds and everything that's usually draw is stun on this. So weird.
 

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I play on these tables quite a bit - if the rubber is lively they can play similar to a GC if set up correctly . Standard pockets are about 4 7/8 which was the standard in most rooms in the 60s and 70s and going forward until the Diamond era began.
They are solid tables and will play well if not abused. Simonis 860 is a nice marriage on these tables.
 
maha said:
those arent buckets. but how many racks in a row was your best run on dem dare buckets.
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They are like 4.75 pockets at least. In today’s pool that’s buckets. If you were on a valley bar box you would be complaining how big the pockets are.
 
Standard B'wick corner pockets were all 5" til they made the TournamentEdition in the GC5. They were designed for commercial poolroom use where the whole idea is for people to have fun, spend money and come back for more.
 
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yea now in tournaments they have much smaller pockets. makes the top players much bigger favorites to take all the money.

so to some anything bigger than say 4.25 is a bucket. yet i dont see them running rack after rack but making a few and missing.

its akin to making the basket smaller in basketball and smaller hole in golf. does make for a tougher test. but for all the others much less fun.

if you want pool to grow it has to be fun so a newbie with his girl can make some balls and see improvement. rather than a test of skill for each shot.
 
maha said:
yea now in tournaments they have much smaller pockets. makes the top players much bigger favorites to take all the money.

so to some anything bigger than say 4.25 is a bucket. yet i dont see them running rack after rack but making a few and missing.

its akin to making the basket smaller in basketball and smaller hole in golf. does make for a tougher test. but for all the others much less fun.

if you want pool to grow it has to be fun so a newbie with his girl can make some balls and see improvement. rather than a test of skill for each shot.
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I think it adds to more safeties being played as well, bigger pockets with more angle on the pocket face gives you a choice to cheat the pocket or play a safety instead, 4 1/2" pockets for pro events with a narrower face would speed up the games as well, do you think Efren would have even attempted the Z shot in today's game?
 
sudocrushms said:
That explains my confusion. Great info.
I measured the pockets and they were 4-7/8, and yes they play like buckets except for balls rejected by the plastic pocket liners that don't look like they belong.
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All tables back then had pockets that stood way up. First GC to have flush-fit was the 4 and it came out in '98.
 
garczar said:
All tables back then had pockets that stood way up. First GC to have flush-fit was the 4 and it came out in '98.
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It's the liner sticking out inside the pocket that causes problems. It's not flush to the back of the cushion. It's also weird how much smaller the cup is compared to the slate cutout.
 
sudocrushms said:
It's the liner sticking out inside the pocket that causes problems. It's not flush to the back of the cushion. It's also weird how much smaller the cup is compared to the slate cutout.
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Those could be after-market pockets. They look pretty new compared to age of the table. The liners don't stick all that far out if you look at the other pictures. Not enough to stop a ball from falling, if the ball is in far enough to touch the liner its falling.
 
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I love my Championship clothe. Does play different than Simonis and I like it better. But I don't notice issue with drawing on mine.
 
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