Streaming now in the AccuStats YouTube page and of course will be up for later viewing.
Dick Lane vs Ralf Souquet from the 2000 US Open 14.1 Championship
- Thread starter Positively Ralf
- Start date
Lane is a great shot but I couldn't believe how much his arm trembles before each shot and still maintaining high level.
There's an old timer I play with in tournaments who has a tremor like that but alot worse, he'll still run out on you of you give him an open look.
There's an old timer I play with in tournaments who has a tremor like that but alot worse, he'll still run out on you of you give him an open look.
I've known DL a long time and he's always done that. Its straight when he sends it. Dick became a good 9ball'r but 14.1 is what he grew up playing. Danny D's book has a good story about how he tangled with Dick at the student union at O.U. while Dick was in school. Tough action.
I think DL is using his Meucci here. He started using it about this time frame. He owns two identical superb Szams(one is still unchalked afaik) but he told me that his Meucci played better. Lucky Cues(big Japanese cue dealer) offered him over 30grand(mid 90's dollars) for the pair but he kept them. He hasn't played in a long time but i bet he still has them.
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Dick Lane was reputed to be an extremely slow player, but every video match of his I’ve seen has been under a shot clock, and he is usually as quick as his opponent.
BTW: That last shot he missed is usually how my runs end (power stroke off the short rail). Go figure.
BTW: That last shot he missed is usually how my runs end (power stroke off the short rail). Go figure.
A lot of Dick's slow rep came from the '77 US Open final. info:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tom_Jennings_(pool_player) Dick was methodical but i've seen slower players. He played 9b at fairly decent pace.
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Good story about Jennings and Lisciotti: https://vault.si.com/vault/1977/06/27/a-hustler-meets-an-artist
Yes I had the same reaction. I bought the set of US Open matches from the 1992 edition. I was dreading his match since I’d heard he was painfully slow. However, between his introspective player review commentary and fine (well paced) play, it was actually one of my favourite matches.
Dick commented that he liked the Meucci for draw shots, but had trouble getting good follow on the ball with the Meucci. That makes sense as the Meucci shafts were usually more snappy and Szams had a heavier shaft with the SS joint.
Zero science to back any of that up. I had some of the early Original Meucci's and i never saw any increase in spin of any kind. They had a little less squirt than a stiff old-school cue but that was about it. My Richard Black with ivory ferrules was WAY stiffer than any Meucci and i could spin the shit out whitey with it. A lot of this is just pool old-wives tales that became lore/fact over time.
Well, we are talking about what DL said about his Meucci vs. his Szam- he said it on an accustat video commentary that he did on one of his 14.1 matches. I have heard literally hundreds of guys claim that they drew the ball more easily with Meucci cues and these guys were not anybody's wives
BTW, my number one cue for the past 20 years is a Richard Black- mine is not a stiff hitting cue at all- in fact, my RB shafts are much closer to a Meucci than a SZAM shaft in how they flex. MY RB is the least stiff hitting cue of about 30 or so SS jointed custom cues that I ever owned. I have ivory ferrules on it and had RBs original tips for the first 15 years.
I think that individual stroke mechanics are a big factor in how the cue ball reacts off different cue construction techniques. You cannot just focus on the cue itself to determine how the cue ball will react - to me, that is an even bigger old wives tale. They developed that robot mechanism to show that - if the stroke is exactly the same every time, yes, various cue construction methods will affect the cue ball differently - but that was with a robotic mechanism.
People are not robots, their strokes are not equal, there are many moving parts to a stroke, the reason we debate how cues play is not just limited to the cue itself, our individual strokes factor heavily into our feelings about the playability of various cues.
Too bad Dick Lane faltered at the end after his 90+ run. He later missed an easy break shot and also scratched on an easy safety play- seems like he just lost his composure a bit towards the end- Ralf finished strong. I was at this event in NYC 2000; the pockets were very large on these GCs. You can see a lot of shots up in the corners hit 3 inches south of the pocket and still go in off the rail. Ralf benefitted from most of those up table near misses.
Ralf hit everything when he was pinned on the top rail a few times and pocketed 8 foot shots down table, so things do even out over 150 balls.
Ralf hit everything when he was pinned on the top rail a few times and pocketed 8 foot shots down table, so things do even out over 150 balls.