I picked up an old brunswick 7 foot and admired it, its eames era and cool looking. It has a style and build quality that sets it apart from all those 8 foot sears type garbage tables.
It had snooker cloth and pockets more similar to 8 ball as original , also came with both types of balls. It was expensive int it's day unlike the cheapo tables but it isn;t slate either. that means it's a "portable" table.
the rubber was really small and had poor bounce, its from about 1964 so the rubber was 60 years old.
I cut the rails back 10 mm and used 3/4" thick triangular rubber, covered it in snooker cloth. I made the pockets tighter as I intended it for adults, not kids. It worked out so well ! the ball size is only 1 7/8" a bit smaller than "normal".
The original particleboard was a bit bumpy so I added a sheet of MDF which is actually dead flat. pockets were all rotten I basically rebuilt the pockets with rubber sheets and some plastic trim , it took a bit of fooling around but I got it working real nice and looking quite presentable.
I made some 3/4 x 3/4 trim for the edges with a fancy profile to hide the edges of the added sheet of MDF. that blended in with the rails ok. I did a dark stain on the maple strips. I gave the MDF a light coat of laquer to seal it in a bit.
It was a ton of fun to play on and we gained a lot of practice, I saw improvements in our aim and learned lots in general. I replaced it with a 9 foot Brunswick Balke Collander approximately 120 years old. Love the thing !
this one has snooker style pockets but I believe it's made for 2 1/4 ball size. huge for snooker ! maybe it was designed for straight pool or a pocket carom game or maybe american snooker?
I went looking for 2 1/2 snooker balls and found them with ease, they do not seem rare, but who uses 2 1/2 for snooker?
we tend to use the 2 1/16 more on the 12' but can practice on the bigger balls too. My rails seem ok on both, no jumping balls. I copared it to the 6x 12 and my rails are about 1/8" taller, similar profile. larger pocket openings. I don't see modifying that.
I decided this table is an antique and shouldnt be modified out of respect for it's vintage, although smaller pockets might feel more normal. Its just what it always was and was meant to be.
that larger size helps us shoot 9 ball and 8 ball etc. the larger balls take spins a bit differently. On the weekends we like to go play ,mainly on a 12 foot snooker table with 2 1/16 balls..but some 21/2 " on 9 ball etc on a GC as well. withthhis i can play snooker with either size and it's fun and that way I get practice on both. at first I thought that would throw me and cause confusion but i dont find that's the case in practice, any practice is good. Now when I do try to play 9 ball the larger size may help on that as well. I can also play 9 ball with the rounded pockets, why not? the size is comparable to a GC used for 9 ball.
Of course I can't fit one of those 12 foot snooker tables in my living room so this BBC is working great for us. The BBC table has rounded pockets which suggest snooker but the rails are a bit higher, pockets are a little wider than the english sylle snooker table. Maybe it increases confidence a little. I'm making some longer runs now due to the larger size of pockets.
I'm not finding it the case ( for me) that using all these different ball sizes or changing the rail profiles really diminishes any practice I get. I think if you are serious enough about one certain game you may want the consistency, I'm only interested in my own improvements and having fun .
As I see my accuracy improve I'm thankful to have the option to play at home and get 2-3 hours in without spending or going anywhere. I think this added practice far offsets any poor results Im seeing by changing the conditions up.
doing a good backspin with the big balls is easy, with tiny balls, its harder. they have a lot less inertia. some can backspin a ball quite accurately clear across the table, I'm learning.. For me its still a bit inconsistent, as an example, half the time It'll just be a stopshot. sometimes I get my follow-through right or get low enough, or what ever it is stopping me from suceeding. and I do it right.. Sometimes Ill just get my cue right under the ball and see it hop and laugh at me ;-)
at home when I'm not playing serious players I can muck about and try things like this and fool around a bit more, maybe skip the easy shots and take a harder one that challenges me more, or practice those shots I find difficult.
That's a very poor strategy when winning feels important, but sometimes thats how I learn to be able to increase my own confidence and accuracy.
It's nice to do stuff like that at home where there is absolutely no pressure or care about winning the game.
I find straight practice alone bores me quickly, I know I should do more of that but I think, for me, having any other player , despite their skill level being different, to rearrange the balls at least, helps me.
i try playing snooker and hooking myself and imagine the good guy on one shoulder and the bad guy on the other in a competition , but it doesn't take long to forget who's turn it is then ;-) I guess I can play straight pool and see how high of a number I can get to before a miss.
I find any "real game" more interesting and then it capures my attention better. Some love to practice on their own, I guess games like "solitare" might help make it more of a game than just a random ball bashing episode which I get bored with after about 10 mins.
Do you have a fun way to practice alone ? I'm surely not the ony one that gets bored with playing solo.
I think I do benefit by making the same shot over and over, I can see why this helps. Then I can adjust and make it again with minor changes, as many times as I like until I'm confident with that shot,, the one I found I was missing too often.
I can see my practice producing good results, I just get bored with this technique really fast. If I start to not really care its time for a break.
I don't think I learn much, very fast, if I'm in the mindset that I don't really care about the shot.
What I've been doing is looking to my next ball, weighing up options verbally.
Pointing to my preferred cue ball landing place, then seeing how close I actually come with my cue ball to my imagined "destination". playing some games "openly" in this way I do find helpful.
I'm not really thinking to the setup of the third ball but with practice that will come. I can see how good players are able to predict a bit further ahead, when you are "green" it's too mind boggling and unpredicatble to consider what happens very far into the future. I don't think I can predict as far as some really good players can, but it all comes with time I guess.
One thing that I found did not come very naturally was to recognize the instant I knew I missed my angle was WHY?
For some reason my mind jumps away to a focus of disappointment rather than self criticism. Then I don't recognise the reason for my failure. I think if I can learn to recognise what went wrong straight away, then it will help me recognise and hence, adjust.
