down the rail

[snookerindy1981]

I have been watching the snooker on the internet now for three years. How can they make pots going down the rail so easily?

Even when my table was at my father's house and then I moved it to my house and had the new cloth and rails put on it is impossible to pot a ball down the rail.

Something has to be different, right?

 

[acesinc1999]

I have been watching the snooker on the internet now for three years. How can they make pots going down the rail so easily?

Even when my table was at my father's house and then I moved it to my house and had the new cloth and rails put on it is impossible to pot a ball down the rail.

Something has to be different, right?

They're pros.

 

[acesinc1999]

:smile:

Just being funny above. But there really is no magic. It is a combination of a few things, the most important being PRECISION. Such precision that you and I normally cannot muster. As for common club tables, the cloth can actually help you. A heavy cloth with strong nap will actually help guide the ball into the BLACK pockets (because the nap of the cloth "pushes" toward the black end much like the grain on the golf putting green will cause your putts to break toward the water). It is much more difficult to run a ball along the BAULK cushions than the BLACK cushions because the nap will push the ball away from the baulk pockets. These things are less a factor on a pro table because (I am told) that the pro cloth is much lighter with virtually no nap. I have not played on a cloth like that myself, only club tables.

Another critical factor is speed. There is a certain speed which will work that the pros obviously just have the instinct for. Too fast, and the ball will rattle the jaws and bounce out. Too slow, and either your cue ball or object ball will roll off line, You just have to feel it.

Thirdly, actually touching the cushion is easier than off the cushion a small amount, say 1/8". The reason is that initial contact with cushion cloth will cause a side spin for the object ball to make it "hug" that cushion much like if you are driving down the highway and drift off onto the rumble strip so the tires on that side kind of slow down a little and pull you a little in that same direction. Again, exact speed is CRITICAL for this effect. If your contact is not precise or if you are off the cushion a fraction, this effect is useless so you just need a precise straight line from the object ball to the pocket.

There is a line of thinking that if you put this spin or that spin on the cue ball, it will impart the opposite spin on the object ball to help guide it in. While that may or may not be true, (in my case at least,) putting side on the cue is very likely to take away from the precision that is required for these shots so I don't advise it at least not until you can hit them in reasonably well with center ball.

In the end, no matter what, it will never be easy. To be a pro is to make it LOOK easy.

 

[nashville14:1]

US perspective here. In general 12’ tables have to be tougher than the smaller ones.
However many 10’ US made tables from before WWII had pockets much smaller than those made more recently in any nation afaik. I recently measured a 1929 vintage Brunswick and found the corner pockets were 69mm or 2.75”
I was raised in a small town with only 1 snooker table and it had pockets of this smaller size. No one, pro or amateur consistently made balls frozen to the rail unless they were close to the pocket. When I moved to a larger town, I was amazed to see balls run down the rail fairly regularly. Those pockets were about 90mm, or just a tad bigger than what the champions play on today. Of course play is made more difficult with the typical ball size being 2 1/8 in US instead of the 2 1/16 UK size.
I think Brunswick may have been attempting to make the smaller tables as tough as the 12’ by making the pockets tight. For the game of golf on the snooker table, tight pockets seem to be the norm. There is one 12’ here in Nashville with the tiny pockets….. too tough for a good game of snooker.
No doubt that snooker on the smaller table with smaller pockets, bigger balls and slower cloth is very different from the “real” game of snooker.
Hats off to the great champions who regularly clear the table these days.

 

[Underclocked]

If a ball down the rail is truly "impossible" to make, there is something wrong with the width of the pockets.

 

[Bob Jewett]

If a ball down the rail is truly "impossible" to make, there is something wrong with the width of the pockets.

Well, yes, but there are a lot of tables in the US that have been tightened up for the game of golf or for games like rotation. I've seen one 10-foot table on which the black could not be made off its spot except if slow-rolled into the pocket.

 

[Underclocked]

I agree and have encountered such tables. But I doubt this table was intended to be purely a "golf" table. There used to be a 10'er in Joplin, MO that was so tight the only way you could pocket a ball was if you were coming straight in to the center of the pocket. I hated that table.

 

[driven]

any of the 12 ft tables I have played on it seems to me the corner pocket plays the largest when the o ball is on the rail. If I hit it parrell with the rail the ball will fall. If it is off the rail even a little bit then that little angle has to be played just so perfectly, very difficult.
I agree with what has been said about the smaller 10 ft tables. All the 10 fters I have ever played on were very tight. forget about any rail shots.
But not as tight as the two 12 ft tables at Hard Times in california. These particular tables I was told were "Tightened up for golf" by the counter person.
I took some balls over to one of them, the pockets were so tight any shot from any angle would literally rub both rails on the way in. damn shame what they did to these tables, they were some of the best tables I have seen in the states
steven