English Billiards Info Wanted

HomeBrewer

HomeBrewer

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
I'm posting this in the Snooker and Carom forums; hope that's not a problem.

I'm wondering if anyone here can recommend a text or video source for English billiards instruction/concepts/patterns etc.? Because I'm in New Zealand and won't be leaving for many months to come, and even then just to Australia, I've taken up the game over the last few weeks. I'm having a blast with it, but coming from a three cushion billiards background has not been quite the boon to my play I'd hoped it would be. I know I'll only get so far banging the balls around alone, and there don't seem to be many players in the more rural areas of the country to learn from.

I gladly check out the video clips on YouTube and the like whenever someone posts them, but was wondering about perhaps something more comprehensive or upto-date.

Thanks.
 
How to play billiards

Hi HomeBrewer

Go to this site www.ebdb.net and search for billiards. There are one or two ebooks there which should help you. You could also have a look at this on youtube + related vids: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lYIpJMO51Ow

Useful search terms include: top-of-the-table, floating white & postman's knock

Good luck! :wink:

Siz
 
What details exactly are you looking for? :)

I used to play English Billiards quite often and finished R-up in the local individuals league in the only year that I entered the league and have managed a high run of 84, which is not bad for any standard with having a pool player background :)

If I can be of any help, feel free to send me a PM and I'll be happy to help as best I can :)

Willie
 
Hey guys,

That's perfect, thanks. Some jargon to Google to get an idea about all aspects of the game is great, and I'd like to message you Wizard about stuff that's harder to learn from reading; things like the kinds of runs I should consider respectable while starting out (I had a 35 yesterday but only in practice and I'm pretty sure that's nothing to brag about), etiquette among players, etc. This is the kind of stuff I tend to enjoy learning even about games I don't seriously play.

Thanks!
 
Yeah that's no worries buddy, you're welcome to PM me as I'm happy to give some advice from what I learned, in order to help someone else to learn a few things about the game and to progress a little further :)

You'll find that in English Billiards, the best way to play the game, is to try and keep your opponent's CB on the table for as long as possible, as this gives a much bigger chance of scoring a higher run, via caroms and scratches :)

As I said though, if I can be of any help, feel free to ask away and I'll be happy to help as best I can :)

Willie
 
HomeBrewer said:
I'm posting this in the Snooker and Carom forums; hope that's not a problem.

I'm wondering if anyone here can recommend a text or video source for English billiards instruction/concepts/patterns etc.? Because I'm in New Zealand and won't be leaving for many months to come, and even then just to Australia, I've taken up the game over the last few weeks. I'm having a blast with it, but coming from a three cushion billiards background has not been quite the boon to my play I'd hoped it would be. I know I'll only get so far banging the balls around alone, and there don't seem to be many players in the more rural areas of the country to learn from.

I gladly check out the video clips on YouTube and the like whenever someone posts them, but was wondering about perhaps something more comprehensive or upto-date.


Thanks.
Click to expand...


Billiards and Snooker - Richard Holt - goes thru potting balls ,caroms, etc. -
also covers Snooker. (pub 1957) -


order thru alibris.com (large online book seller)
 
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2007 World English Billiards Final, played in Singapore :)

Part 1 (The rest can be found as you go along, with look in the list of related videos or the youtube member's profile list of videos :)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UEF_lp66G5k

a 100 break (high run) by Walter Lindrum

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bwKXxmBssPc

If you turn the volume up a little, you'll be able to hear Walter talking about what shot he's playing, which gives the viewer a chance to work out why he's playing those particular shots :)

This video alone can give great insight to the various patterns and shot strategies in English Billiards, but also watching the finals in the first link, allows you to see the patterns and strategies used nowadays, which if the turth be told, aren't that much (If at all) different compared to Walter Lindrum's day :)

I hope that this helps a little more :)

Willie

EDIT - P.S. For a nice little high run video, here's a guy making a high run of 233 :)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g0I7vYcgCLc&feature=related

Enjoy
 
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maldito said:
Billiards and Snooker - Richard Holt - goes thru potting balls ,caroms, etc. -
also covers Snooker. (pub 1957) -


order thru alibris.com (large online book seller)
Click to expand...

I agree that Holt's book is pretty comprehensive, and not a bad acquisition if you don't mind putting up with a pretty turgid writing style. It is also the only English Billiards book I still have - I rather lost interest in learning the game many years ago because I could never find anyone to play.

However from memory Jack Karnhem's book 'Understanding Billiards & Snooker' was good, and well illustrated, as was anything written by Clive Everton (actually, I have a feeling that most of the billiards & snooker books coming out of the UK in the last 30 years have been ghost-written by Everton).
 
Thanks for the continued help.

Can't believe I forgot about Alibris.com

I've watched much of the Lindrum stuff and wondered if the balls he played with rolled a lot differently or not from the modern ones. Good to hear the shots and patterns he plays are still the ones, but now I'll have to find a new excuse for my level of play.
 
Do you know/understand the rules?

The e-book website is great, I never knew it existed! Thanks so much for the link, really great!

The game is so good, please carry on playing it!
 
3 Cushion experience is not really very helpful for English Billiards.

First learn all your natural half ball in offs, if you haven't already. Learn how to expand the angle with speed and with Outside English and how to contract it with Inside English. Then learn how to get the balls into Top-of-the-Table position. The most common way is to get the opponent's ball about 12 inches above the center pocket and 12 inches off the rail and cannon from here into the red on its spot.

This brings the opponent's cue ball near (hopefully just under) the red spot. This is postion A for the game where the big breaks are made. Once you learn to get there more often, practice building breaks from here.

The video linked above of Danik Lucas shows him playing Top of the Table around the 8 minute mark.

Good luck,
Colin
 
Colin Colenso said:
3 Cushion experience is not really very helpful for English Billiards.

First learn all your natural half ball in offs, if you haven't already. Learn how to expand the angle with speed and with Outside English and how to contract it with Inside English. Then learn how to get the balls into Top-of-the-Table position. The most common way is to get the opponent's ball about 12 inches above the center pocket and 12 inches off the rail and cannon from here into the red on its spot.

This brings the opponent's cue ball near (hopefully just under) the red spot. This is postion A for the game where the big breaks are made. Once you learn to get there more often, practice building breaks from here.

The video linked above of Danik Lucas shows him playing Top of the Table around the 8 minute mark.

Good luck,
Colin
Click to expand...

Good information there Colin...
 
Well since there aren't any clubs nearby that have american pool tahbles, I've decided to go back to playing English Billiards again and am have already decided to join up in the local billiards club, it's a small private club with only 4x snooker tables, but it's got great table rates at ?1.50 GBP an hour, whereas all the public rooms are charging ?5 GBP per hour table time :)

I had a nice little break of 40 on monday evening with a new cue stick that I got in the mail that morning, and so, I'm looking forward to playing some more again next week :)

Willie
 
40 break? That's fantastic. But even though I haven't beaten your score, at least snooker tables at the workingmens' clubs in NZ are only $1/hour (0.36 GBP)!

Also, thanks to everyone else for the additional info provided.
Much appreciated.
 
You jammy git :), 36p an hour is practally for nothing:) lol, nice one :)

It's kinda like a working man's club that I play billiards at also :), the membership is only ?12 GBP a year and I think the member's table time rate is about ?1.50 GBP an hour or something like that :), which is still much better than having to pay ?5/?6 GBP an hour in alot of the public rooms/clubs :)

No worries about not beating the break of 40, you'll get there, after all, the break I got was all top of the table play at the time, it started off with a few in-off whites untill I got the right shape to play an in-off whi to drop the other CB just beside the red, to play the a drop canon for the pot reds, and so on :)

It can most definitely be beaten, it just a case of concentration and focus, while being relaxed and thinking about which is the best way to get the balls situated in a way to get the highest and simplest break possible :)

I'm going to try and beat the break of 40 on Monday night when I go to play some more, and try each week to get a higher break than the previous week :)

Willie
 
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