Harold Worst 7 Rail Draw Shot - Fact or Fiction? Can anyone replicate this shot today?

1

1000BallRunner

Member
I was recently reading Freddy the Beards Book - Banking with the beard - and he recalls a specific story where he witnessed Harold Worst play a 7 rail draw shot at a tournament during an exhibition (I am currently visiting family and dont have a copy of the book with me but I will post a picture as verification when I return).

I skimmed through some older threads where this was discussed and the consensus seemed that Beard never said this / this shot never happened. However, this is printed in his book, he undoubtedly at least wrote it.

So back to the question - is this shot possible? Is there anyone that can set this up and demonstrate? If Worst could do this back then on those table conditions - certainly a pro should be able to do this today (Imagine this mans stoke today.......). This shot seems ridiculous but would the beard really say this and it didnt actually happen?
 
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I don’t think I’ll go looking for it in Freddy’s books, but givenWorst’s tournament records and how they talk about him I wouldn’t doubt it. Think of guys now with big strokes who have pulled off stroke shots and extreme masses. I mean like Sayginer. Worst’s stroke had to be at that level. So the specific shot and conditions I don’t know, but I wouldn’t doubt he did it. The conditions in the ‘50’s and ‘60’s weren’t totally primitive etc… even if they are better now.
 
1000BallRunner said:
I was recently reading Freddy the Beards Book - Banking with the beard - and he recalls a specific story where he witnessed Harold Worst play a 6 rail draw shot at a tournament during an exhibition (I am currently visiting family and dont have a copy of the book with me but I will post a picture as verification when I return).

I skimmed through some older threads where this was discussed and the consensus seemed that Beard never said this / this shot never happened. However, this is printed in his book, he undoubtedly at least wrote it.

So back to the question - is this shot possible? Is there anyone that can set this up and demonstrate? If Worst could do this back then on those table conditions - certainly a pro should be able to do this today (Imagine this mans stoke today.......). This shot seems ridiculous but would the beard really say this and it didnt actually happen?
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Best 'drawer' of the cb i've ever watched was Mike Massey in his prime show days and i don't think even he could draw the cb six rails. What's more Worst played mostly in the slow cloth era so i'm not going for this pool lore.
 
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Didn't Larry do a similar draw shot but did it driving the CB into a line of balls to stop the forward momentum?
I am certain I saw a vid on YT showing the shot.
 

Worst's 7 Rail Draw Shot!

I believe the story goes U.J. Puckett @ Johnston City would do a 5 rail draw shot, and bet others they could not do it. The cb was 5 diamonds away from the ob. But then Worst stated; "I'd like to try that", and got 7 Rails. I did a 7 rail bank shot and it measured 44', back pages bank forum...
onepocket.org onepocket.org
 
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garczar said:

Worst's 7 Rail Draw Shot!

I believe the story goes U.J. Puckett @ Johnston City would do a 5 rail draw shot, and bet others they could not do it. The cb was 5 diamonds away from the ob. But then Worst stated; "I'd like to try that", and got 7 Rails. I did a 7 rail bank shot and it measured 44', back pages bank forum...
onepocket.org onepocket.org
Click to expand...
Thank you for finding this. I thought he mentioned 6 in the book, not 7. This is the forum I mentioned where this is is disagreement over what was said by the Beard. I will post the book excerpt in a few days.
 
1000BallRunner said:
Thank you for finding this. I thought he mentioned 6 in the book, not 7. This is the forum I mentioned where this is is disagreement over what was said by the Beard. I will post the book excerpt in a few days.
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found a text version in the meantime from the Book - he actually says 7, not 6, pretty insane!! "U.J. Puckett had for years dazzled the crowd with his specialty shot, a five rail draw with the cue ball at least five diamonds away from the object ball ... Harold Worst watched Puck do the shot and then asked him if he could try it. Worst got down on the shot and got seven rails on the first try! Puckett never showed that shot at Johnston City again. I seen that with my own eyeballs. There was no stroke shot that Worst couldn't execute."
 
1000BallRunner said:
Thank you for finding this. I thought he mentioned 6 in the book, not 7. This is the forum I mentioned where this is is disagreement over what was said by the Beard. I will post the book excerpt in a few days.
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I don't think its in 'Bankin with the Beard' maybe his book about pool gambling 'The Encyclopedia of Pool Hustlers'.
 
There's a diagram in that link i posted. Its kind of a 'gaff' shot in that the last couple rails are struck in quick order in the corner.
 
What are our guesses for the possible paths/ paths?
Got your standard 5 railer that catches both rails in the last corner but I'm guessing it is prob a (barely) rail-first to a ball on a rail. Spins lots and loses 0 speed off the 1st rail?
 
1000BallRunner said:
Gar - I am pretty poisitive it is. Banking with the beard is the only beard book I own and it is what prompted me to research this. Will confirm though when I am back home.
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Come on , man. We wanna know now.

You should take the rest of the day off anyway.
 
1000BallRunner said:
Gar - I am pretty poisitive it is. Banking with the beard is the only beard book I own and it is what prompted me to research this. Will confirm though when I am back home.
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just flipped thru it. didn't see anything about this shot. pool is full of these tales. unless i know the teller REAL well i'd have to see it done.
 
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