How important is it to keep your chin on the cue in snooker?
- Thread starter collinsca
- Start date
Over the years there have been one or two moderately succesful international players who played with their chin down below cue level to one side or the other of the shaft but there has never been any snooker player of international note who played from the 'upright' position with head way above the cue (the style quite often succesfully adopted in pool).
Therefore without needing to even touch on any technical reasons the above info would alone suggest that the chances of playing to the best of your ability are significantly reduced if you do not have the chin in the traditional 'correct' position relative to the cue.
Therefore without needing to even touch on any technical reasons the above info would alone suggest that the chances of playing to the best of your ability are significantly reduced if you do not have the chin in the traditional 'correct' position relative to the cue.
In fact there was a very good Canadian snooker & pool champion who played very well with a more upright stance.
Chenier, George
Article also available en français
Canadian Sports
Chenier, George, snooker player (b at Hull, Qué 1907; d at Toronto 16 Nov 1970). Chenier was the outstanding Canadian snooker player for a generation. He was North American champion 1947-70, even after suffering strokes in 1966 that reduced his stamina and caused partial paralysis. He was a leading challenger for the world championship. In 1950 he briefly held the world record high run with a break of 144. Chenier was also a leading pool player. In the 1963 world championships he became the first to run 150 and out.
See BILLIARDS.
Author GRAHAM DUNCAN
Index Page:
Index
Big break for George Chenier, and the fans
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For those of you who are unaware of who George Chenier was, well he was a Snooker player from Canada who was invited to England in 1950 by the legendary Joe Davis himself. It seems that they met while Joe was touring in Canada.
Mr Chenier took part in the World Snooker Championships of 1950 and promptly made a break of 144, this was considered a world championship record and brought a large degree of recognition for George. At the time George Chenier adopted a stance that was somewhat upright, yet he was still considered to be one of the premier break builders of his era.
I have seen a picture of him taken at around, the mid nineteen fifties, the remarkable thing was that he used a two piece cue.
I believe that Cliff Thorburn was encouraged by a number of meetings with George Chenier to come to England, I am sure that along with many of you, I would be pleased if this story were true.
In the Championship of 1950 George Chenier beat P Mans in his first match and then lost to Fred Davis in the next round, this was no disgrace as Fred went on to win the tournament.
Sadly George Chenier did not return to playing in the Championship but will long be remembered as one of the pioneers who came from countries outside the United Kingdom to take a tilt at the World Snooker Championships.
David Smith
and this from Joe Davis
I did not know until I arrived, however, that the trip was to be no rest-cure. I was booked to play the Canadian snooker champion George Chenier, a first-class player who had never been seen in the UK but whose reputation was formidable. He was credited at the time with a break of 142, while I on New Year's Day had just made a new record break of 141 in an exhibition against Walter Donaldson at the Leicester Square Hall, potting eleven blacks, three pinks and a brown in conjunction with the reds. So there was naturally much interest in Bermuda as to whether either of us would improve on these breaks to push the record even further into the stratosphere. But the record stayed intact, and although George brought the house down in making the first century break the island had ever seen, it was I who ran out the winner by 41 frames to 30. George and I got on very well together, his stunt shots were a revelation and he was an entertaining talker. We discussed the Canadian and American style of game a good deal; certainly their mode of dress was different. George played in slacks and a white shirt and had a passion for very wide and voluble ties which dangled all over the table as he played. I felt sure that the referee would sooner or later penalise him but he always seemed to have them under control. After our match George returned to Canada - but not before I had arranged for him to come over for his first trip to Britain later in the year.
Bern
Chenier, George
Article also available en français
Canadian Sports
Chenier, George, snooker player (b at Hull, Qué 1907; d at Toronto 16 Nov 1970). Chenier was the outstanding Canadian snooker player for a generation. He was North American champion 1947-70, even after suffering strokes in 1966 that reduced his stamina and caused partial paralysis. He was a leading challenger for the world championship. In 1950 he briefly held the world record high run with a break of 144. Chenier was also a leading pool player. In the 1963 world championships he became the first to run 150 and out.
See BILLIARDS.
Author GRAHAM DUNCAN
Index Page:
Index
Big break for George Chenier, and the fans
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
For those of you who are unaware of who George Chenier was, well he was a Snooker player from Canada who was invited to England in 1950 by the legendary Joe Davis himself. It seems that they met while Joe was touring in Canada.
Mr Chenier took part in the World Snooker Championships of 1950 and promptly made a break of 144, this was considered a world championship record and brought a large degree of recognition for George. At the time George Chenier adopted a stance that was somewhat upright, yet he was still considered to be one of the premier break builders of his era.
I have seen a picture of him taken at around, the mid nineteen fifties, the remarkable thing was that he used a two piece cue.
I believe that Cliff Thorburn was encouraged by a number of meetings with George Chenier to come to England, I am sure that along with many of you, I would be pleased if this story were true.
In the Championship of 1950 George Chenier beat P Mans in his first match and then lost to Fred Davis in the next round, this was no disgrace as Fred went on to win the tournament.
Sadly George Chenier did not return to playing in the Championship but will long be remembered as one of the pioneers who came from countries outside the United Kingdom to take a tilt at the World Snooker Championships.
David Smith
and this from Joe Davis
I did not know until I arrived, however, that the trip was to be no rest-cure. I was booked to play the Canadian snooker champion George Chenier, a first-class player who had never been seen in the UK but whose reputation was formidable. He was credited at the time with a break of 142, while I on New Year's Day had just made a new record break of 141 in an exhibition against Walter Donaldson at the Leicester Square Hall, potting eleven blacks, three pinks and a brown in conjunction with the reds. So there was naturally much interest in Bermuda as to whether either of us would improve on these breaks to push the record even further into the stratosphere. But the record stayed intact, and although George brought the house down in making the first century break the island had ever seen, it was I who ran out the winner by 41 frames to 30. George and I got on very well together, his stunt shots were a revelation and he was an entertaining talker. We discussed the Canadian and American style of game a good deal; certainly their mode of dress was different. George played in slacks and a white shirt and had a passion for very wide and voluble ties which dangled all over the table as he played. I felt sure that the referee would sooner or later penalise him but he always seemed to have them under control. After our match George returned to Canada - but not before I had arranged for him to come over for his first trip to Britain later in the year.
Bern
Very interesting read, thanks
I suppose to some degree all sports incorporating equipment with which you strike a static or moving ball have that "feel right" factor to a degree, none more so than golf which has spawned some fairly weird swings on succesful players. If a particular style feels good to you and you think it makes you play better there's a good chance it might......but I wouldn't go holding my breath for the next 'somewhat upright' snooker star as he may well be another 60 years in turning up
I suppose to some degree all sports incorporating equipment with which you strike a static or moving ball have that "feel right" factor to a degree, none more so than golf which has spawned some fairly weird swings on succesful players. If a particular style feels good to you and you think it makes you play better there's a good chance it might......but I wouldn't go holding my breath for the next 'somewhat upright' snooker star as he may well be another 60 years in turning up
I'm pretty sure there won't be any. I know of one fairly proficient local player who stands strangely upright, but that's all he is, proficient.memikey said:......but I wouldn't go holding my breath for the next 'somewhat upright' snooker star as he may well be another 60 years in turning up
There were plenty of upright players in the heyday of English Billiards, and I remember reading an old billiards magazine online extolling a reader not to copy the then billiards world champion Joe Davis's crouching style, which they thought was a bit of a one-man gimmick. It was probably that style that set Davis apart when the transition to snooker came, and I suppose we were lucky to have Davis to copy, as he definitely got the game off on the right foot. Although a multiple world champion, he never enjoyed anything like the same dominance at billiards though.
Boro Nut