How "official" snooker pockets are checked

[Bob Jewett]

As with pool pockets, the sizes and shapes of snooker pockets have been a serious concern to players and officials for a long time. Some claimed records have been denied because the table did not match the specs.

Since snooker pockets are curved, it is much harder to specify them with a few numbers. The solution is to use 3D templates (shaped blocks) to check the shapes of all the pockets used in official competitions. Here is a video showing part of the procedure:

 

[bbb]

Very interesting bob
thanks for the link

 

[garczar]

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[garczar]

Some more on snooker pockets:

 

[MitchAlsup]

Why don't the "power that be" have such templated for pool tables ?
And have tournements mandate their use when setting up tables ?

 

[pt109]

Why don't the "power that be" have such templated for pool tables ?
And have tournements mandate their use when setting up tables ?

I suggested that to RKC and Greg Sullivan....templates
4.5 inch corners and 4.75 sides...no deep shelves.
The one pocket players can improvise.

 

[straightline]

I have only the one thing to say about snooker pockets so I'll keep saying it. Back cut the jaws till there are none. Bring the aperture to the minimum required for a ball going down the rail to pass. Now you have a playable pocket. Do same with pool tables. Ok that's three or four things but that's it.

 

[sjm]

Very interesting video. Thanks for sharing. Adherence to rigorous methods of equipment standardization has a lot of priority in snooker, and almost none in pool.

 

[jviss]

@Bob Jewett Thank you! I love that snooker has a standard, and enforces it. I wish pool were thus. Then people could compare their performance to anyone, anywhere, and amateurs could play on the same "court" as pros.

Somewhere, in one of the Brunswick Gold Crown manuals, I recall seeing a gauge being used on the pockets during installation, but now I can't find it. Any help is most welcome. I'd like to make such a set of gauges for when I re-set up my table, so at least it's consistent all the way around.

 

[Bob Jewett]

@Bob Jewett Thank you! I love that snooker has a standard, and enforces it. I wish pool were thus. Then people could compare their performance to anyone, anywhere, and amateurs could play on the same "court" as pros.

Somewhere, in one of the Brunswick Gold Crown manuals, I recall seeing a gauge being used on the pockets during installation, but now I can't find it. Any help is most welcome. I'd like to make such a set of gauges for when I re-set up my table, so at least it's consistent all the way around.

Pool is simpler because all the specs are angles and planes and lines with no round stuff. There is enough info in the WPA equipment spec to make a template. The specs have a range so you will have to pick some values perhaps in the middle of the ranges.

 

[garczar]

Pool is simpler because all the specs are angles and planes and lines with no round stuff. There is enough info in the WPA equipment spec to make a template. The specs have a range so you will have to pick some values perhaps in the middle of the ranges.

To me that's one of pool's great things: EVERY table is different and you gotta figure it out or get your ass beat. I think the ProCut Diamond 9ft tables(blue label of course) are the nuts myself.

 

[sjm]

To me that's one of pool's great things: EVERY table is different and you gotta figure it out or get your ass beat.

Agreed 100%. The nuances found from table to table make the game more interesting, and figuring it out is not only part of your responsibility but part of the fun.

If you say of a player that "their game travels well," you are likely referring to someone who can adapt their game to any table and you have paid them a compliment.

 

[jviss]

Pool is simpler because all the specs are angles and planes and lines with no round stuff. There is enough info in the WPA equipment spec to make a template. The specs have a range so you will have to pick some values perhaps in the middle of the ranges.

I'd like to make a gauge as a template for "original" Gold Crown I pockets.

 

[Bob Jewett]

I'd like to make a gauge as a template for "original" Gold Crown I pockets.

You should probably ask in the mechanics forum, but I believe pocket size was an ordering option. That may have meant that the angles were different.

 

[jviss]

You should probably ask in the mechanics forum, but I believe pocket size was an ordering option. That may have meant that the angles were different.

Interesting. I've never before heard that there might have been ordering options for GC tables.

My pocket angles vary, which I hope to correct when I recover and do a little refurbishment. I think it's both the difficulty of measuring angles precisely with a metal protractor on a cloth-covered rubber thing, and that I suspect the facings may have been replaced, and maybe not so skillfully. But, I would be shooting for 142/104. Mine average 143 and 106 right now, as far as I can accurately measure them.