Should there be a clean table and balls in league play?

[JoeW]

What is appropriate for a visiting team in league play when the table and the balls are dirty?

1. Ask if its OK to clean the table and balls before the matches begin?

2. Offer to play with the new set of Aramith's that I brought with me? (Assumes using their CB if it is a coin operated table that requires quarters).

3. Just play on their dirty table.

What to do if they refuse to clean the equipment. That is they prefer to play on dirty equipment?


Played in the league last night and found the table and the balls were really dirty. Our team plays at home on a 7 foot Diamond with Simonis. We seemed to lose more than we should have because of OB throw on an old Valley table with heavy cloth and dirty balls. It is almost to the point where I do not even want to play on such poor equipment. Suggestions would be appreciated.

 

[Snapshot9]

Joe

The League Operator should be contacted and log your complaint with him/her. A good league Operator requires room/bar owners to have clean
well maintained equipment to be able to participate in his/her league.

We have had bars get thrown out of leagues here because they didn't maintain their equipment right for league play.

 

[Gregg]

What is appropriate for a visiting team in league play when the table and the balls are dirty?

1. Ask if its OK to clean the table and balls before the matches begin?

2. Offer to play with the new set of Aramith's that I brought with me? (Assumes using their CB if it is a coin operated table that requires quarters).

3. Just play on their dirty table.

What to do if they refuse to clean the equipment. That is they prefer to play on dirty equipment?


Played in the league last night and found the table and the balls were really dirty. Our team plays at home on a 7 foot Diamond with Simonis. We seemed to lose more than we should have because of OB throw on an old Valley table with heavy cloth and dirty balls. It is almost to the point where I do not even want to play on such poor equipment. Suggestions would be appreciated.

From my experience, home team decides the playing conditions. They can accept or decline your ball set or what have you.

I've seen where on an open table where we had three red circle balls, the team captain from the opposing team wanted to play with a 2 3/8" mud tavern ball, and we couldn't do a thing about it.

 

[CaptainHook]

What is appropriate for a visiting team in league play when the table and the balls are dirty?

1. Ask if its OK to clean the table and balls before the matches begin?

2. Offer to play with the new set of Aramith's that I brought with me? (Assumes using their CB if it is a coin operated table that requires quarters).

3. Just play on their dirty table.

What to do if they refuse to clean the equipment. That is they prefer to play on dirty equipment?


Played in the league last night and found the table and the balls were really dirty. Our team plays at home on a 7 foot Diamond with Simonis. We seemed to lose more than we should have because of OB throw on an old Valley table with heavy cloth and dirty balls. It is almost to the point where I do not even want to play on such poor equipment. Suggestions would be appreciated.

At the Flamingo the tables are recovered and leveled once a year with Simonis, usually in the late spring.

The ball's are cleaned a couple times a month.

Anyone who would like to clean them before a match are welcome to.

The tables are cleaned everyday just before noon.

They always have Silver cup hand powder and new cubes of master chalk available, along with some pretty good house cues for those without a cue.

They also store your cue for you at no charge in a locked room if you want them to.

A few of the old timers have cue lockers, the waiting list for one of those is like 20 years.

 

[bigskyjake]

From my experience, home team decides the playing conditions. They can accept or decline your ball set or what have you.

I've seen where on an open table where we had three red circle balls, the team captain from the opposing team wanted to play with a 2 3/8" mud tavern ball, and we couldn't do a thing about it.

call me crazier than a shithouse rat but I like playing with the lead cueball

 

[42NateBaller]

My experience is similar to Gregg's. However, I will take it upon myself to clean and level the table before play (as long as they have a brush).

Once, I took a bar towel and cleaned a table an hour before a match. That table was truly nasty.

 

[StormHotRod300]

It's stuff like this that made me glad I dont play leagues anymore!


When I did play APA leagues, I did a travelling league, and a couple of the locations I had to goto were so SHITTY! It was about as much fun as getting sucked off by a shark.

The first place, had old Valley's with shag carpet, and old dirty billiard balls. Every rail was dead. And no matter how hard you broke, the likely hood of making a ball on the break was nill. After about two weeks, I noticed, most of the 5's and 6's were softbreaking. And to top it off, lol the super 7's that I knew refused to play outside of thier home site, which had all Diamond's.

The next place, was actually worse! off level tables, with holes in the felt, and even worse billiard balls if that was even possible.

I mean, it should be manditory that any place holding a league nite, should have equipment that is upto standards and CLEAN billiard ball sets.

 

[3kushn]

I'm afraid you'll just have to put up with it. If you use your clean ball the'll be dirty and scratched in no time. Too bad so few know what a joy it is to play on clean equipment and so few owners realize the cost savings in cloth purchases they can see if they take care of their equipment.

I always carry (or used to) my own set of carom balls but now with the tables I have to play on it takes too long to clean them up so I just use house balls and put up with it. I'm so sad.

 

[mattman]

I feel your pain, but I don't think you can do much about it. I have often considered taking my ball cleaner to my home bar, but not the visited bars. We even have a bar here that, in some areas, you either have to move a sitting table back and forth so that you are not standing right up on the table with your stick jacked up in the air. The first time I played there, I thought serious about calling the LO and asking him to banned this bar from league until they fixed the problem. Honestly, I don't think anything would have been done about it though.

Last night I was playing a saftey on a guy and had to slow-roll a ball in order to do so. It was looking real good until the ball started to travel across the groves worn out in the area the balls are racked in. I ended up losing that match because of it.....and yes, I was pissed.

 

[JimS]

What is appropriate for a visiting team in league play when the table and the balls are dirty?

1. Ask if its OK to clean the table and balls before the matches begin?

2. Offer to play with the new set of Aramith's that I brought with me? (Assumes using their CB if it is a coin operated table that requires quarters).

3. Just play on their dirty table.

What to do if they refuse to clean the equipment. That is they prefer to play on dirty equipment?


Played in the league last night and found the table and the balls were really dirty. Our team plays at home on a 7 foot Diamond with Simonis. We seemed to lose more than we should have because of OB throw on an old Valley table with heavy cloth and dirty balls. It is almost to the point where I do not even want to play on such poor equipment. Suggestions would be appreciated.

That's one of the reasons that I gave up on league... just one of many. League is NOT pool as I want pool to be. It's far, far from what I want pool to be and I just won't do it.

 

[Strokerz]

I agree 100% with all the league pool gripes as a player but as a room manager I want and value the business. I do my best to make our playing conditions as close to perfect as possible. Most places here in our town have the 7ft valleys we have 2 of them. I recovered the one we play our league matches on with mercury ultra. I polish the balls every week before a match and make sure the table is level and the cloth is clean. It would drive me nuts to play in my own house on bad equipment not to mention make me look bad as hell. But then at our away matches we gotta play on junk and that drives me nuts too. I have offered to spruce up the playing conditions and give the bar owners big discounts on work I do but they usually say " those aint my tables, let the vendor do it" So..... thats why I like in house leagues

 

[pwd72s]

What is appropriate for a visiting team in league play when the table and the balls are dirty?

1. Ask if its OK to clean the table and balls before the matches begin?

2. Offer to play with the new set of Aramith's that I brought with me? (Assumes using their CB if it is a coin operated table that requires quarters).

3. Just play on their dirty table.

What to do if they refuse to clean the equipment. That is they prefer to play on dirty equipment?


Played in the league last night and found the table and the balls were really dirty. Our team plays at home on a 7 foot Diamond with Simonis. We seemed to lose more than we should have because of OB throw on an old Valley table with heavy cloth and dirty balls. It is almost to the point where I do not even want to play on such poor equipment. Suggestions would be appreciated.

What should be and what is are all too often two different things...

 

[ez2h8]

I feel your pain, but I don't think you can do much about it. I have often considered taking my ball cleaner to my home bar, but not the visited bars. We even have a bar here that, in some areas, you either have to move a sitting table back and forth so that you are not standing right up on the table with your stick jacked up in the air. The first time I played there, I thought serious about calling the LO and asking him to banned this bar from league until they fixed the problem. Honestly, I don't think anything would have been done about it though.

Last night I was playing a saftey on a guy and had to slow-roll a ball in order to do so. It was looking real good until the ball started to travel across the groves worn out in the area the balls are racked in. I ended up losing that match because of it.....and yes, I was pissed.

I would have to agree and have had both of these events happen to me as well. And yup, I was pissed too. The leagues I played in, there was no swapping of balls even if it was meant out of respect. We even had 1, 1 darn bar that would use the really large CB just because they could. They knew every other bar used the regular size CB and since they were comfy with the larger size, they felt it was a huge advantage. It irked every team and the LO would still not do anything about it. True I found, it's up to the bar owners and how their home teams feel the tables should play. Some teams request nice equipment to play on since they are a home team bringing in business. Usually what I saw done out of respect is the home team would clean the table, clear the area around the table of any obstructions and provide fresh chalk for league nights. Others just don't care. Never saw/heard of a bar getting banned for bad equipment. Heck, one league I was in would have had no bars if that happened.

ez