Top pro beating people with a broomstick?

Gregg

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
Has anybody actually witnessed a pro beating someone with a broomstick, and then sweeping the place clean afterwords?

I hear people talking about it all the time, but have never heard any first person accounts.
 
Hey Mike Templeton, did you ever see Red do this? Red & Bob used to tell me stories about Red playing with a broom stick & Bob playing one handed. I've seen Bob play one handed but I never actually saw Red play with the broom stick... did you ever see it?
 
Heck I have beat people with both a broom stick and a mop handle but I'll be darned if I was going on the cleaning crew afterward...LOL

Its actually a pretty easy trick against weak players using center ball only.
 
Never heard of anyone actually doing that but a local bar once a month used to have a Sunday afternoon broomstick tourney. It was lots of fun.
 
It is surprisingly easy to break with a broomstick or other wooden handle. With no english on the cueball all you have to do is hit the rack square and let the cueball roll back to center. You can also jump with a broomstick and even spin the ball just a little bit (very little bit). I made a nice score with a deck brush handle about ten years ago.
 
In Houston ...

Back in 71-72 in Houston at the Golden Cue downtown, I watched a guy
play 1 Pocket with a broom handle for $100 a game. That was the spot he
was giving to the other player.

That's when Boston Shorty, Jersey Red, and The Taylor Brothers hung out
there.
 
LOL.

I was trying to be funny in a facetious way, but am now reading some really good stories I didn't think I was going to hear. This is great!
 
Broom Stick

Bob Ramano and I played a couple years ago using banister railings some ten foot tall poles we learned how to jump with them and started running tables Bob more than me....I had a crooked pole lol. It's not that bad just got to play the correct angle. I have been using a broom handle for years I even played with a drinking straw once before. I never won like that but, I did jaw the nine off a carom shot so it is possible.
 
cole dickson broom handle

Gregg said:
Has anybody actually witnessed a pro beating someone with a broomstick, and then sweeping the place clean afterwords?

I hear people talking about it all the time, but have never heard any first person accounts.

This has been done, but i think is more of one of those old pool saying's.

This is out of rags to rifleman:

" Cole Dickson saw a tournament spectator practicing. He was playing pool using only the shaft of his cue stick. Cole announced, "if you want to gamble, and play that way, I'll unscrew the handle of of the janitors push broom and play with that." THey played 9-ball for $200 a game that way. Cole won 3,000 shooting witha a broom handle."

Mack
 
I was in a bar in the UK and my friend played a challenger with a chair. He picked up this wooden chair and played his shots using one of the chair legs.

It was very funny to say the least he almost won, but rattled the final shot, out of good sportmanship the guy he was playing gave him the money anyway....lol.

He actually ran 4 balls in one visit...
 
When I was living in El Paso, TX I saw an older gentleman (around 70 or so) beat an up and coming female player with a broomstick playing 8-ball on an 8 footer.

Funniest jawing back and forth I have ever seen.

I thought that girl was going to cry for a week after she lost.
 
If you scrape the end of the broom stick on concrete or something, you can actually chalk the end of it. And you can draw/stop your ball and run balls. On a bar table, a good player could easily run out with a broom stick.

I watched my buddy Lil Ricky Van Uum give Billy Incardona 9-5 (or 10-5) playing one pocket and Billy had to use a jump cue. If memory serves me correctly, they broke even. At the time, Ricky & Billy would've played even one pocket if they both used a regular cue.
 
Gregg said:
Has anybody actually witnessed a pro beating someone with a broomstick, and then sweeping the place clean afterwords?

I hear people talking about it all the time, but have never heard any first person accounts.

My father was a great pool player in his youth. He used a broom and would beat people just to make a point. They would complain they couldnt make a ball with their cue so it must be defective. After getting beat by the broom they would shut up. Never did any sweeping afterwards. My brother plays people with a broom occasionally , but hes a better player than I am. I can barely beat people with an expensive cue, lol.

Nick Varner has been coming into our room for years. I know one year (about 12-15 years ago?) he spotted anyone the 6 using his cue or would play even and he used our broom handle. I think he only played a couple games with the broom, but he made his point. Nick Varner has always been great for the sport. Great player, great sportsman, great entertainer.
 
I've played and won some games playing with the mechanical bridge. Using the plastic end which was rounded. It's tricky to send the CB in a straight line. My opponents were beginners.
 
drinking straw witnessed

One of my best friends watched a top player run racks and beat some good players with a drinking straw wrapped over his thumb. He said it was red and swollen afterward, but the guy won a chunk that way that night.
 
The Whale wasn't a great player...but played every game imaginable...

And here's an opportunity to quote from my story WONDERBOYS...p. 91...

"And the dreaded broomstick. The Whale unscrewed the handle from a push broom and sanded the tip as best he could to avoid a miscue, and wielded it with terrible justice. You had to lose a few dollars to the Whale to appreciate how much fun it was. I couldn't get the Whale to play me much, but he never refused me a broomstick match.
I spotted him the five and seven balls, and he kicked my butt most every time. I gave him the five when he used a cue, so I figured I could give up another ball with him like that, and I took the bait, hook, line, and sinker. The Whale, when using his broomstick, took his time, playing solid defensive pool, knowing his broomstick limits, concentrating on a solid hit, center ball every time, play the angle. The Whale became a pool player when he used his broomstick, which he chalked up and treated like a thousand dollar cue until he screwed it back into the brush handle. I noted that the Whale was probably the only real witch in Salem to ride a broomstick - all the way to the bank."
 
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