So, Cue & Cushion (my usual hall, link in the sidebar), recovered one of their tables yesterday, but they also turned it into a one-pocket table. This is really annoying. Well, I mean that it’s annoying because the difference is the pocket openings are smaller than “standard” pockets. By about an inch I’d guess. Technically, the pocket is 4.5 inches wide – 2 ball widths – but its really amazing how much smaller they play. Standard pockets, best I can figure are about 5.5 inches? It’s 2 and a half balls wide, these pockets are just 2 balls. Balls are 2.25 inches in diameter, so…
The good thing is if you can get good on that table, most other tables are a breeze. The bad thing is running drills and practices become THAT much more annoying. I wasn’t able to complete a single drill with any relative flow. Having to shoot the same shot 5-9 times and still not getting position is really quite frustrating.
As far as playing on new cloth goes, I’m not entirely sure I noticed *that* much of a difference – outside of the color and lack of chalk on my hands.
I’m sure I’ll play on it again, but man it’s annoying. In the end, I had to revert back to how I play on a snooker table – very very softly. A snooker table’s pockets are a mere 1.25 balls wide, so there ZERO room for error there.