A Few Cue Tips
- A common piece of bad play is to spot in baulk for a halfball
long-range loser into a coiner pocket without first noting
whether the contact will drive the object ball towards
the middle of the table after leaving the top cushion or
towards the side. If the latter, the placing of the cue ball
in baulk should, of course, be wider than half-ball, a little
extra force being employed in the stroke.
- A stroke to know and to understand is the kiss stroke
with the object ball against a cushion. With full contact
the cue ball comes straight back; with half-ball contact it
takes a right angle; and with aim mid-way between edge
and centre it returns half-way between right angle and
straight back. It can be played with confidence and nearly
always comes off, besides generally leaving decent position.
- When a cannon ball or pocket is a little wide of the halfball
angle some players (so-called) invariably force the
stroke. By applying slow running side up the table and
slow check side down the table and aiming fuller than halfball
in the one case and finer in the other the shot can be
made with ease and certainty and good position provided.
- Although half-ball shots are good it is a great mistake to
play half-ball as a matter of course simply because it is on.
Decide first where the object ball is to be directed and then
make contact as required with the necessary strength, and,
if necessary, compensation. This is the invariable rule in
playing losing hazards and players who neglect to do this
can never hope to make real breaks.
- It is an excellent plan, at stated intervals, to revert to
single ball practice, in order to make sure that the aim is
correct, and that the cue ball can be driven accurately towards
a given point on a cushion with and without side.
- There are fixed positions on the table at which accuracy
of aim can be tested with a single ball. These include
along the baulk line and up and down the table over the
spots, as well as diagonal and all-round strokes landing the
ball into a given pocket or to a given point.
- A great advantage of regular single ball practice is that it
begets confidence in a game in this class of stroke, as, for
instance, when balls have to be disturbed in baulk, or cannons
made by first striking a cushion, or a covered ball
reached, or even scored with, when playing at snooker pool.
- And all the time the aim is being improved, because, on the
same table, if kept at an even temperature, the angles are
always the same, and whenever a plain stroke varies in its
results there is positive proof that the fault is in the aim.
- An excellent test stroke, and one also useful in a game,
when the red is over a bottom pocket and the striker's ball
is in hand with the white not nicely playable, is a dead
central aim at the middle spot with the cue ball half way
between two of the baulk spots. This should land the cue
ball in the bottom corner pocket every time, and a slight
variation of the cue ball's position should bring it at will a
little wide of either of the pocket shoulders when the red
happens to be there.