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Re: Snooker Island Grand Prix

Postby Dan-cat

Running side wrote:Need motivation,find it though to score against players who just hit and hope.Has mentioned in previous post mate improvement in last month has upped my concentration levels knowing he"s capable of frame winning breaks with 40-50 left on.


I hear you, playing better players raises my game too, but surely you can find the motivation and focus from winning this comp.

Re: Snooker Island Grand Prix

Postby chengdufan

Running side wrote:Love reading match reports,can we have more please.

Seconded

Re: Snooker Island Grand Prix

Postby rekoons

This is what’s puzzling me lately: set up a dead straight shot with white on the brown spot (or just behind so it’s not in the spot dimple), and a red on the pink spot (or just behind).
Now just play to hit the pink full on, if hit straight it should bounce back of the cushion and career into the white.

Whenever I try that I manage to get the second hit about half the time, 95% of these I hit the pink slightly to the right meaning it veers of slightly to the left and white to the right, meaning that when they collide, they collide edge on (half ball and less), instead of full in the face.
Now, if there were a pocket in the cushion the deviation would probably be so that about 50% of these would go in of the left jaw.
Meaning about 25% of these straight pots I would get. or less.

The other half I don’t get the second hit because I hit the pink too much on the right so they cross eachother instead of a second hit.

For short and mid range I seem to get away with this deviation, but this is really holding back my long game.

The surprising thing is that if I now take away the pink and just hit ‘down the spots’ the white bounces back and hits my cue tip about 50% of the time. (much, much better than say 6 months ago)
I was happy with this but couldn’t understand why my long potting didn’t improve. It was when I put a chalk on the rail behind the black I saw to my astonishment that I always hit the cushion a bit to the right of the centre of the chalk (somewhere between the middle and the edge of the chalk generally) BUT even then the white mostly comes back and lands straight on my cue tip.

So all the time I was thinking I must be cueing sweet and straight because White hits the tip on it’s way back, it turned out I still put some unintended left side on, hitting the cushion a bit on the right, and then the white bounces back, squares up and touches the tip. I could never have noticed that without the chalk on the rail.

The logical explanation would be the left hand side steering the white back to the left after the cushion, but even my low speed shots sometimes show this phenomenon and I don’t believe any left side would ‘survive’ the nearly 4 meters to the black cushion to send it back straight? :banghead:

Re: Snooker Island Grand Prix

Postby Running side

rekoons wrote:
acesinc wrote:If you truly want to become at least a six ball player, the big problem is that you will appear to get much, much worse for quite a long time, before you finally start to get better. There is a definite reason for that. Very good players know that the best chance of success comes when you play the stroke at the lowest possible speed required to move the White where it needs to go to land properly on the next stroke. When a very good player is in the groove, he is gently nudging balls around and they barely have enough speed to just reach the pocket. You have seen the pros do this a million times. As BadSnookerPlayer says, "It's a game of eggshells." So to become a better player, you must begin learning how to do this. The problem is that when you start trying to learn how to do this, you will miss the pot. Often. And of course, that means your opponent swoops in and takes points away from you and your confidence becomes even more rattled. And you lose more and more frames to a less and less worthy opponent because you are just handing him so many points on a silver platter.


That is so very true, sometimes when I’m playing and feeling good this is exactly how you describe it, just rolling them in, not any bit of anxiety, just total trust in the cue action, delivery and peace of mind with outcome of the shot, be it pot or miss, as long as I feel the delivery was pure. Those rare fleeting moments when the balls actually obey and do what I have in mind. <laugh>

I’m still stuck in my technique changing limbo, searching for a straighter delivery. :sad: I did notice that, in my case, there’s a directly proportional relationship between how straight I cue and how loose I ‘grip’ the cue. It’s really more just carrying the cue, letting it rest in your fingers, and especially keep the ‘grip’ ‘strength’ absolutely the same throughout each shot, be it soft, hard, short, long, top, screw,… it’s amazing how much spin you can create by just hitting the white with only the cue, instead of your hand tightening on the cue.

Sadly over the years I learned how to somewhat control the white with my tenser grip, meaning I now have to learn to almost let go of the cue while hitting the white. the positional aspect of my game took a nose dive at first while learning to hit softer because the reaction of the white is more ‘pure’ not what it was before… feel like I’m slowly getting better though…

I had to play quite a few of soft rolls in, and when they do it feels so much better than punching them in, it’s like delayed satisfaction watching them slowly fall in the pocket. :evilgrin:

Great insight in your post,had similar issues with grip tension sorted now but took a while,got advised to try a more plain ball striking instead of every shot with side,certainly improved thin cuts and return to balk shots but needs discipline and practice.

Re: Snooker Island Grand Prix

Postby rekoons

Well I got handed a 4-1 spanking yesterday.

Played a mate who I consider better than me in every aspect. Potting wise we’re on par maybe, but he’s the kind of player who can tie you up in knots within a couple of safeties, each one a little tighter than the previous, until you break, clip a red bit too thick or make an error and leave him with a chance. Chances he creates for himself so fair play, a huge asset on our level. He’s also fluent, quick thinking and surprises me time and again with his safety lines, sometimes creative, sometimes really simplistic but effective, he seems to read the table quickly and knows how to manouvre the white around to a safe spot much better than I can. He’s not bad at carom either. I’ve always found he looks like what a ‘natural talented player’ would be, just gets down and plays the shot, no textbook technique, but doesn’t matter, also very rarely strikes the ball with more power than needed, which is good. Just a pity he only really likes snooker, but doesn’t have the motivation or drive to practice to improve, otherwise he could be a lot better I think.

All relatively speaking on our standard of play offcourse but when he has a good day and can couple his scoring to his tactical game it feels like you're playing Selby! :dizzy:
I love competing with him though because we seem to raise both our games whenever we play. When I have a good day as well we’ve had some very pleasant matches with not too many balls missed, comebacks and plot twists!

Can’t really be disappointed with the way I played yesterday, could’ve done more with a few chances but can only remember one silly missed pot… again a black of the spot with little pressure on it. :shc:
My long game however was very poor. Scoreline 4-1 is a bit harsh maybe, but he definitively was the better player.

I'll send the breaks to Chengdu for my third game.

Re: Snooker Island Grand Prix

Postby chengdufan

chengdufan wrote:Just a reminder that once group B is complete, the top 2 will join Running Side and Pink Ball in the final, which will be another group similar to the first stage.

Rekoons sent me his matchday 2 scores last night.

Still waiting for matchday 2 scores from Prop, and matchday 3 scores from all players in the group. I'm hoping to get my game in this weekend.

Scores in for 2 matches from Rekoons.
My scores are in.
Waiting for 2 sets of scores from Prop, and 1 set of scores from Badsnookerplayer.

Re: Snooker Island Grand Prix

Postby chengdufan

rekoons wrote:Hi Chengdu,

Here are my 3 frame breaks from yesterday:

12
6
19

Love your competition! :hatoff:


Badsnookerplayer wrote:Sorry for delay CDF.

Been unwell and not played

Played today and went 34 , 19 , 30

Thank you

Re: Snooker Island Grand Prix

Postby chengdufan

Group B current standings

1. Badsnookerplayer Played 3 -- 15 pts
2. Rekoons Played 2 -- 6 pts
3. Chengdufan Played 2 -- 3 pts
4. PropPlayed 1 -- 0 pts

Re: Snooker Island Grand Prix

Postby chengdufan

So we're just waiting for two sets of results from Prop now to see who joins Running Side, Pink Ball and Badsnookerplayer in the Final.

Any of Rekoons, myself or Prop could make it through, depending on how Prop plays :-)

Re: Snooker Island Grand Prix

Postby Prop

chengdufan wrote:So we're just waiting for two sets of results from Prop now to see who joins Running Side, Pink Ball and Badsnookerplayer in the Final.

Any of Rekoons, myself or Prop could make it through, depending on how Prop plays :-)


I’ll try my best. Still struggling to get a game at the minute.

Re: Snooker Island Grand Prix

Postby RunningSide

WHAT have I done. Played mate last Friday, he beat me 9_0,no probs he played fantastic, 4 50+ breaks and solid safety. Feeling I need 20 to give him a game, guy walks across starts telling mate to sign up to play for team. Turns to me and says I'll give you £150 for cue and case one off take it or leave it. Put out hand and £150 dropped in,mate tried his best to change my mind,but to late deal done.Been eying up sweeping brush with a 30 mm tip.

Re: Snooker Island Grand Prix

Postby RunningSide

Played 3 frames with brush,not bad considering,advised to take head off for more balance,and it fits in old case better.

Re: Snooker Island Grand Prix

Postby chengdufan

chengdufan wrote:Group B current standings

1. Badsnookerplayer Played 3 -- 15 pts
2. Rekoons Played 2 -- 6 pts
3. Chengdufan Played 2 -- 3 pts
4. PropPlayed 1 -- 0 pts

I've had a chat with Prop on private message. He isn't able to get a game in at the moment unfortunately and so is withdrawing from the competition. It's good news for Rekoons who progresses to the final group.

Re: Snooker Island Grand Prix

Postby chengdufan

Final group matchups:

1
Running Side v Rekoons
Badsnookerplayer v Pink Ball

2
Running Side v Pink Ball
Badsnookerplayer v Rekoons

3
Running Side v Badsnookerplayer
Pink Ball v Rekoons

Re: Snooker Island Grand Prix

Postby chengdufan

Runners' scores are in for his match with backwards snooker

Re: Snooker Island Grand Prix

Postby RunningSide

Played yesterday, first time without old cue.Dug out 50 year old Riley first cue,4 inches shorter than Grandmaster ,slightly bent, played with tip that's been on for at least 25 years and played OK.crazy game.

Re: Snooker Island Grand Prix

Postby chengdufan

RunningSide wrote:Played today, f1 16.f2 24.f3 20.


rekoons wrote:Hi chengdu, here are my breaks:

20
13
18

Nothing to report apart from I did not miss simple blacks off the spot this time!


Running Side 2-1 Rekoons
16-20
24-13
20-18

Re: Snooker Island Grand Prix

Postby chengdufan

Congratulations to Running Side for picking up the win after falling behind after frame 1 :-)

A good recovery!

Commiserations to Rekoons who was a ball or two away from winning the match in the third frame.

Re: Snooker Island Grand Prix

Postby RunningSide

I got very lucky, played with my first cue ,way to small,couldn't pot anything more than 6foot away. Surprisingly in around black and pink very confident. Mate had bit of a mare in nominated frames breaking reds before missing when in good position. Not expecting to fall lucky next time, mate won next 6 frames easily, I'm seriously struggling with this cue,I'm only playing on half the table.

Re: Snooker Island Grand Prix

Postby chengdufan

When do you think you'll get your game in BadSnookerPlayer?

Re: Snooker Island Grand Prix

Postby chengdufan

Badsnookerplayer wrote:
chengdufan wrote:When do you think you'll get your game in BadSnookerPlayer?

Playing today.

Had to skip sessions as building work at snooker hall

Good stuff.

Don't keep us in suspenders!

Re: Snooker Island Grand Prix

Postby chengdufan

Pink Ball wrote:32, 21, 28


Badsnookerplayer wrote:21,45,22


Pink Ball 2-1 Badsnookerplayer
32-21
21-45
28-22

Great match!

Re: Snooker Island Grand Prix

Postby chengdufan

Table after first group game:

1. Pink Ball
2. Running Side
3. Badsnookerplayer
4. Rekoons

Next matches:
Running Side v Pink Ball
Badsnookerplayer v Rekoons