Snooker and Billiards E-Book

Clive Everton

• Herausgeber: Crowood
• Kategorie: Lebensstil
• Sprache: Englisch

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2014

Beschreibung

Crowood Sports Guides are the perfect tool for anyone wanting to improve their performance, from beginners learning the basic skills to more experienced participants working on advanced techniques. In this second edition of Snooker & Billiards - Skills, Tactics Techniques, the history of the game is covered along with the rules of the game; choosing the right equipment and top tips from many of the game's great players. All the skills and techniques are explained clearly with full-colour sequence photography and detailed table diagrams help explain more advanced tactics such as breakbuilding and safety play. Aimed at beginners taking up the game for the first time, false beginners wanting to revise their technique and also more experienced players looking to further develop their tactics. Superbly illustrated with 65 colour images in sequence photography and 108 table diagrams.

Leseprobe

SNOOKER

AND BILLIARDS

Clive Everton

2nd EDITION

THE CROWOOD PRESS

First published in 1991 byThe Crowood Press LtdRamsbury, MarlboroughWiltshire SN8 2HR

This e-book first published in 2014

www.crowood.com

Revised edition 2014

© The Crowood Press Ltd 1991 and 2014

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, recording, or any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers.

British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication DataA catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

ISBN 978 1 84797 793 9

Picture CreditsLine drawings by Compass DesignPhotographs by Eric Whitehead, Mark Stephenson and Tai Chengze

AcknowledgementsThanks to Jim Chambers, a former professional snooker player and a respected coach.

Throughout this book the pronouns ‘he’, ‘him’ and ‘his’ have been used inclusively and are intended to apply to both males and females.

CONTENTS

Preface

Part I: Introduction to the Game

  1    History

  2    The Game and Its Objectives

  3    The Rules of the Game and Their Application

  4    Equipment: The Table and Its Accessories 18

Part 2: Skills and Techniques

  5    The Basics: Grip, Bridge, Sighting

  6    Side, Screw and Stun

  7    The Theory and Practice of Potting

  8    Using the Rest

  9    Correcting Faults, Practice Exercises and Skill-Developing Ideas

Part 3: Breakbuilding and Tactics

10    Breakbuilding

11    Choice of Shot

12    Safety Play

13    Hints on Matchplay

Part 4: Billiards

14    The Rules

15    In-Offs, Pots and Cannons

16    An Introduction to Breakbuilding

17    Other Aids to Breakbuilding

General Glossary

Snooker Glossary

Appendix

Index

PREFACE

If you think that you cannot learn anything from books, then consider Steve Davis, who won six world titles in the eighties.

Steve Davis was perhaps not blessed with as much natural ability as Stephen Hendry, Ronnie O’Sullivan, Judd Trump or Jimmy White, all of whom seem to have been born with a cue in their hand. Instead, he manufactured himself into the great player he became.

In his teens, his bible was a book by Joe Davis, who won every world title on offer from 1927 to 1946. The book is long since out of print and some of its confident coaching assertions, accepted for years, have been superseded, but Steve derived an enormous amount of benefit from it, poring over it as he tried to acquire the technique which is the irreplaceable foundation of performance.

Instructional books have two functions: to tell you something you didn’t know, or to remind you of something you may have forgotten or are no longer putting into practice. You won’t improve simply by reading a book, but you might if you take up on the practice table the material within it. Many have.

Good luck, and keep your chin down.

Clive Everton

About the Author

Clive Everton was five times Welsh amateur billiards champion, five times runner-up in the English Amateur Championship, and twice a World Amateur Championship semi-finalist. His professional career was blighted by back and knee surgery, although he nevertheless reached ninth place in the billiards world rankings. A Welsh amateur snooker international, twice a Welsh Amateur Championship semi-finalist and once an English Amateur Championship semi-finalist, his highest professional snooker ranking was 48th.

Best known as a television commentator, he is the author of numerous books, including A History of Billiards and Black Farce and Cue Ball Wizards, the inside story of the snooker world, which was shortlisted in the British Sports Books of the Year awards. He has been editor of Snooker Scene, the game’s monthly magazine, since 1971.

Judd Trump.

PART 1

INTRODUCTION TO THE GAME

Ronnie 'The Rocket' O'Sullivan, five times world snooker champion.

CHAPTER 1

HISTORY

Billiards was the father of all billiard table games, but before snooker came to be played, there already existed a number of other potting games. ‘Pyramids’ was played with the triangle of fifteen reds (with the apex red on what is now the pink spot) but no colours. It could be played by two or more players with an agreed stake per ball, or simply by two players – the first to pot eight reds being declared the winner.

A number of early pool games, so-called because the players were required to pool their bets in a kitty prior to commencement of play, also lent themselves to a flutter. ‘Black Pool’, for instance, was played, like Pyramids, with fifteen reds but also with the black placed either on the middle spot or on what is now the black spot. This was then known as the billiard spot, i.e. the spot on which the red was placed in billiards. Anyone who potted the black extracted additional winnings from his opponents.