Both Ronny Lindemann and Adrie Demming are seasoned 3-cushion players, and there is no need to explain to them that Frédéric Caudron operates on a different level. But still, the day (19 December) belonged not only to the winner of the Hurghada World Cup. The 35-year old German and the 46-year old Dutchman had a share of it, as they matched Caudron’s brilliant performance of 40 points in 11 innings. Continue reading 19 December 2015 was “Forty in eleven-day”→
Hurghada is around the corner, but allow me to take you back to Bordeaux one last time. In terms of average, it was not the greatest world championship ever. Even the final was not of supreme quality. But both the tournament and the deciding match between Dong Koong Kang and Blomdahl were historic, because of the tension. Which was off the charts. Continue reading How many lives does Blomdahl have left?→
Would you consider the world’s best 3-cushion players to be superstars? I would. They don’t make millions, I realize that. But sometimes Lionel Messi does something only Lionel Messi could have thought of, and execute it that instant.
Just like Caudron.
Millions of women can sing. But only Adele sounds like Adele. And only Horn plays like Horn, Merckx like Merckx, Tasdemir like Tasdemir. They make fewer mistakes than we do, but more importantly, they add their personal style, they enrich the game with their uniqueness. Play us a video of two high runs, one by Zanetti and one by Jaspers, without showing us the players. Just the balls. My guess is, we’ll identify the player before he’s made five points. Continue reading That one opponent they can never beat→
We’ve all been there: in a slump. You can’t do anything right, for weeks – or even months – your averages have been well below your standards. You try hard, but the balls seem to have a will of their own. They cling to rails, find awkward spots or cover each other to reduce your options. And what gets under your skin the most, is that you play so horribly unlucky! If there is a 61,7 mm hole, your 61,5 mm ball will creep through it, time and again. “I hit that so well, how can it miss? And how can that happen to me, three innings in a row. What are the odds? The universe is conspiring against me.” Continue reading The noble art of climbing out of a ditch→
Rugby players have it easy. Billiard players are the ones who know what pain is. There’s no team to share the hurt with. We have no coach, no mechanic, no caddy, no doubles partner. There is never any help. If we get it wrong, there are no good excuses, only lots of bad ones.
It can be scary, to walk SO alone. Which is why billiard players look for a crutch. The table is a jungle, and finding your way can wear you down and confuse you. You’re looking for a compass, a navigating device. An arrow to point you in the right direction. Where to aim, how to hit. You know what would be great? If you had a set of instructions you could follow, in every possible position. You need a billiards manual. You need a SYSTEM! Continue reading Don’t do math when you should be playing billiards→
If you and I devoted some time to it, we could easily come up with a list of two dozen things the top players do better than mere mortals. But which are crucial? Where is that difference between 0.6 and 1.6 really made? Is it a matter of improving details across the board, gaining 0.01 here and 0.01 there? Or are there a few big chunks, responsible for tenths at a time? I will make an effort to give you the four major categories in which the 1.6-ers are far ahead of the 0.6-ers. I am pretty sure this isn’t fiction, which is why I want to call it F.A.C.T. Continue reading The long road from 0.6 to 1.6→
Not a lot, actually. In 2014, a Grand Prix was held in Oosterhout, the Netherlands. It was played on van den Berg tables with Simonis rapide cloth. The 32 players in the main tournament – 16 seeded, 16 qualifiers – played a combined average of 1.134. A year later, that same room again hosted a GP, on the same tables, but now they were fitted with Royal Pro 4 cloth. The 32 players averaged 1.135… Continue reading Royal Pro cloth: what does it do to the averages?→
A few months ago, I bought a Molinari cue. It’s the Sung Won Choi model CRMSC1-9, and it’s a beauty. Ever since I did, people have been asking me to write a column about it. A surprising number of people, actually. It’s all very flattering, but those who expressed an interest in my opinion, did not realize that I am not a cue expert at all. Continue reading Will this be my last cue?→
When I first saw Glenn Hofman play in the Dutch league, he was 14 years old. He was never fascinated by the classic disciplines, did not spend much time on the 1.15 x2.30 tables, which are popular in Holland. No, Glenn played 3-cushion on the match table right off the bat. He already had a stroke, but little knowledge about choice of shot. The difference in our averages was then considerable, but I took nothing for granted and played like I would have against anybody, defense and all, and won by a big margin. Continue reading Married, armed and dangerous→
If you just let your eyes wander from nr. 100 to nr. 1, it looks okay. Fairly unknown names in the nineties, familiar names in the sixties, good players in the forties, all the giants of the game in the top 20. But if you actually go over the columns, you’ll see that our current ranking system is built on political compromises. It’s not designed to list players in order of quality. Its main purpose is to keep the federations and the confederations happy. Continue reading The world ranking needs to be fixed. It’s a mess.→
The game is bigger than everyone else! "Torbjorn Blomdahl"
Hurghada is around the corner, but allow me to take you back to Bordeaux one last time. In terms of average, it was not the greatest world championship ever. Even the final was not of supreme quality. But both the tournament and the deciding match between Dong Koong Kang and Blomdahl were historic, because of the tension. Which was off the charts. 
Not a lot, actually. In 2014, a Grand Prix was held in Oosterhout, the Netherlands. It was played on van den Berg tables with Simonis rapide cloth. The 32 players in the main tournament – 16 seeded, 16 qualifiers – played a combined average of 1.134. A year later, that same room again hosted a GP, on the same tables, but now they were fitted with Royal Pro 4 cloth. The 32 players averaged 1.135…