A billiard cloth is like a tyre on a car. It gives the grip and precision for your ball to go exactly in the direction you want to.
In cue sports like Snooker, English and Chinese pool, players need extra grip to master the game.
To talk about it, we interviewed Gareth Potts, multiple Chinese and English 8-ball World Champion.
In this second of 6 episodes, Gareth Potts shows how Strachan cloths enable you to achieve advanced shots in Chinese pool.
The grip of the cloth “The grip of the cloth is what all of the players talk about and what they think about. When you're playing Eightball in particular, you're always trying to play little clever cannons, little clever nudges, you're developing balls. This is a huge part of the game. You play this on every single frame that you play. When we talk about grip of the cloth, we talk about the cue ball gripping the nap of the cloth. It grips the nap on the cloth, which all of a sudden grabs the spin of the cue ball and then ultimately sends it in the direction that you're trying to send it in.”
Posted By admin on Saturday, July 19 2025 @ 14:35:13 UTC (55 reads)
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Draw Confirmed For 2025 Florida Open Pool Championship
GORST, VAN BOENING AND STRICKLAND HEADLINE FLORIDA PREMIERE – DRAW CONFIRMED FOR 2025 FLORIDA OPEN POOL CHAMPIONSHIP
The draw has been confirmed for the 2025 Florida Open Pool Championship – the newest Matchroom Major on the World Nineball Tour – taking place from 5–10 August at the stunning Caribe Royale Resort in Orlando, Florida.
The brand-new event will be staged at the same venue that hosted last year’s sold-out Mosconi Cup and features a 256-player field, including the world’s top-ranked professionals. Players will battle it out for a share of the $200,000 prize fund, with the champion set to take home $40,000.
Selected First Round Matches
Fedor Gorst (USA) v Franklin Hernandez (USA)
Shane Van Boening (USA) v Juan Carlos Exposito (ESP)
Aloysius Yapp (SGP) v Brian Brekke (USA)
Francisco Sanchez Ruiz (ESP) v Daniel Ramirez (USA)
Skyler Woodward (USA) v Michael Dunn (USA)
Johann Chua (PHI) v Rick Miller (USA)
Jayson Shaw (GBR) v Eliseo Omar Marin Pinto (PAN)
Eklent Kaçi (ALB) v Bobby Garza (USA)
Carlo Biado (PHI) v Sam Henderson (USA)
Naoyuki Oi (JPN) v Andri Januarta (IDN)
AJ Manas (PHI) v Lance Schofield (USA)
Earl Strickland (USA) v Andy Goldstein (GBR)
The full draw is available at WNT Live Scores, where fans can follow live rack-by-rack scoring throughout the tournament.
Posted By admin on Saturday, July 19 2025 @ 14:26:00 UTC (88 reads)
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It’s Spitzky’s Title In Dramatic Finale
Predator Euro Tour Series
2025 Kamui Slovenian Open
IT’S SPITZKY’S TITLE IN DRAMATIC FINALE
12th July 2025
MARCO SPITZKY IS the KAMUI SLOVENIAN OPEN champion as he defeated Mario He 10-9 in a thrilling climax as he came from 9-5 down to grab victory at the death. Mario had enough chances to win and was bitterly disappointed with his display as he squandered the opportunity to take down his seventh Predator Euro Tour title.
Spitzky who came into the event ranked No.10, is something of a part-time player, working by day with children at a kindergarten, but he showed nerves of steel to hang in there and take advantage of Mario’s errors.
Hailing from Hamburg, Germany, Spitzky’s previous best was a semi-final spot in Austria last year. This time out he got off to the worst possible start in the competition as he was relegated to the losers side at the hands of Ralf Souquet. However, he battled through, and went on to beat Mariusz Sniegocki in the last eight before defeating recent Predator Austrian Open winner, Mieszko Fortunski 10-9 to make his way to the final.
Fedor Gorst is gearing up for glory as he returns to Jeddah to defend his World Pool Championship title at the world’s richest Nineball tournament, set to make history once more in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia for the second consecutive year.
In collaboration with the Saudi Arabian Billiard & Snooker Federation and under the supervision of the Ministry of Sport, the 2025 World Pool Championship will return to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, taking place from 21–26 July at the iconic Green Halls in Jeddah.
Posted By admin on Saturday, July 19 2025 @ 09:08:03 UTC (84 reads)
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Wu Jia-Qing and the Unbreakable Record
Phil Yates
Author
Most sporting cliches, while undoubtedly annoying, are centred in fact. ‘Records are made to be broken’ is a prime example, although when it comes to the World 9-Ball Championship one unprecedented achievement may well last a lifetime.
Twenty years ago this month, Wu Chia-Ching, now known as Wu Jia-Qing, captured the sport’s most prestigious title in Kaohsiung, the largest port in Chinese Taipei. The home-grown champion rallied from 16-12 down to dramatically edge Kuo Po-Cheng 17-16.
Wu was 16.
Absorb that for a moment. Wu was 16.
“It was just phenomenal,” recalls Karl Boyes, who was transfixed watching history unfold on TV back home in the UK. “I remember thinking, ‘This is unbelievable’. I thought the kid was unbelievable.
“At the time I was transitioning from English 8-Ball to a serious tilt at 9-Ball and seeing Wu really inspired me. It was a massive buzz, the shot-making, the way he seemed to take the big shots totally in his stride, the cue-ball control. It was all top notch outstanding.”
“The whole thing astounded me to be honest. What you’ve got to remember, it was a big, packed arena, a whole new experience for the lad and he was up against an opponent good enough to get back to a World 9-Ball Championship final five years later.”
Posted By admin on Saturday, July 19 2025 @ 08:39:21 UTC (87 reads)
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Join Us – WNT Summer Showcase This Monday in London!
Join Us – WNT Summer Showcase This Monday in London!
You're invited to the World Nineball Tour Summer Showcase this Monday, July 14, from 1pm at Spots and Stripes, London SE1 (just 5 minutes from Southwark Tube).
What to expect:
• A preview of the 2025 World Pool Championship – with key insight from Matchroom CEO Emily Frazer, star of the upcoming Matchroom Netflix series
• The LIVE Florida Open draw – see who Andy Goldstein will face in the US
• Special guests including Darren Bent – with media interview opportunities throughout
RSVP to: Jack Mitchell – jack.mitchell@matchroom.com
For two special evenings only, fans will have the exclusive opportunity to meet the greatest player of all time, get his autograph, and take a photo with him – all as part of the most prestigious tournament on the World Nineball Tour.
This rare Meet and Greet is only available to World Pool Championship ticket holders.
Posted By admin on Saturday, July 12 2025 @ 18:16:37 UTC (112 reads)
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2025 World Pool Championship Tickets On Sale Now
2025 WORLD POOL CHAMPIONSHIP TICKETS ON SALE NOW – BE THERE IN JEDDAH, 21–26 JULY
Fans can now secure their seats for the 2025 World Pool Championship in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, as tickets officially go on sale today.
Taking place as part of Jeddah Season from 21–26 July at the iconic Green Halls in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, this year’s event continues to be the biggest in Nineball history – with the world’s top 128 players, a record-breaking $1,000,000 prize fund, and the electrifying atmosphere that made last year’s debut in the Kingdom a global spectacle.
Can’t be there in person? Sign up now at WNT TV to follow the action live wherever you are.
This is your chance to witness reigning champion Fedor Gorst defend the greatest crown in one of the sport’s most prestigious and high-stakes tournaments. Following a sensational 2024 season and ranked World Number One, Gorst leads a field stacked with the best in the game – including former world champions Shane Van Boening, Francisco Sanchez Ruiz, Joshua Filler, Ko Pin Yi, and Carlo Biado, alongside rising stars and 16 regional wild cards from Saudi Arabia and neighbouring nations.
Posted By admin on Friday, July 04 2025 @ 10:32:32 UTC (326 reads)
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GB 9 Ball Tour (GB9) - Event 2 Report
GB9 2025 Event 2
What an event we've had. 75 entries, with plenty of participants from the first event, a load of new faces trying out GB9 for the first time, and a few who have played in GB9 in the past, wanting to see what the new GB9 is about.
The main event was so full of quality with sterling performances throughout the comp, but it was Fraser "the Razor" Patrick who came through after a sustained challenge from Ramesh "Ramma Jamma" Gokhul, winning 11-7.
The Quarter Finalists alone were full of absolute beasts of players, and big names like Benji Buckley, Sunesh Garib, Mark Foster, Matthew Rigley, Phil Wildman, and Imran Majid weren't able to progress to the last 16. The quality on show was exceptional, but Fraser really is playing with huge confidence and rightly so. He was pushed hard by Stephen Ellis, Adrian Pollard, and Carlo Blasi, en route to the final, but he just had too much for all the challengers. Well done to Fraser, in his first ever GB9, and should point out that he's an incredible person to talk to. Zero arrogance, but 100% confident.
PRO9 has established an outstanding reputation as Europes No.1 source for information on American Pool in the UK and Europe.
Upcoming tournament details, prompt match reporting, exclusive images by talented photographers, superb articles by expert pundits, active pool related forums, player profiles and a very sophisticated membership - basically, an incredible information resource for the American style game in Europe.
Since it launched, PRO9 has become compulsory reading, not just for the UKs pool players, but to hundreds and thousands of pool obsessives from around the world every single day.
PRO9s members range from professional pool players, cue-sports enthusiasts, club managers, tournament organisers, pool fans and aficionados, as well as various "movers and shakers" in the cue-sports field, including entrepreneurs in the wholesale and retail sector, as well as magazine editors and television sports promoters.
Growing more and more popular every single year, PRO9 is the best placed vehicle for the promotion of your pool club, billiards brand, associated products, services and opportunities in the truly massive pan-European billiard market.
If you qre reading this, you should check out www.Pro9.co.uk for yourself! Please use these logos and text in your links to www.Pro9.co.uk - thank you.
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