A friend of mine just bought a set of antique billiard-type balls at a junk sale: there are three balls in the set; one is yellow with a single black spot, one is red, one is very dark brown. The odd thing is that they are different sizes: yellow smallest, brown largest. The difference in sizes is not great, however. The brown ball is slightly smaller than a standard billiards/snooker ball.
My first reaction was that they didn't actually belong together, but they came in a case (1920s style) with a moulded base with cutouts the exact size for each ball, so they must have been put together intentionally.
"Patrick Johnson" <patrick.johnson@comcast.net> wrote in message news:S8adnaZd9dMo_NjfRVn-uA@comcast.com...> James Doyle wrote:> > ... The brown ball is slightly smaller than a standard> > billiards/snooker ball.>
"James Doyle" <actaeon@republicofheaven.org.uk> wrote in message news:%Z91e.437$F51.242@newsfe5-gui.ntli.net...> Hi>
A friend of mine just bought a set of antique billiard-type balls at a
junk> sale: there are three balls in the set; one is yellow with a single black> spot, one is red, one is very dark brown. The odd thing is that they are> different sizes: yellow smallest, brown largest. The difference in sizes
not great, however. The brown ball is slightly smaller than a standard> billiards/snooker ball.>
My first reaction was that they didn't actually belong together, but they> came in a case (1920s style) with a moulded base with cutouts the exact
size> for each ball, so they must have been put together intentionally.>
Any ideas?
a few - all billiard/pool/snooker games I know about use the same sized balls for each specific game
over the years there have been many cuesports that use various sizes, also pastimes like bumper-pool, bagatelle, etc. additionally, considering things like junior tables, convertible library tables, and such, there have been many sizes of balls supplied with game tables
most likely your friend bought not a 'set', but rather a 'mixed bag' of balls
some reasonable conjectures - based on the idea these are three balls that wound up together out of happenstance, not an original set
1. they are three random balls of various indeterminate origin
2. they could have had varying amounts of wear due to varying time in-play if they are ivory, you did say antique, ivory balls were re-trued occasionally, a process that resulted in a slight reduction of diameter
3. the brown ball could have originally been red and darkened with age though, more likely was a cheap place-keeper ball <anybody else remember the "break" cue balls of the old days?>
On Sat, 26 Mar 2005 17:19:14 GMT, "ottomatic" <spamout@nospam.net> wrote:
My first reaction was that they didn't actually belong together, but they>> came in a case (1920s style) with a moulded base with cutouts the exact>size for each ball, so they must have been put together intentionally.
some reasonable conjectures - based on the idea these are three balls that>wound up together out of happenstance, not an original set....
But those conjectures -- and that idea -- are not reasonable unless you have an explanation for his above description of the moulded base.
-- Larry
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