Section 1
The physical object the sport is built around — slate, cloth, balls, cue timber, chalk — and the supply contracts that put it on television.
6 pieces · SlateClothBalls & Cues
What a full-size tournament table actually is: twelve feet by six, a slate bed arriving in three pieces, levelled to within a fingernail's width across its whole length.
The two cloth manufacturers whose names appear in every tournament specification, and what the difference between them is in practice.
Saluc's Aramith balls have held the tournament contract for decades; this piece explains what phenolic resin does that polyester does not, what the tolerance spec is for a set used in a world final,…
A comparison of the three manufacturers whose tables appear at WST ranking events, mapping which brand appears at which tournament and what the supply arrangements mean for table consistency across…
The argument between ash-spliced and maple-shafted cues, covered as a documented preference among tour players rather than a verdict — who uses what, when the shift from ash began, and what tip…
How a Finnish chalk formulation reached the professional tour, why its reduced scatter on the cloth mattered to tournament referees, and which players adopted it first.