Steve’s big break... with another’s cue

Steve’s big break... with another’s cue Steve’s big break... with another’s cue

SNOOKER players say a cue is their arm made longer.

So when Steve Bond lent a stick from his teammate to play a match in the Knutsford and District Amateur League, he could be forgiven for feeling ill at ease.

“I was a bit nervous before I started,” he admitted.

He need not have been, for more than 100 points later he had contributed to Mobberley A beating an opponent by the biggest margin in the competition’s history. The cue’s owner, Mark Newall, reached three figures in his head-to-head too.

“Bondy didn’t have a cue and had struggled after trying one or two others, so I offered my £50 one that I carry around in a broken box,” he said.

“He shocked us all.

“I’ve never seen him play like that before; he was knocking them in off the chandeliers.”

Snooker great Ray Reardon won all six of his world championship titles with the same cue, believing genuinely that it was the key to his success. Others agree with him, including Mr Bond.

He added: “I’ll be honest with you, I won’t be making it a regular thing.”

Renowned cuemaker John Parrish is working on a replacement for him after his original was damaged en route back to the north west from London following a routine repair. It will not be ready until next month though.

Mr Bond said: “I wasn’t supposed to be playing until my new cue was ready, but had to step in when one of the other guys couldn’t make it.

“It’s ironic, because I expect to play badly for the first six weeks once it arrives. That’s always the way while I get used to how it feels.”

Meanwhile his teammate says he would not need to think twice to make another loan.

“I was relaxed and went to the bar when Steve was at the table,” he said.

Together they have set an unusual record.

“I’m pretty sure a cue hasn’t made two tons in the same match before,” said league secretary Tony Crompton, another to make 100 for Mobberley in the same match.

Comments(12)

Rusty Phil says...
9:43am Fri 28 Sep 12

This Mr Newall seems like a very generous and helpful chap, we definitely need more like him.

However it distressed me to hear about how he is forced to keep his queue in a broken box. Perhaps we should arrange some sort of charity concert to get a suitable replacement made. I'm sure Chas n Dave would come out of retirement specially to perform.

Anal_McAnal says...
10:04am Fri 28 Sep 12

I would have thought that he borrowed a cue but that's why they call me Anal McAnal.

I like snooker but it hasn't been the same since Alain 'The Chin™' Robidoux retired.

To make it more appealing to the masses, perhaps they should go down the US Golf route and have people shouting 'GET IN THE HOLE' as they hit their shots.

Rusty Phil says...
10:08am Fri 28 Sep 12

I am impressed by the dedication of the snooker club in immediately covering the wall behind the two players with pictures of Steve Bond to commemorate the excellent win.

I don't know why Mike Newhall hasn't been similarly honored. Perhaps he should taking that as some sort of hint?

I_Miss_That_Shed says...
11:12am Fri 28 Sep 12

I had a similar thing happen to me, with a game of ten pin bowling.

It was a gent called Ernie McCracken, he bowled a perfect game with a ball I had made out of carbon fibre, and an egg.

Email me, or hit me up on my blog if you'd like an interview. It won't be an exclusive though, the Daily Star did a piece on it when it happened in 1996.

It's nice to see such friendship in the snooks league, when I used to play against Steve Davis, if someone didn't have a cue, the opposite team made them play with a bag of part boiled potatoes.

Anal_McAnal says...
11:15am Fri 28 Sep 12

I'm going to change my sign in name to 'I_have_missed_i_mis
s_that_shed'

Anal_McAnal says...
11:25am Fri 28 Sep 12

All joking aside its fantastic to see that Mike Newall has recovered from his crystal meth addiction to once again take his place at Knutsford snooker's top table.

He fell in with a bad crowd - Homeless Mike and his crew - but his life is now well and truly back on track. What a winner.

Rusty Phil says...
11:29am Fri 28 Sep 12

I can't help but notice that Mr Newhall has one hand much bigger than the other.

Is that legal? I suspect that the crystal meth was only to cover up for the massive steroid abuse to gain an unfair hand size advantage over his opponents

I_Miss_That_Shed says...
11:36am Fri 28 Sep 12

What was the prize money at stake here? I overheard someone in the local Dominoes (which is in Wilmslow?!?!?! Figure that one out!!), say that it was in the region of £18 split between 4.

If a stick has been lent, I think it a good idea to send this to George Osborne, to see if we can get some funds together, so we can get the prize money raised.

Anal_McAnal says...
11:37am Fri 28 Sep 12

Rusty Phil - be careful what you say about Mark 'The Snookatron' Newall's hand. His right hand is prosthetic after he lost it in a tragic XBoxing accident.

When he's playing he replaces it with a screw in snooker bridge that looks similar to the rest. He's almost quite literally a snooker machine.

Rusty Phil says...
11:54am Fri 28 Sep 12

The continuing lack of a Dominos in Knutsford is a national disgrace. If we still had a News of the World they would have been all over this like a rash and it would have been front page news.

Although I'm nearly sure that a story about someone lending someone something would have been on page 11 if you looked hard enough.

Anal_McAnal says...
12:00pm Fri 28 Sep 12

In the interest of balanced journalism, there is a darker side to this story...

Homeless Keith found out that the box used by Newall as a temporary cue case was in fact Keith's favourite bed.

In a rage, he proceeded to break into the victory hall and perform what can only be described as a 'dirty protest' on the middle snooker table.

Rusty Phil says...
1:32pm Fri 28 Sep 12

I'd heard that Mr Newhell was gradually seeking to replace every part of his body with sports equipment. Not because it would give him much of an advantage at anything, it just that he always wanted to be like Steve Austin but doesn't have 6 million dollars

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