Archive for General

Welcoming in 2012

First up I hope that everyone enjoyed their New Years celebrations, whether it was spent with family, friends, loved one’s or strangers I sincerely hope that you welcomed in the New Year in a positive way and that the handover is not too big!

2011 was a good year for Cuesport TV in many ways but by the same token there were a number of things that I felt needed improvement or a complete overhaul. I am going to try and look at the best and worst of what we achieved in the year in this post.

One of the biggest positives was the move to our new home, the new Cuesport TV ended up being delayed but I am happy with the look that the developers have managed to build. One of the other positives from a financial aspect was also the building of the live event pay-per-view system. I like the fact that is it easy to use but there are still some improvements that can and will be made.

I have also been pleased with the level of service we have managed to provide on the majority of our live events, those that have had problems have had it resolved or had a refund. At the same time the quality of the production has also been good with multi-camera shoots, live scoring and commentary at all events across the year.

Away from the actual video side of things I am also pleased with the Facebook page that we have for Cuesport TV now with over 2500 ‘members’ that comment and post quite regularly, this is something that I want to really develop in 2012 as it is a great way of getting awareness for our content. (Have to put a small note in for Twitter here as well, the other social network that I use frequently has also provided us with some very good interaction and love it or hate it it is here to stay.)

What can be improved?

Rather than go in depth I am simply going to write a list below, if you can think of anything else that we can do to improve then please post it in the comments:

- Greater Production quality of the live events

- Number and frequency of the live events

- More UK 8 Ball content as this drives us the most traffic

- Making videos available from the live events much quicker (we are sitting on some content from as far back as 2008)

- Search functionality on the website

- More users accessing live events (one of the ways that we can continue)

- More users accessing video on demand content more frequently, especially in the UK (The video adverts help to fund the business so the more that are viewed the better it is long-term.)

- New ways of monetising the video channel, with much more relevant advertising/sponsorship

- Creation/Promotion of our own series of events giving us full control

- Access to third party content

- Greater preparation for live events

This is just a short selection and if you have any burning ideas then please let us know.

Here is to a fantastic 2012 thanks for being with us in 2011!

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Merry Christmas

Now, I realise it is a little early but we suffer from premature congratulation here at Cuesport TV!

In all seriousness though, I would like to wish all of our viewers and PPV customers a huge thank you and a massive Merry Christmas for the support you have shown us throughout 2011.

Roll on 2012 is all I can say!

New Video Releases December 14th

It’s getting close to Christmas now and with that comes a very busy period in most people’s personal lives. Here at Cuesport TV we are no different but we will be trying our hardest to bombard you with new videos right up until the big day.

This week we have released the following new videos:

8 For Vegas – Episode 6 – Dating Sucks!

Money Match TV 14 – Callaghan v Gibney

Lou Callaghan v Mike Gibney – 1 of 7

Lou Callaghan v Mike Gibney – 2 of 7

Lou Callaghan v Mike Gibney – 3 of 7

Lou Callaghan v Mike Gibney – 4 of 7

Lou Callaghan v Mike Gibney – 5 of 7

Lou Callaghan v Mike Gibney – 6 of 7

Lou Callaghan v Mike Gibney – 7 of 7

Money Match TV 14 – Lawrenson v Osborne

Mat Lawrenson v Craig Osborne – 1 of 11

Mat Lawrenson v Craig Osborne – 2 of 11

Mat Lawrenson v Craig Osborne – 3 of 11

Mat Lawrenson v Craig Osborne – 4 of 11

Mat Lawrenson v Craig Osborne – 5 of 11

Mat Lawrenson v Craig Osborne – 6 of 11

Mat Lawrenson v Craig Osborne – 7 of 11

Mat Lawrenson v Craig Osborne – 8 of 11

Mat Lawrenson v Craig Osborne – 9 of 11

Mat Lawrenson v Craig Osborne – 10 of 11

Mat Lawrenson v Craig Osborne – 11 of 11 – Embedded below

A Short Lived Return

It has been a very long time since I personally picked up a cue in anger. I don’t mean to use as a cosh in some bar brawl, but as the weapon of choice on a pool table.

Laughing aloud the organisers of the Welsh Open, a blackball event I am covering for Cuesport TV, told me they had put me in the main draw.

It would have been fine but for two things, I haven’t played any form of small ball game for about two years and I didn’t have a cue.

The cue problem was solved by borrowing a very nice Trevor White one piece owned by Paul Bushnell. I can’t reply you in words how nice that cue is!

Ok so we come to the second problem, not having played for a very long time.

I have to say I was strangely nervous, with no expectations I expected to be feeling quite relaxed. Not the case!

I won the lag and hit an awesome break. All the balls in situe for a nice dish, I didn’t take it out though failing on my final colour. Luckily though I got a second chance and went 1-0 up!

Second frame I made a nice clearance after my opponent failed to make his break work, and after a bit of a battle. This meant I was leading 2-0 in the best of nine match.

It went downhill from there though! He battled back to lead 3-2 even though I had a chance in every frame.

I did manage to level it in the next only to see him take the seventh frame.

The 8th frame saw a dry break from my opponent with a scratched white. I used my first shot to good effect and looked set to take out the frame only to go in off whilst getting position on the black – gutted!

I lost the game 5-3 and was reasonably pleased with my performance, may even have to start playing again now!

Meet ‘Share’

Since we moved to the flash video player back in the summer the ‘share’ functionality that was integral to what we wanted to achieve with Cuesport TV has been unavailable.

The developers finally scheduled in the time last week and sorted the problem out so today the Cuesport TV ‘Share’ function is officially released.

It is nothing new or groundbreaking in terms of the Internet as a whole but is pretty awesome for both us and you our fans and viewers.

You can click the share button to share a video directly to your Twitter feed or Facebook updates.

Once the ‘share’ screen pops up over your video it is paused and you have a further option (top right icon) to get the embed code.

You can then put any Cuesport TV video into your own website without having to host the video.

There is an example of the embed in action below:

Some Recent Video Releases

We have had some issues with the transcoding again recently but have listed below some of the latest video on demand releases that you can watch right now:

8 For Vegas – Episode 3

European Blackball Mens Team Final – 1 of 2

European Blackball Mens Team Final – 2 of 2

European Blackball Ladies Singles Final

The good news is that we have also found the missing final part of the Oly Bale v Gareth Potts Money Match recorded in 2009. That has been uploaded and will be available shortly.

In addition there will be a lot of new 9-ball content coming this week as we finish off the content from the 3-man Team event and Money Match TV 13 and 14.

8 For Vegas

8 For Vegas is a new web series produced and written by John Painz, Cuesport TV have been given permission to re-post the series on the Cuesport TV website.

John Painz described it to me as, ‘think Spinal Tap for Pool’ and after watching the first episode I can see what he means.

It is nicely shot in HD and follows a pool team in the New York area as they try to qualify for a trip to the national finals in Vegas.

You can watch the first two episodes at the links below:

Let us know what you think in the comments below.

What is it with Darren Appleton?

The title of this post is questioning on purpose. Darren Appleton has propelled himself to the pinnacle of a sport he wasn’t even playing properly back in 2007 and continues to win huge events.

So my question to you guys is What is it with Darren Appleton? (You can answer with your ideas in the comments below).

The man is a nice bloke that has proved that focus and determination coupled with a will to learn are the tools required to become a champion. Since 2008 when he won the World 10-Ball Title he has now bagged a World Masters title, 2 US Open 9-ball titles, A Challenge of Champions title, A World Team Championship title and numerous Eurotour event wins plus a performance in a winning Mosconi Cup team for Europe.

It almost seems pre-written now that Darren Appleton will lift a major title each year and this is starting to drive the UK forward as a whole. The Yorkshireman who was also regarded as probably one of the best UK 8-ball players ever never managed to win the world title in his original sport. But he could see that at the time the US disciplines of pool were the route to go and he has never looked back.

So, please comment below and give your thoughts into what has made Darren Appleton a continual champion for the past 4 years.

UK Pool Blog Writers

The web is full of great content and there are some really good blogs and websites that cover snooker and the US disciplines of pool. The one thing I can never find is a blog dedicated to the UK game of pool. By this I mean World Rules or Blackball.

Does anyone know of any out on the web?

Whilst I am writing this post I came across an article written by the Dilbert Cartoon creator Scott Adams on his blog. (I will also mention that I found it via Fast Mikie’s: Diary of a Pool Shooter Blog – worth a read).

The articles focus is on that of winning and in his post Scott Adams made a very massive point about how we become winners, and this is not just in pool, it could be applied to any part of life in general, or at least where success is required.

Scott Adam’s Writes, “winning happens before the game starts” – You can find the whole article here and it is a short but interesting read.

It is along the old adage that ‘Practice makes perfect’ and I believe that planning, practice and time spent on a task will make significant improvement. Those players that are at the top of the game in snooker, 8-ball or 9-ball are there because they have put in the hours and dedication to the task. And with the right workload the majority of people could get somewhere close.

Your thoughts?

A Quiet Couple of Weeks

After the hectic last few weeks with Cuesport TV out and about on our travels to different live events, there are now at least two weekends without any live coverage.

Fear not though fellow cue sport fans as there is plenty of video content available for you to peruse over at the VOD site.

Some top picks for you:

European Blackball Champs – Wheelchair Final – 8 Ball

European Blackball Champs – Men’s B Team Final – 2 of 2 – 8 Ball

MMTV 12 – Kevin Uzzell v Matt Lawrenson – 11 of 11 – 9 Ball

MMTV 12 – Ben Clayton v Alex McElhatton – 1 of 8 – 9 Ball

Jamie Cope Interview – Snooker

Live events will return on the 29th October with Money Match TV 16, once again 3 live matches back-to-back and there is talk of Craig Osborne playing Chris Melling in this event.