Have you noticed how the snooker pros are always cleaning their cues with those mini towels they have? Take a leaf from their book about taking care of your snooker cue; keep your cue clean, it stops the judder you sometimes get when drawing the cue back on your bridge hand. Also keep your hands clean and dry as well.

The other thing you notice about the pro players is World snooker championship prize money that they are always chalking their tips sometimes between every other shot. This ensures a good contact between the tip and cue ball, especially when they are doing those tricky shots putting lots of side spin on the ball to keep the cue ball in the correct position. So keep it well chalked as well.

Talking about the snooker cue tip, that is the business end of the cue and arguably the most important part of the cue. Take care of it and make sure it is in good condition and that it has a nice domed shape and change it when it gets out of shape or goes hard. Ronnie O’Sullivan famously changed his tip between every session in one competition because he wasn’t happy with it.

Changing the tip is really easy; you just need a Stanley knife and some superglue gel. Simply cut the old one off with the Stanley knife and scrape away any debris left. Then apply the superglue gel to the end of the cue and place the new one on it and you will have enough time to square it up.

Then press down on the tip hard and then leave for 10-15 minutes. Normally you will have a mushroom shape as the cue tip slightly overhangs the end of the cue. You can leave it or slice the bits off by going around it with the Stanley knife cutting off the excess. That’s it, it only takes 15 minutes and you have a new perfectly shaped tip, now give it a lot of chalk before you start to play. Snooker cue care is really that simple and will pay you dividends when playing the game.