A snooker table cloth is a green baise that has become synomous with snooker over the years. It is laid accross slate to form a smooth playing surface.
In recent years it has been become possible to alter the thickness of this cloth, which can have a great effect on the movement of the balls around the table. A thin cross tends to encourage the ball to move quickly alon the table and travel further distance when hit, whereas a thick cloth causes more friction between the ball and table so slows the ball down. When entering major tournaments, it will often take snooker players a number of frames before they are able to adjust their game sufficiently to a new cloth.
In recent years there have been calls to standards the thickness of cloth, but this has so far been resisted by the governing bodies. Opponents to the change argue that by having a cloth changes from venue to venue levels the playing field and leads to increased competition, as well as increasing the likelihood of an upset.
Whilst it is the green snooker table cloth that is iconic to so many, it’s actually possible to produce a cloth in almost any colour fabric you can imagine. As an example, pool tables are often clothed in blue or red fabric. However, given the green has tradionally always been the colour of snooker table cloths it is hard to see it changing in the near future.
