Rests and Spiders

No Snooker or Billiards table, big or small, should be without a rest of some sort and larger tables need several. Even Pool tables should really have a short rest and/or Spider. Rests, Spiders, Swan rests and Butt rests enable players to reach the cue ball when it is out of reach for a normal shot. Although adults might get away without a rest on 6 foot tables for children, many shots are impossible even on a 4 or 5 foot table without a rest. So for youngsters a rest is an essential accessory.

As you would expect, our rests are top quality and are supplied complete, with the rest head fitted to the shaft. We would suggest that you avoid cheaper plastic-headed rests - brass heads provide a more stable support.

Brass Cross Cross Rest	Brass Spider Rest	Brass Extended Spider	Brass Swan Neck

Cross Rest

For Pool tables and all sizes of Snooker and Billiard tables, a straight-forward cross-rest is normally top of the accessories list.

The standard Cross rest is the most common of all rests and extends the reach of a player by 2 or 3 feet. It is easier to use than any other type of rest and many beginners find that they are more accurate with it than without!

On a large table, smaller children may find they need to use a cross-rest for more than a third of all shots.

Spider Rest

The Spider is effectively a tall rest. Where a rest is required and the cue ball is just the other side of another ball, a cross rest will not do the job because the cue needs to go over the intervening ball. Such shots are only possible with a spider.

A spider will be required fairly regularly on a large table and occasionally on smaller tables - so ideally the minimum for any table is both a cross rest and a Spider.

For smaller tables where perhaps the expense of 2 rests is undesirable, Masters Traditional Games suggests, somewhat unconventionally, that if you have only one rest, you could select a Spider. Although it's a harder implement to use than an ordinary rest, it will mean that almost all shots are possible.

Extended Spider & Swan Rests

The Extended Spider and The Swan serve similar purposes. Both enable players to reach a cue ball which is the other side of a group of balls - for instance the pack of reds in Snooker. In such cases, even a spider will not adequately reach the cue ball and so either an Extended Spider or a Swan is the requisite tool.

These rests are tricky to use effectively and are usually only seen on larger tables, although even on smaller snooker tables, players occasionally would value a Swan.

The difference in functionality between the two is subtle but the Swan will give a greater height so is useful where the cue ball is a distance away and it is desirable to approach it at a steep angle. The extended spider has a slightly greater reach and is sometimes found on a longer shaft - see the Long Spider section below.

Long Rests - Half Butt & Full Butt

We don't presently have longer rests and their accompanying cues available because they normally come with the larger snooker tables. However, if you require a half butt, a full butt or a long spider, please email us and we will work out a price for you.

The Half Butt is around 92 inches, the full butt around 108 inches long. Both require specially long cues that come and are stored with the Half Butts down the long side of the table. The rest heads are similar in shape to a Spider rest head but lower - putting the cue tip at a similar height to the normal cross rest.

During the course of a snooker game on a full size table, it is relatively common to use the Half Butt and children will usually need one several times in a game. Full butts are much less commonly required and generally only needed across the full diagonal of the table.

The Long Spider

Finally, a bit of thought reveals that even with all of the above, there is still a gap in the rest market - what happens if you need the extra height of a spider and also the length of a half butt? Although it may seem a bit OTT, it does occasionally happen that the cue ball ends up behind a ball at the far side of the reds and you need to cue over it from the baulk end of the table...

For this reason, some snooker clubs make available a rest called a 'Long Spider'. This is normally a Half Butt length shaft with a spider rest head.

For similar reasons (in the case where you need to cue over several balls from the baulk end of the table), one does occasionally see an extended spider rest head fitted to a half butt shaft. Generally speaking, these more obscure long rests are only seen at larger snooker clubs.