Predator SP2 REVO Tuxedo - THE PRO TUBE from www.Pro9.co.uk

Predator Air II Plus Jump Cue

And here's the little scrote who stole it....

Over two years since I've posted here, but I just had to share this with you, because often when I bump into people they mention the bike because of this blog, and now it's been stolen by a rotten little ten-year-old.

The photo comes from the brand new HD security system installed just weeks ago at the local cornershop. The shop staff immediately identified him, (it's clearer when you play the video in the shop) but the police were so pathetically slow in reacting that he had got rid of it by the time the law finally decided to interview him about it TWO FREAKIN' WEEKS LATER, despite me giving them this clear photographic proof of him in the act of stealing the bike, his name, his address, and everything they needed - handed on a plate to them... Clowns!

Apparently he had disposed of the bike, what a surprise, and although he told the Police what he had done with the bike, when they went to investigate there was no sign of it, and the recipient denied all knowledge of t - what a bloody surprise!

So I'm on foot for the foreseeable future - I'll be buying a replacement around April I guess!?!?!

Sigh... I really liked that bike.

My new(ish) bike!

I Need To Do More Exercise, So....

Well, there it is... I received a handy sum of money for my birthday back in April, and it's been safely ensconced in an envelope marked "Bike Fund" for the last couple of months, and then finally, the weather was right, no more excuses or delays, I rushed out and got myself an eBay super-bargain - as long as you don't count the van hire and petrol to collect it from Bristol, a round trip of some 350 miles... Because frankly I could have bought a new one for less - but where's the fun in that?

Since buying, I've realised I am not a good eBay buyer... I didn't ask about anything, I just knew I needed a bike and I was gonna buy one today... I arrived, said "hi", piled the bike into the van and drove off without more than a cursory glance at the thing. Unfortunately it's not actually as mint as it looked in the photo - there's some rust, and some wear and tear, the tyre valves look like they have been mucked about with, yep, I could have bought a new one for less - but where's the fun in that?

I definitely had to replace the saddle for something, how shall I put it, a little more capacious! I also noticed one of the pedals looked a bit knacked, and yesterday it decided to give up the ghost, so I've got a new, larger pair of those installed now too. I've only had the bike one week and I've realised I'm going to need a water bottle cage - wow... I could have bought a new one for less - but where's the fun in that?

I've managed to get as far as the seafront and back, although even the new and improved (huge) saddle can't claim to be exactly comfortable, and my legs we're trembling in shock for the rest of the day... It sounds like hard work, but actually, I've got a sneaking suspicion that there's a lot of fun to be had in this!

YouTube - sigh!

If you're going to force us to have the boring OneChannel format - don't pretend you're giving us a choice.

Didn't we have this last time with YouTube, forcing an unwanted redesign on everyone.

All the accounts I've seen using the OneChannel format look really dull and boring - and who wants an introductory video? To be able to show our content in a design that we choose, that's what we want. 

End rant.

The Pro Tube

Pretty much every day, for the last six years, I have spent a few minutes searching for a fresh video to feature on our front page. Sometimes it might be a new video from a recent tournament, other times it might be something instructive, sometimes it might not even feature American Pool, but some other discipline, or perhaps it might only have the most tenuous of links to our website's focus... But every day, I go through this ritual selection process - at weekends I try to feature the best live streams from tournaments all over the world, with a particular focus on European events and players.

Some videos don't make the grade because the recording quality isn't sufficiently good enough to grace our front page, other videos may be too rude, or not quite polished enough. Having said that, some videos may be very poor recording quality, but have such fascinating content that they simply have to be shown.

Over the years, I've repeated very little... One that does get a regular airing is Efren Reyes' magical shot from the Color of Money challenge - I'm sure everyone forgives me that  little indulgence. Another is a cartoon of Donald Duck explaining, in his own unmistakable way, the simplicity (and then the complexity) of his own personal diamond system - I just love it. 

Apart from those two videos - and the odd occasion when Pro9 is promoting a featured livestream, we have had a new video every day - that's over 2,000 videos!!!

Maximum Reportage!!!

Return of the Blog

I'm going to have another crack at the blog, and you're going to have to learn to take the rough with the smooth - today's post is definitely one of the rough ones, so here it is...

It always tickles me when one of our snooker articles receives 147 reads.

That's it!

The Pro Shop on eBay - here we go again!

eBay - take two!

In their wisdom, eBay doesn't permit business partners to take over existing eBay shops if the shop is a single person's name, and in all honesty I can see why - just because business "X" has taken over business "Y" doesn't mean standards will remain the same, and the reputation and feedback built up over time by the original manager of the business wouldn't necessarily continue in the same vein, and wasn't necessarily earned by the new owner.

So it's back to square one for The Pro Shop on eBay, as it was in Andy's name, and now it's in mine.

To be fair, we only ever dabbled with eBay - listing no more than 70 items at it's peak - a real tiddler among eBay shops - but it was just to see if it was worthwhile, and in all honesty, I still don't think we can tell for sure. It's simply not enough product to make an informed decision, so starting today, it's back on, you can follow my trials and tribulations here...

http://stores.ebay.co.uk/ThePro9Shop

...One word of warning though... We always added 10% to The Pro Shop's prices on eBay to cover their extortionate fees, and to encourage customers to buy from our own shop at www.TheProShop.biz where no such charges apply. So if you're looking for a bargain, forget our eBay shop - unless you are chasing extra feedback and are willing to pay for the privilege - or perhaps you prefer the security that eBay affords it's customers.

Actually, there IS something rather satisfying about running a shop on eBay, and it's the satisfaction you get from receiving the (albeit somewhat coerced by eBay) feedback from the customers - we'll see if I'm still saying that after receiving my first negative shall we?  hahaha... I hope I'm not tempting fate saying that!

;o)

"Web Master?" ...Don't make me laugh!

The trials and tribulations of...

I'm not sure that anyone really uses the "web master" monicker any more, and it's a good job too, as the depths of my ignorance seems to be virtually plummetless - I know, I just made up that word, but it seems appropriate, so I'm sticking with it.

Case in point, I've only just agreed to increase Pro9's monthly bandwidth transfer limit from a stupendously massive 80Gb per month, to a truly awe inspiring 100Gb monthly allowance (Pro9's just a website remember, not a blinking live streaming video channel) and already I'm receiving 80% limit warnings from our hosting company???

Sometimes I wish that it weren't so popular - ok, no I don't really, but seriously, you can hardly go up to a potential advertiser and say, "it uses loads and loads of bandwidth - honest". So what's it worth? Well, a fair few quid to our hosting company I suppose!

;o)

I shouldn't complain... I've submitted more than my fair share of Support Tickets to them already this year. Only yesterday I was unable to upload anything to the website at all - all day long. Apparently the problem was so serious that it needed to be... Oh... What was the word they used? Spiralled? Ascended? Promoted? "ESCALATED!" That was it. It was such a serious problem that it needed to be escalated to an S2 Engineer. Oh my goodness. Had I broken something? Hosting companies never tell you what the problem was, but I've a sneaking suspicion that they'd let the server get full... LOOOOOOL

Maybe I'm not so daft after all!

An Ambition Fulfilled

The Pro Shop united as Big Dave becomes 100% owner!

In April I will become the 100% owner of The Pro Shop, a business formerly run in joint partnership with Andy Watts with a good deal of assistance from Ann Khan.

Keen eyed customers may have spotted that we've been running down our stock levels at The Pro Shop - I hope this hasn't been too inconvenient, but it has been necessary to facilitate an affordable transfer of ownership, and I'll start gradually increasing stock levels as soon as the the deal is done, please be patient while this process is completed.

On a personal note... I'm really looking forward to this new challenge - I've been wanting to consolidate the operation for a long time, and I see many benefits from conducting the business from a single, centralised location. I aim to continue the standard set by Andy and Ann for the high-speed delivery of smaller items, but there are many improvements I will be able to implement too!

I want to provide a much more personal level of customer service, especially for our most important cue buying customers - I will be able to devote much more time to being flexible for these higher value customers. I will be approachable, more readily contactable, and eager to answer all your questions.

I promise to investigate ways to drastically speed up delivery times of cues - this is a personal ambition of mine - and I am already in the process of increasing the range of cues available - and I have started massively increasing the number of cues held in stock, all this, while at the same time, continuing to provide unbeatable value for money for our pan-European customers.

We really are the best place in Europe to buy all your equipment, don't get tricked into thinking you can buy cheaper elsewhere, retailers in America often won't tell you about extra charges you'll have to pay before your items are released for delivery once they arrive in Europe, and don't accept a free delivery offer if it's restricted to a "if order value is over £xxx" clause. When you shop at The Pro Shop the price you see is the total price you pay, we offer genuinely free delivery, and you'll get no unpleasant surprise charges on arrival, just a speedy, hassle-free delivery of your order, anywhere in Europe.

Yes, just the same as previously, almost all items will continue to be delivered to ANYWHERE in Europe - ABSOLUTELY FREE* - NO HIDDEN CHARGES!!! *We are happy to deliver worldwide, but due to their size and weight, some of these items (like pool tables for instance) can only be delivered free in the UK.

Finally, I would like to thank Andy and Ann for their sterling efforts over the last 6 years - without their enthusiasm and tireless efforts The Pro Shop simply wouldn't have got off the ground. We will always remain the best of friends, and I wish the whole family all the best for the future.

Pro9 gets a nod of thanks from BWPPA

You've got to hand it to the bods at the BWPPA, Britain's superb pool association for wheelchair players... They really know how to knock out a final match video - once again there's some very nice production value added to the recording of the first final of the year from the BWPPA's Dynamic Northern 9 Ball Open - and if you keep your eyes peeled there's a nice plug for Pro9 at the end... Now that never hurts!



I won't spoil it for you if you want to watch the final between Fred Dinsmore and Danny Luton, I'll just say congratulations to the pair of them, and especially to "the winner".

Google "pro9" and see!

It's always interesting to see which subcategory items get listed when you search for "pro9" on the mighty Google... We have no way of influencing these six items, it's just what happens to be trending at that particular time.

A massively productive day!

Today was one of those incredible days when you get a tonne of good work done, not everything done by all means, but a heck of a lot - if only all days could be like this.

I won't bore you with it all, I'll just bore you with this bit... I've gone mad, splurged on a Dymo Label Printer on eBay, nicked it with a last 3 seconds bid of £59.63 or something! Quite thrilling!

(Although afterwards, I checked the seller's product description, it said, "I've already got one of these and I received this one as a gift" - but it looks like he's sold three others already! There's a sucker born every minute eh? Still, I don't mind at all... The seller obviously has a bit of "character" but the price was right!

Next up, I need a super strong bicycle and a mid-sleeper bed!

Soft launch of Dynamic Billard Banner

Today we started the very soft launch of the Dynamic Billard banner... (that's right, there's only one "i" in Billard). This is just a stopgap banner until the main announcement at the start of next month, when I expect something more elaborate to appear (watch this space). Nevertheless, I'm really pleased to finally welcome Dynamic to the ever growing list of European pool billiard businesses who have come on board with Pro9 for 2012, and you can be sure we'll be keeping you informed with new opportunities coming your way from Dynamic for the rest of the year.

Just for posterity, here's what the top of the front page of Pro9 looked like today...

THE BLOG - Resurrection

www.TheProShop.biz Love

Predator Ikon Cues from www.TheProShop.biz

360 Pure Cue Action Trainer for snooker, billiards & pool from Gravitycue

WIN A FREE ONE AT WWW.PRO9.CO.UK - TODAY!
Enter our competition and answer 1 multi-choice question!
http://www.pro9.co.uk/html/viewtopic.php?forum=5&topic=4012

Naughty 9 - School House Rock

Exactly how cool this on a scale of 1 to 9? haha

Damn, It Feels Good To Be A Hustler

Yes, it's edited, but it's still brilliant!!!