View from the editor: Necessity is the mother of invention (apparently) - September 2005  

Readers, we’ve had a thoroughly exciting time at ArkSports Towers this month, what with England on the verge (we hope) of an Ashes victory in cricket, the soccer season truly underway with Exeter City riding high at the top of the Conference League, and the St Kilda Saints on the cusp (we also hope) of making the Grand Final in Aussie Rules. (S&T at this point retires briefly to throw a kilo of salt over our left shoulder, touch a veritable forest of wood and rub a few rabbits’ feet without looking too deranged).
However, such excitement pales into significance at the joy of receiving two, yes readers, that’s two, not one, e-mails on the subject of chalkless cue tips in snooker/pool since we last went to press. Okay, they are technically from the same source, but hey, we’re not complaining.

Steve Davis’ open letter

But firstly, cast your minds back to November 2004 when legendary snooker player Steve Davis wrote an open letter to S&T readers proclaiming snooker to be a technology-allergic sport and asking why a chalkless cue hadn’t yet been invented. Well knock us down with a small fluffy feather if we didn’t get reader Roy Daine writing in claiming to have just the thing for the erstwhile world champion. Calling himself, “inventor of the 'chalkless tip' - probably the most significant innovation to the games of pool and snooker since Captain Mignaud put a piece of leather on the end of a stick,” (Mignaud being the inventor of the first ‘cue’ for those of you not up on your table sports history),

Credit: Empics

Move over Bra Wars

So there we have it readers, two inventors of the chalkless cue tip, happy to share their products with you, but hopefully not lawsuits with each other. We may be having ‘Bra Wars’ in the UK at the moment (what with Chinese undergarments being held to ransom by Customs and Excise in order to avoid an Asian panty-fest), but are we making way for ‘Cue Wars’? Hmmm. S&T feels another movie script bubbling up. (We could make it of the horror genre if Stephen King helps us). Could it be VHS versus Betamax all over again? Microsoft versus Apple? Rugby Union versus Rugby League? The BDO versus the PDC? Exeter City versus Plymouth Argyle? Neighbours versus Home and Away? (Alright, we’ll stop there).
Talking of China (you know, ‘Bra Wars’, pay attention), S&T was perplexed to hear that peer-to-peer shenanigans in that country are having an impact on sport. It is now possible in Europe (apparently) to watch, say, a European football match on the internet that has been uploaded onto a site in China and beamed back to Europe complete with enhancements such as Chinese subtitles. Rights owners are of course worried about the impact this development will have on their broadcast deals. But S&T doesn’t think they should worry too much. We find subtitles distracting enough without them being in a language we can’t even read.
Christopher Stokes of online monitoring company NetResult however adds a note of caution: "Broadcasters, particularly those with PPV and subscription services, are fast becoming aware of the threat that fans will decide not to pay for something that they can get for free online; the ultimate impact on rights owners' future earnings is clear for all to see. Tackling this problem before it gets out of hand is something that all interested parties, broadcasters and rights owners alike, need to get to grips with; ignoring the issues, as the music industry did for too long, in no way to deal with the problem."

Introducing the ‘intelligent car’

Finally, S&T’s favourite invention of the month (other than the chalkless cue tip – and in the interest of harmony we will say both versions), is the ‘intelligent car’. No, this car cannot recite the entire works of William Shakespeare while splitting the atom, but readers, its talents are not that far off.
Apparently, UK scientists have created a prototype car that has an array of sensors that can detect when you are about to hit another car or pull into the path of another vehicle. (That reminds us that Phil ‘The Power’ Taylor, the 12-times World Darts Champion, demonstrated a similar system in his swanky new motor to S&T after the Stan James World Matchplay Darts Championship in Blackpool last month. Unfortunately he forgot to put the sensor on and nearly ran S&T over).
The ‘intelligent car’ being developed at the moment will also be able to tell whether the driver of the car is under stress or prone to road rage and then spray them with a blast of lavender scent to help calm them down or wake them up. Make it a Bollinger spray and S&T might consider buying one.
The ‘intelligent car’ boffins should have a word with Bernie Ecclestone. He’s been trying to make Formula One more exciting for a while without kidnapping Michael Schumacher, (not that he needed to this season), but how about installing the spraying device into Formula One cars and awarding extra-points for whoever emerges the least lavender-scented at the end of the race? Across the pond, NASCAR drivers could use melted cheese and service the nachos-stands as they whizzzz around their ovoid tracks. Just an idea.
Sadly, that’s it for this month readers, S&T is off to The Oval for the cricket. Click in next time for exciting developments relating to Sport and Technology: The Conference 2006 which will be held in association with BT Media and Broadcast on 23 February next year at BT Centre in London. Well, we will be announcing the programme and line-up of speakers and that’s pretty darn exciting in our opinion. It’s certainly better than a poke in the eye with a long cue, (or a spray in the face with some lavender scent).

Rachael Church
Editor

Do you think this world is big enough for two types of chalkless cue tips? Or should inventors stick to making silly gadgets for cars? If you have any comments or feedback on this article or any of the features in S&T, we would be delighted to hear from you. Please e-mail your comments to editor@sportandtechnology.com.

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