The best pool table accessories

Almost every pool table sold for the home arrives with two cues, and almost every one of those cues is the cheapest component in the package. They are short, they are frequently warped, and the tips are mushroomed or glazed before the table has seen fifty games. Replacing them is the single accessory purchase that changes how the table plays.

A house set rather than one good cue is the right call for a family table. You get four cues in a spread of weights, so a guest, a child and an adult can each pick one that suits them, and nobody is handing round a single prized cue. The cues are not refined — they are straight, properly tipped, full-length and consistent, which is all a house cue has to be.

Roll each one on the table bed when it arrives. A cue that wobbles visibly goes back; a cue that rolls true will stay straight for years if it is stored vertically rather than leaning in a corner.

Bundled ball sets are polyester. They are made to a price, they are not perfectly round, and they pick up scuffs and chips quickly. The result is subtle but constant: balls that drift off line on a slow roll and lose their gloss within a season.

Phenolic resin is a harder, denser material. The balls are machined to a tighter tolerance, they transfer energy more cleanly off the cue ball, and they keep their surface for far longer under the same amount of play. On a slate table with good cloth, the difference in how a long slow roll holds its line is immediately obvious.

This is also the accessory with the longest life on the list. A phenolic set outlasts the cloth under it, so it is one of the few purchases here that is genuinely once-only.

Cloth is the consumable on a pool table, and three things wear it out faster than play: airborne dust ground in under the balls, direct sunlight bleaching and weakening the nap, and claws. A fitted cover removes all three for a fraction of the cost of recovering the table.

Fitted matters more than heavy. A loose sheet slides off, gets dragged over the rails, and ends up in a closet. A cover cut for the table's size stays put, pulls on in one movement, and therefore actually gets used — which is the whole point.

It also turns the table into a surface. That is not a small thing in a family room: a covered table takes drinks and board games without anybody putting a glass on the cloth.

A cue leaning against a wall is a cue slowly bending. Wood takes a set under its own weight, and the warp that ruins most home cues is caused by storage rather than play. A rack holds them vertical and unloaded, which is the only thing that keeps them straight.

The secondary benefit is that cues stop being tripped over, stood on and used as swords by children. A rack on the wall also holds the chalk, the triangle and the bridge, so the things you need mid-game are in one place instead of three.

Mount it clear of the shot line. A rack on the wall directly behind the short rail will collect cue butts during the break.

Chalk is not decoration. It is the only thing creating friction between a leather tip and a round ball, and when it fails the cue slides off the ball — a miscue. Cheap chalk is coarse, drops off the tip in flakes, and leaves blue dust on the cloth instead of grip on the tip.

Better chalk is finer, holds to the tip, and reduces miscues noticeably within a couple of racks. It is the clearest example on this list of a small amount of money producing an obvious change, which is exactly why it is such a good gift — almost nobody upgrades their own chalk.

Keep it in the rack rather than on the rail. Chalk that falls on the cloth gets ground in, and that is how a blue patch appears under the break spot.