eSBee

 

The eSBee collection, or how it all began

My first encounter with eSBee cues was when I was around 16 years old, the moment I bought my first cue at our local café.

After selling that one and buying another brand I decided to switch back to eSBee, just because of the look and feel. Definitely not based on my billiard qualities at that time, my average in free game (or libre) was a stunning 1.00

I got myself the address of the person who was the distributor for eSBee at that time and bought back another eSBee. Over time there were months that I bought at least one or two new cues a month, again just because of their sheer beauty.

Stany Buyle, player and cue builder

Stany Buyle (you get the eSBee name?) got in touch with carom billiard when he was 14 years old in 1974. As it turned out he had a real feel for the game and at the age of 17 (!) he promoted to the honor class in free game and one cushion billiards. Talking about talent I would say!

Being 20 years old he noticed that his development got to a hold and, after a difficult period, Stany found some piece of mind in Oriental philosophy and yoga. He started to read everything he could find and it helped hem a lot, not only mentally but also his game level went up again. Unfortunately, in 1983, he lost the sight in his left eye bringing his promising career in billiards to end. The moment as he calls it that he was forced to make a living in the world of sales, not his most desirable way of living.

He started to build cues out of his workshop in Belgium for the first years only assisted by his wife Rita, which until today hasn’t actually changed only that Belgium has been changed for Gravelines in France. I strongly believe that should he had the means for a proper marketing campaign eSBee as a brand would have the international recognition it so deserves. But being a one-man business it’s not strange that funding such a marketing campaign is virtually impossible.

Nevertheless, Stany still made name for himself and convinced a lot of players to try out his cues, one of the more known three-cushion players who is using an eSBee cue at the moment is Roland Forthomme.

 
 

Book

Stany Buyle about his book:

'Billiards has always fascinated me because it is not just a mind sport where figuring out the right figure to play, the attacking or the defense strategy such as in chess is important, but also a sport in which your own behavior and the analysis of the behavior of your opponent has a very strong influence on the game'.

 

Favorites and wants

My personal favorites are cues produced in the early stages. Cues with names like Venus, Viridis, Picasso, Enrico, Sophia, Orion, Apollo, Stardust, Lucifer and many more. Most of the models had a standard wooden joint (especially the first series) and the later version had a joint similar to the Schuler joint. That made changing shafts very easy as they always fit.

As in most collections there are still some items I would like to have, items like: the eSBee ball case and cues like the Lucifer and the Sirius. Also, all other advertising material that exits and is not published here.

 

There are still some items I would love to add to the eSBee collection, if you have any please feel free to contact me.