The billiards table, to give it its correct name, and its equipment, have slowly evolved inconstruction and design over a very long period of time. In Britain and the Commonwealth, there is now a tendency for players to call the tables ‘Snooker Tables‘ and to purchase ‘Snooker table Cues’, and even to ask for ‘Snooker Chalk’.

Whilst Britain plays the game of ‘English billiards’ and ‘Snooker, most European countries play ‘Carambolage’ or Continental Billiards’ — the principal difference being that the Continental-style tables do not have any pockets and the game is entirely made up of a series of cannons, while the English snooker table has pockets at each corner and at the centre of each long side.

In the United States a large number of different games, all of which we generally refer to as ‘American Pool’, are played on pool tables which have pockets, but with a population of mixed European origin billiards follows the Continental style: tables without pockets.

A full-sized snooker table is twelve foot long, six foot wide and about thirty one inches high. The timbers most commonly used are mahogany, oak and walnut, and in the nineteenth century the bed of the table itself was also made of wood.

I am pleased to tell you that they are now made of slate. Once a snooker table has been set up it is easy for a fitter to do the snooker table recovering with the assurance that slate does not move as long as trhe slate bearers are supporting the middle of the slates correctly.

To be cont….

By that year Joe Davis had realised the potential of the game now played on snooker tables and had developed it to the precise science – or is it art? – we know today. In 1927 he instituted and won the first World Professional Snooker table Championship against T. A. Dennis by 20 frames to 11. Davis went on to win this Championship each year until 1940.

After the War, in 1946 he played his last World Championship and beat Horace Undrum 78—67Davis then retired, undefeated from World Championship play.

It is largely forgotten that he was also the holder of the World Professional Billiards Championship from 1928 to I932. The first 147 maximum break to be eventually ratified as a world record was made by the great Joe at the Leicester Square HaEI on 22 January 1955. He was now fifty-three and had been playing for thirty-five years, with a staggering total ot 574 century breaks to his credit- He was awarded the OBE in 1963 for his services to charity, and though Joe retired completely from competitive play he maintained an active interest in snooker.

The snooker table recovering In the first programme of the 1971 Pot Black series was carried out by Riley fitters. Joe Davis was persuaded to pick up a cue once more in front of the stydio audience and perform a trick-shot or two on the snooker table. The winner of the 1971 Pot Black Competition John Spencer received the Trophy from Joe – who also had the pleasure of presenting his brother Fred with a cheque for the highest break of the series.

Today snooker is thriving, both as a sport and as a business. its seedy image of yesteryear’ has vertually dissappeared and both the snooker writers and the press are unanimous in their verdict that television and Pot Black, in particular, has created a new shop window for a game created in a damp afternoon in India, 100 years ago.

A good player was able to score endless cannons by keeping the three balls closely bunched together. Games became never-ending with astronomical scores — the record is 499,31 5 (unfinished !) set up by Tom Reece on a snooker table in 1907 and took five weeks to achieve. Breaks of over 2000 are common and billiards, as a spectator sport, has gradually gone into a decline.

Back in the latter half of the nineteenth century there was a growing need for new games to be played on  snooker tables. Names like ‘Pyramids’, ‘Pool’, ‘Black Pool’ came into the billiard player’s repertoire when various coloured balls were added to the standard two whites and a red.

It is now widely accepted that snooker itself originated in Jubbolpore, India, in 1875. A group of Army officers, including a young subaltern named Sir Neville Chamberlain, were playing Black Pool – their main recreation — on the Mess billiards table. For the purposes of variation, other coloured balls were added and given different scoring values. Sir Neville, observing that one of his opponents had failed to pot a ball and had left him an unplayable shot, accused him of being ‘a regular snooker’. At that time a ‘snooker’ was the nickname for a first-year cadet at the Woolwich Military Academy, and was obviously held in very low regard. Thus snooker, the game, was christened.

Before long, rumours of this ‘new’ game reached England and a well-known professional billiards player, John Roberts, travelled to Calcutta to discover the rules. He was introduced to Sir Neville Chamberlain by the Maharajah of Cooch Behar. who explained that Sir Neville was the best person to give him the information because he had invented it.

Did you know?

Billiard tables have bag nets and the brass on the pocket plates are visible on top of the table.

Snooker tables have pocket rails due to the number of balls being potted during a game.

Snooker table recovering methods are still the same as they were a century ago.

Towards the end of the 18th century it became increasingly fashionable to play shots with the handle of the mace rather than the thick end. The stubborn, traditional, English looked down upon any form of change and it took a while for this to be accepted. However the more the idea was taken on board the more manufacturers started to make finer and thinner cues. Snooker table cues became thinner and thinner until the other end ceased to be used altogether in the early 1800s.

It was around this time that keen billiard players realised that by roughing up the end of the cue, a better contact could be made with the cue ball.

The tip of the cue, strangely enough, was developed by a French Political prisoner by the name of Francois Minguad who was held by the English. He designed a leather tip, which has not really changed up until the present day.

Getting back to Captain Minguad, it was not until the introduction of chalk in the 1820s that the full range of shots which are part of the modern game became achievable.

Snooker table recovering is normally carried out when either the cloth is worn or the players tip on the cue damages the cloth.

The same can be said on pool table recovering.

Now I have a question for you! Do you know why every decent snooker table cue made has a flat piece at the handle?

Another tip when caring for a pool table is run a vacuum cleaner on the cloth in the direction of the nap on a regular basis. This is my own personal tip. I find vacuuming helps remove all the residue chalk dust from between the cloth and the slate. Depending on how much use the pool table has had the chalk dust resemble sand dunes. On pool table recovering the customer will often complain that the table is unlevel, when, in fact, it is the dust which can through the moving ball off its directional path. How many times have you complained that the slate has a slight indentation where the white ball is spotted. It is, in fact, a tiny crater formed through the white ball continuously being banged down on the same spot which, in turn, separates all the chalk dust.

WARNING! Do not vacuum a snooker table! The snooker table slates are in sections and the seams are filled and rubbed down using plaster of Paris. We often go out snooker table recovering because a hoover has been run over the cloth pulling out all the plaster of Paris from the seams. Pool tables, on the other hand, are one piece so vacuuming is okay.

You also need to decide whether to buy new or buy a second hand pool table which is more cost effective to begin with but can come at a price if the customer hasn’t done his or her homework properly. any saving on the table may have to be offset against the cost of a pool table recovering, rubber pockets may need changing, cushions may need to be replaced and the biggest cost that customers never consider when buying on such websites as eBay is the cost of pool table removal.

Also available are pool dining tables. These pool tables are ideal in the home where space is at a premium.

Before purchasing a pool table, bear in mind that in addition for the space required for the table itself you will also need enough room around the pool table to accommodate a cue. The minimum space required for a 6ft pool table is fourteen foot by eleven foot and for a 7ft pool table fifteen foot by eleven foot six inches. Ideally you should have more room than this but this will allow for a four foot cue to be used at least when tight up against the cushion. You need to try to avoid the cue having to climb up the wall when taking a shot.

These days a telephone enquiry is made to the snooker table manufacturers and a representative will pay the potential customer a visit. Showing images and wood samples of the tables they make. Snooker tables are then delivered by van and the snooker table fitter will have all the tools and snooker table recovering cloth with him.

In the early days when carrying out a snooker table recovering, the fitter would carry the cloth wrapped in brown paper and his bag of tools onto a train and travel to the nearest station to the customers address. This meant that sometimes he would have to walk three to four miles from the station.

I should count myself lucky! the men I speak off knew what it meant to do a hard days work. I quite often have a moan to myself in the comfort of my own car when I have two or three pool table recovering in different locations.

During the early nineteenth century, gas engines were used to drive what few machines were in use at the time. The final work was always carried out by hand, the skilled craftsman would work under some difficulties. The workshops would be dimly lit with gas jets used for illumination. The hours men worked in these workshops were very long, the heating was far from good. However, under these conditions very fine work was carried out. Riley snooker tables throughout the land still exist which displays this fine workmanship.

In fact when out carrying out my pool table recovering duties and snooker table repairs I often come across some of these fine snooker tables in my travels.

The delivery of a snooker table was a major operation, not like today where snooker tables are loaded onto a van, driven across the country and installed in one day.

Back then slates and table parts would be put in separate crates delivered by horse and cart to the local railway yard. From there the table would be loaded and sent to the nearest freight yard to the customers address.

Many of the snooker table manufacturers had their own vans or horse and carts. These were kept in pristine condition and would compete in appearance with rival snooker table manufacturers.

To be cont…

It must be remembered in those early days that public transport was practically non existent, except for railways, thus; a skilled fitter starting business had some advantages, enabling him to give a good service in the area of his home.

As mentioned before Queen Victoria made the game respectable and the more prosperous member of society, with large houses, purchase Billiard tables to entertain their guests.

Nearly every hotel and licence house of any size had a snooker table and as licencing hours in those days were very relaxed the Billiards room could be open all day and late into the night and a game of Billiards, therefore, was always possible. It was with the opening in cinemas in every town, in the years before 1914, coupled with the strict licencing laws introduced during and after the First World War, the growth of super cinemas, even in dog race tracks and radio, that the game lost some of it’s popularity.

Snooker table recovering was a highly skilled trade and fitters started at the early age of 14, being assigned to an experienced craftsman to learn the trade. These apprentices usually started by cleaning out glue pots, sweeping the floors, and generally being a dogs body. One of the jobs would have been to go to the local public house with a long pole with notches cut into it to fetch the cans of beer for the men working at the bench.