I have this week started the re-covering of five full size Riley Imperial square legged tables
I have had repeat business with the Ivanhoe club for a few years now , they where my first club to have GCL billiards in to maintain the tables when I started the firm up 4.1/2 years ago .
they have stuck by me and I have a good working relationship with the club .
Two of the five tables with cushions undone ready to strip down
as you can see this is a very long L shaped room with high seating on the sides of the room for viewing of play .
I was intrigued to find they had found an old photo of when they had just two tables installed in the club in 1965 , this was before they extended the room
these two tables where oak , the other tables put in after the extensions where mahogany .
two of the windows in the back ground are now trophy cabinets , you can see them in the second photo down .
since this photo , Riley Services had in 1999 replaced all 5 sets of cushions with new modern type .
note also the old Gold Hartley engineering metal shades , these where endorsed by Joe Davies and had bulbs sideways to prevent the element dazzling players when they stooped over the table
when they had the other three tables in they upgraded to all new shades , and have recently got rid of these for the more modern white light High Frequency office lighting that modern players crave for ,as you can now see above the tables I am working on today .
Every time I visit I replace one set of pockets on one table and use the old nets or leather to patch up the others if one or two require replacing
I intend to fit a new set of nets and leathers to one table on re-clothing and the next set on re-stretching in 12 months time , that way a table will get a new set of nets and leathers every 5 years on rotation .
using any good second hand ones coming off for other table nets or leathers that may have worn out .
these tables get re-covered every 24 months and a re-stretch half way through the cloths life to stretch the corner pocket runs away from the falls and thus making the life of the cloth last longer .
all five tables viewed from Entrance end of the room , I was asked to open up the pocket openings of the first table as it had extremely tight pockets and members often refused to use it
I made a template from the second tables pocket angle and transferred it to the first to make the pockets the same on both tables .
now you cannot keep the members off it !
and the view from the bottom end of the room with 4 tables completed .
I have just one more table to re-cover tomorrow which is the far right in this photo .
the original two tables put in in 1965 are the lighter oak framed tables in the center of the room
*** click on any photo to enlarge
New Strachan pure new wool napped 6811 tournament 30 oz cloth cloth complete with new replacement Nets and leathers on table 3
