Just been over to a Caravan Park club house in the East Midlands to put back in playing order a very rough and neglected table that has not been touched for years .
the owners did warn me that the table had seen better days , and could not remember when the last re-cover was carried out .
this is what I found when I arrived ,
A club in the throws of renovation Decorators and builders and window fitters all working at the same time .
the club house having new Double glazing Fitted.
Proctors Caravan Park in Barrow on Soar .
the table is a Riley fluted turned leg circa 1910/20’s , but it had Riley Viceroy cushions fitted to it , an upgrade to this type of table .
having windows of three sides of the room you can see that the sun had faded the cloth to almost white !
the fact that it had tacks holding the cushion cloth on and not more modern staples fixings informs me of around the 1960′ early 70’s that the last time this table was re-covered
the cloth was very thick that was coming off , the table must have played very slow , and the rubber was cracking and deforming .
having stripped all the old cloth and cushion slips off the cushions I then cleaned and sanded the blocks ready to take the glue for the new rubber that I was fitting .
the six new Northern rubbers are aligned on my glueing board also ready for glue to be applied .
Take a look at the table at this stage then look at the finished photo further on down my report to see the difference .
I used the template as a guide and then opened them up a little more at the front to allow for the not so serious player to gain confidence and return to play on the table .
Not all clubs demand such tight tournament pockets , and after discussion with the owner it was decided to open them up a little , with these old table it is not possible to open them up to the rear
we have to leave some rubber on to protect the cloth from splitting .
The undercut of the rubber is hand rasped and sanded , and my aim is to keep the flat profile to the end of the rubber , in the old days they used to rasp a undercut to a point , it is now done like this on more modern tables , and looks a lot better for it .
and at 3 and 3/4 inch to the fall the pockets are around 1/4 of an inch more generous than TV match tables at the fall .
but are actually tighter at the rear of the pocket , due to having less of a gap on this period 1910/20’s table at the rear , over a more modern cut cushions as used on TV tables with steel cushions .
cushions finished having fitted new rubber and re clothed in Strachan 6811 30 oz tournament cloth , it was time to move on to the leveling of the table .
This table had ultra thick Welsh slates on it , these are very true slates unlike the more modern softer Italian and Chinese slates as used today .
the table leveled up very well , I only had to shim disc under 6 legs to gain the accuracy I was looking for .
Earlier this week I had to re level two table’s in a snooker club in Lincolnshire that had been leveled useing playing cards and beer mats between slate and frame , that job took some time to put correct .
So a lesson to anyone who assembles their own table , level it only by packing with shims under each leg , do not shim it under the slate bed .
with slate now level and the joints skimmed and sanded with car body filler it was time to lay the cloth on ready for tacking .
The bed cloth fitted and marked out , now ready to refit the cushions .
the finished table , you may also note I also replaced the nets and leathers
and a photo from the other end , You can now see a vast improvement from when I started from the badly worn and faded cloth with bad deformed rubber .
to a more inviting fully refurbished playing area of the table you now see .
a more faster cloth fitted and with extra bounce from the new profile Northern rubber , from a ploughed field to a proper Billiard table surface .
and with regular Brushing and ironing it will stay that way .
The owners are to replace the old carpet with Carpet tiles and finish the decorating off , and fit the new modern ;lighting for the table .
I am sure the Caravan Park members and visitors will find the club more inviting and the table will get the use it deserves .
