Category Archives: News

Although I do say East midlands we also do other parts of the UK ,but we are dropping the far reach areas of the UK due to time scale and costs .
Unless the client covers those extra days costs of traveling and B&B .

I would say after retirement and closures of billiard businesses  in our area  there are now around only two ( MAYBE only ONE  fully qualified Billiard fitter  ) still operating and based within our area of Derby Nottingham and Lincoln area known as the EAST MIDLANDS .
these are proper time served Billiard table fitters with at least 30 year experience and in our case over 40 years personal experience of our main and only time served fitter  .
Be very wary of none skilled people doing this work , if they cannot put the table back up and have to call in a professional fitter as a sub contractor then why not deal direct with the experienced time served Billiards  fitter in the first place .
The none semi skilled person will not have the proper experience or Insurance cover that GCL billiards carry .
Call Geoff Large at GCL billiards for a quote , we have a full range of equipment to move tables and also a new van every 4 years .
so you can be pretty sure your table will arrive for installation .

This is typical of what we do , store on site in a garage does not take up much space
always stand slates upright leaning the back edge towards the wall , like an upright door , this will limit any chipping out of face end joint edges .
all bolts and screws to be boxed .

We also offer a bubble wrapping service .
Above our van properly loaded for even weight distribution .

A blanket wrapped table , loaded for safe transport .
We know what we are doing with over 40 years personal experience Geoff Large is a fully time served billiards fitter .
trained down from fitter to fitter since 1976  when  he first started in the billiards industry .

and you can be sure the table will be put back together professionally and ready for play .
We do not do much table moving nowadays , most of our time is spent maintaining and re-clothing , re-rubbering , new nets and leathers .
but when we get a table move , you can be sure we know how to go about it .
and we are fully equipped to do this , although we do prefer Ground floor only locations though due to our age now  .
But we will access any upstairs work before we commit to any upstair work  , but it may be that more local labour is required to get the heavy slates up or downstairs .
BELOW TYPICAL REBUILD AND HOW I GO ABOUT IT

FRAME UP AND ROUGH LEVEL

SLATES ABOUT TO GO ON

POSITION OF SLATES TAKEN FROM MIDDLE SLATE

FILLING IN SLATE JOINTS

SMOOTHING OUT SLATE JOINTS

AGAIN CHECK LEVEL

REFIT OR FIT NEW CLOTH BED CLOTH

ALWAYS TACK BED CLOTH ON

LEVELING TOE PIECES

TYPICAL AFTER CARE KIT OF IRON & PURE BRISTLE BRUSH

FINISHED SET UP , THIS ONE IN FRANCE .

NOT MY CUP OF TEA BUT THE CLIENTS CHOICE OF COLOUR

WE ALSO RELOCATE AMERICAN POOL TABLES

and Dining billiard tables

Call Geoff Large for further details of relocating snooker tables .
or any other work you may require .

I will be away from phones due to working inside metal building no signal to mobile and Home phone is not manned for business replies .
Also no emails will be answered until Friday evening 14th of June .
Phone signal at Butlins is not very good on O2 .
Especially in metal clad buildings where we are working in .

We have  a large job in Re-covering a few Snooker tables and re-siting and setting back up an american pool table .

I am sorry  if you are trying to reach me , maybe a text message will get through later in the day if you require urgent assistance or inquiry  .

I have been asked to visit a client near Northampton .
I was recommended to this client from one of my regular clients in the same area .

The main problem was this badly cracked bolt hole , a bolt lug had been forced and spun around inside the slate and shattered this bolt hole .
not a lot we could do with this , if I had tried to mess with it we could have made it much worse , so in this scenario it was better to leave the bolt out of the table .
the cushions where made from very heavy Cuban Mahogany and weighed as much as steel cushions so the bounce would not be affected by leaving one bolt out of the cushion .

the hairline  crack had also spread above the slate bed along the dotted lines and the first slate joint was raised slightly , this could be frost damage if the slate was stored outside in winter .
My solution to the raised joint was not to mess with the cracked slate or disturb it , just in case it just fell apart , and made matters worse
The joint that was bad could be felt when ironing the table , so I filled all slate joints and feathered this joint in with soft sand car body filler , result is no bad joint anymore .

now one other problem that is is very noticable on old burroughs and watts tables is the centre pocket bounce back of ball back onto the table ,
after hitting the pocket plate leather , this is because there is very little distance between the bolted cushion pocket plate and the slate fall .
and is a very common problem on old B&W tables that a lot of people have an issue with .
on this table the slate fall did not align to the nose of the cushion so I was able to add a further 1/8th of slate   fall into the table by rasping the slate away , on this table all 4 corners had already been done like this , but they did not touch the middle slate falls , now the owner has a bit more distance to the pocket plate .
note that this slate also has an airline crack in it , I have filled it with isopan car body filler soft sand type , just in case it could show  through the cloth .
I think at some point the table slates has had some rough handling or maybe frost damage if slate was wet and stored outside . frost gets into slight hairline cracks and freezes resulting in expanding and making the crack worse .
But all is ok now .

cushions where made from a very heavy Cuban Mahogany , very rare to find this and a costly improvement from standard mahogany when new  .
they will bounce as good as Steel cushions , they are that heavy .
A previous fitter had fitted Barton White rubber to this table in the past , I would have used northern Rubber myself .
but the ball bounce was very good from them , so they are OK .

The Finished table , Re-cloth in Strachan 6811 tournament 30 oz , my client had a Hainsworth match cloth fitted  on it last time , but he was not happy with it , the fibers of the cloth was shedding and the white balls was covered in fibres .

The lighting shade is due to be replaced for twin tube high frequency white light units  , but these old metal shades where the rolls royce of billiard shades back in the day .
The Hartley Engineering metal shade , to the exact requirements of Joe Davies spec .
not many of these around anymore as they often get scrapped for modern lighting .
Modern lighting is the way to go , the game is so much better with white light high frequency tube lights or LED lighting panels .

and I got excellent recommendation from this client , thank you Dave

Yes Geoff arrived 10:30 and was still working at 5 o’clock no 2 hour quickly with this man, all the table problems sorted in a very high professional high standard workmanship to match. I was over the moon with the finished job, most highly recommended

I have been over to Beeston the next main town from me to re-cloth a table I put in two years ago at the start of this man cave , I also supplied the supreme Prince pool table to him as well as the Riley Aristocrat pro steel cushioned  full size snooker table , located through our private sales program and this web site  .

This full size  table is located in a warehouse upper floor area where the owner has created a very enviable Man cave ,
together with Pool table air hockey football table and table tennis table ,  a gym weights  , video machines with twin seats pinball , table tennis and a very impressive golf range video range game using real clubs and balls .

I am not going to say where the warehouse is located for security and customer client confidentiality .

but just look at the photo’s who would not want something like this .
First of all how the table was re-clothed

Steel cushions on the this top of the range riley Aristocrat , cushions being stripped and re-clothed .

the bed cloth off to reveal the slate bed sections 5 in total , and a taster to the games my client has to choose from in his man cave is in the background .

cloth of choice for our client is the expensive top of the range Hainsworth match on the bed with Hainsworth smart on the cushions for best ware and tear .

not the best cloth to fit for inexperienced people you can rip it easy if you are not careful  ,
you have to be very careful especially around the centre slate falls and use G clamps on this cloth .

Bed cloth marked out with D and baulk line and spotted , Ironed and now the cushions being aligned back up before torque  tightening of bolts .

the finished table , level checked and one net replaced .

and just some photos of the other games on offer in this man cave .
a Genuine Brunswick Shuffleboard around 12 to 14 foot long , I did not measure it .

Sam Air Hockey table .

Sega multi game video in foreground , Pinball and twin race video games in corner

Football table

and an impressive Driving range with large video projector above .
Add to this a table tennis table and a 7ft pro series Supreme Prince pool table
and as you can see a really enviable Man Cave has been produced here by the owner .

I do not like being ill and having to rearrange work especially if it affects others timings too .
thankfully the work that was affected did not mean any major disruption , and I thank all those affected for their cooperation in resolving this issue .
but now after a few days recovery I seem to be over the illness , let’s hope it has gone for good this time .
It has been lingering and coming and going since January  , not sure it is all related to the same illness or I have been unlucky enough just to get the next bug that is going around .

but I am pleased to say I am back at what I like doing best and that is working on cue sports tables .
Running a small company like GCL billiards is not easy to do if illness is involved , I do have extra help with labour to help lifting ,
but I do not have anyone else to cover for me if I am off for the skilled fitting work .
When people look at our website they think we are a large multi workforce billiards firm , I am afraid those days of large billiard firms with 3 or 4 experienced fitters are long gone ,
and the two or three firms left that have more than one fitter are either fully booked out doing world snooker work or have enough work to keep their fitters busy , but most billiard firms are just one fitter and the odd labour help ,

when I first started at Elston & hopkin in 1980 we had 4 Billiard fitting staff , 3 office staff , 4 billiard hall staff plus cleaners , plus a removals firm as back up if we required extra labour .
How things have changed  over the years and that is just one small Billiard firm that was established from 1938 who at one time had 13 billiard halls at its peak time of trading as well as the fitting side .
Above a photo from around 1936 Burnaby hall Hopkin Billiard hall Hyson Green . ( before it became elston & hopkin )
over the years the Billiard ( Snooker Industry ) is shrinking in man power , due to more and more tables being made abroad mostly China .
and with it the Experienced billiard fitter is also disappearing , more importantly no apprenticeships are being offered .
I am 65 on Friday 29th March , and I am now thinking about an ideal age to retire ,
I have set my goal at 70 years old which is only 4 years past my Government official retirement age of 66 .
Until then Health permitting I hope to carry on the art of billiard fitting , after my retirement age I may work part time and train someone up into the job to take over GCL billiards .
I would like to think with the successions of firms from John Gent Billiards started around 1880 to Elston’s 1932 then elston & Hopkin 1938 who then split to around three firms and GCL billiards was one of those firms , i would like to think GCL billiards could still be trading after I am gone .
From John Gent circa 1880 to present day there has been a fitter handing down their knowledge from fitter to fitter , it would be a shame to stop at GCL billiards .
One word of warning it is hard work having to lug around 1 ton of heavy slate even on a level ground never mind up or down stairs .
so who ever I take on in 4 or 5 years time to learn this trade would have to expect a lot of that .
But hey working for yourself is one of the most rewarding jobs you can do , you get a lot of self satisfaction and you are only answerable to your clients and of course the tax man .

I have been over to Derby this week to the Cueball club .
On this visit my instructions where to re-cloth bed and cushions on two of their tables .
The cloth used is Hainsworth MATCH on the bed and Hainsworth SMART  on the cushions.
This combination of a thin fast bed cloth and slightly thicker cushions cloth to take the wear and tare of ball bounce around the nose of the cushions.

Start of the work , strip down cushion cloth off the cushions .

I fitted new rubber last November to this table , the table has had some misuse and had several holes in the bed cloth and one on the cushions cloth
So because of misuse the table to be reclothed.

Hainsworth Match is a difficult cloth to fit , so it has to have clamps put on around the centre pockets when pulling the 4 corners out and tacking bed cloth on nice and tight .

The finished table , hopefully the people using it will not repeat the misuse , Danny who runs the club is on the ball when it comes to keeping up appearances .
a scruffy torn bed cloth is not a good advertisement so he is now keeping an eye on this more popular overused table to see that the misuse is  not repeated .

the second table to get the refresh treatment is an old Orme and Sons table with modern slates and cushions .
This is a very nice table to work on , just a couple of nets to replace as well and it is now back up to pristine playing condition .

The Cueball Club at Derby is a well run club that really goes the extra mile where Customers are concerned
place is clean and tidy and many improvements have been carried out since Rileys owned the place , it is now run by Owner Danny for the past 7 years .
and every year he has improved and moved the place forward .
Danny keeps a tight ship , staff always polite , toilets nice and clean , Food Drink selection good , and they sell Accessories and Cues too .
and more importantly all tables kept to a good playing condition .
an important Client of GCL billiards with 12 full size snooker tables and over 8 pool tables .

These lights have now been SOLD SOLD SOLD !

SOLD TO TRADE  BUYER ….. YOU MISSED YOUR CHANCE TO BUY THEM AT VERY REASONABLE MONEY .

now a trader has bought them to sell on at much more money .

We have a set of brass billiard lights made by Christopher wray lighting emporium in the 1980s .
these retailed at around £1700 just for the main light when new .
and the wall lights would have been over £300 each .
and very rare to find matching wall lights X 3 is also included .

Regarded as the best replica Victorian gas style lighting ever sold .
some very ornate brass work and three fixing points rather than the bad one fixing points of copies of this light that where also hitting the market at the same period .
My client is asking for £650 for the complete set and it is based in North wales , but may be able to deliver if close by or on his run back and forth to London

a more close up photo showing detail
the three  wall lights are on the far table in this photo
Metal shades rather than the Glass type , glass ones used to break when you used the long tackle , and lifted it on and off  breaking the glass shades ,
causing damage to the bed cloth from falling sharp glass , so we do not recommend  you buying a Victorian style lighting with glass shades , this one has been supplied with or upgraded to those metal painted shades .
Glass may look nice but they are dangerous to have .

as an example this light with glass shades is available on ebay at £250 second hand .
so you can see what value you are buying with the full size version.
GLASS is bad above a snooker or Pool table

all inquiries for the lights to Carol or Geoff Large at

c.large@btinternet.com