Category Archives: News

I have had the pleasure of moving a very nice carved Arts & Crafts billiard table this week to North Wales .
My Client Alan contacted me over several months to locate a table he also kept an eye out for one suitable that could be picked up between Nottingham and Wales .
this one was advertised on Ebay and was located in Knutsford in Cheshire.
so nicely placed between us .

I arrived at Knutsford to be met by Alan and the seller Jo , the home was a very nice arts and crafted designed Home .
the table was left in the house by the previous owner , and Jo and her Husband wished to use the room for another purpose .
the table was supplied by Sir William Bentley Billiards to the previous owner who paid a very large sum for it .
Alan got it at a very good price , but it has to be said selling a  snooker table these days is not a very easy process and low offers or bidding is the normal process at which a table is sold
Alan won the bidding on the table so he arranged with GCL billiards to do the table dismantle move and set back up in North Wales .

the table being dismantled in Knutsford , note the arts and Crafts fireplace
the legs of the table are carved Acanthus leaf design , a common design used in Victorian time and later arts and crafts carving .
This table dates from 1910 to 1936 , that was the reign of King George V and this table sports a Thurston name plate in Ivory on one cushion .
This is also within  the time period of Arts and Crafts Movement from 1880 to 1920’s .

the Name plate on one end cushion of Thurston , the time period is of course taken from the King George V statement .
note the brass billiard chalk cup under slung the cushion .

the table was transported to Penygroes north wales near llanberis , I arrived approx 1.30pm
and the table was completed and ready for play by 4.30pm .

the finished table , now located in Alan’s North wales home .
a modern Home , yet will look the part with oak flooring and skirting , the oak table although darker blends in .
a modern LED light unit clad in oak on the ceiling is being planned .

Side frame carved buttons and lower bowed frieze and knee panels with matching buttons complete the Arts and Crafts look .
note the 1/4 sawn oak grain in the side frame .
the polish of the table is in very good order , and Alan did very well for the complete package of purchase and dismantle transport and erect in North wales .
I can only see the value of this particular table increase in value in the future .
A sought after 9ft size and a collectible Arts and Crafts piece , I am sure even Drew Pritchard & T just down the road from Alan at Conwy , would appreciate this classic time piece .
Now is the time to buy these tables , antique dealers shun away from them because of the weight and time it takes to employ billiard fitters to move correctly .
It is only a matter of time before antique Billiard tables take off again and become sought after especially the 3/4 sized ones like this 9ft , and prices then will be much higher ….NOW IS THE TIME TO BUY
An unskilled move can cause damage , Alan had the foresight to contact GCL billiards to  carry out this specialist work .
And also had the foresight to inquire about tables well in advance of buying one and then asking for my opinion of that table ,   and getting a quote to relocate it BEFORE BUYING !
GCL billiards have 41 years personal time served billiard fitter in Geoff Large .
If you have a table you wished to be moved contact the professionals at GCL billiards .

Due to my age now , we are having to turn some difficult lifting job’s down .
we will now not take tables upstairs unless a 6 man team is involved to save strain on backs arms and joint’s .
and I am afraid I only supply two men , so the other 4 men would have to be supplied by the client on their risk and insurance and not GCL billiards .
a 6 man team to bring in two vehicles is expensive so we just supply two men .
but I do have all the lifting loop straps and two piano trolleys .

A few years ago the building trade suppliers cut down the weight of a bag of concrete and sand to half bags , this was to save on damaged backs and joints within the building trade .
this was under guidelines set out by health and safety  .
unfortunately Billiard slates cannot be cut down in size and I have to set out my own risk assessment these days for work like this ,
and it is becoming unsafe for an ageing fitter like myself and my mate Steve who is just a few years behind me to do this type of work now ,
Yes I have done it in the past and I am now suffering for it , in that my elbow and wrist joints are now playing up especially after lifting heavy slates upstairs .
thankfully 95% of Billiard / snooker tables are on ground floor level or have lift access to all floors .
so still plenty of work to be had moving tables without the heavy damage that can be incurred lifting slate upstairs .
I am 64 this month and would like to carry on working well past my official retirement age which is two years away , that is how much I enjoy my work ,
I plan to carry on until I am at least 70 full time then part time after , and reducing strains on the body to achieve this,  is the advice of my Doctor .
I do have a slate slide to get slates downstairs which only involves a three man team , providing the stair case is suitable .
so we will take on the majority of moving tables downstairs installs and removals and delivery , but upstairs is now becoming a problem for full size snooker tables for me .
Some smaller tables as long as they are 3 to 5 sectional slate beds will also be taken on upstairs due to much lighter slates .
all ground floor relocation are always welcome , so nothing changed there .
I am just trying to make sure I am able to commit to a job and future work without injury from lifting very heavy slates by hand to upper floors .

a typical slate slide carpet run to get slates downstairs without damage to treads .

Slate slide fitted to one section of slate ready to lower flat and slide down stairs

slate safely at the bottom and ready to load onto piano wheels .

sometimes if a local farmer is around with a tele handler extending beam fork lift we can use this to gain access to upper floors .

or the client may have a lift that can take more than the slate at 200kg plus one man
this is a disabled lift and has a capacity of 450kg
so one man and slate up and lower back out onto piano trolley will work and will not limit the lift from working as within limits .
most larger lifts will take two men and a slate and trolley , or 6 to 8 people or around 800kg .

some clients have their own machinery on site , this tele handler crane lowering slates into a basement before being capped off with floor .

In the basement and lean upright against a far wall .
well ahead planning on getting these slates into the cellar by crane rather than carry them down when finished down past a GLASS staircase rail .
when room is finished we will return to assemble the table .

And that table set up

Sorry to say if you wish to have any work done to your pool or snooker table we are booked out until April 12th 2018 as we speak
and this will change daily as more work keeps coming in .

Due to demand we are working a 6 day week to accommodate clients old and new .
please book well in advance for your pub or club Cue sports re-cover or maybe a table move ?.

We work on many differant sized tables from 6ft pool to full size snooker tables .

we can transport a full size snooker table dismantled in our van to most parts of the UK
we do this on average about twice a month , our main work is maintenance of cue sport tables .

Work like Re-rubbering to a high standard of finish .

Re-cover from standard cushions to these professional steel cushions .

A 6ft snooker table re-cover

We also sell and hire on contract rental the professional series Supreme pool table

If you require a rental pool table on contract hire then we think we are the best value around and include two re-covers a year in out rental program .
ensuring you have the best playing conditions in your league for home and visiting teams .
A good looking pool table increases trade over the bar .
our next stock of pool tables are coming in on March 14th ,so get your order in for one .

If you want the best care and attention for your cue sports table , then Geoff Large has over 42 personal time served  years .
An experienced time served billiards fitter known throughout the cue sports industry .
GCL billiards has become that popular we are always booked up in advance , so get your order in well in advance,
That is our advice if you wish to choose GCL billiards to carry out your table maintenance .

I have Been over to Derby this week to a clients house .
My client bought a table and had it installed around two years ago .
although he did not complain about the match pockets being tight ,  his guests who played there often did .
so he contacted GCL billiards to open the pockets up and at the same time refresh the playing surface .

As you can see it is a genuine two bolt hole per leg face Riley Aristocrat , but it did not have adjustable slate bearers .

this is what we retro fitted to the underside of the table to make sure we could adjust the centre of the slate and get any slate bowing or dipping out .

Bed cloth fitted , a lightweight 29oz version of the popular Strachan 6811 tournament .
we had spent a bit of time making sure the table was level and the slate joints where skimmed and blended in .
our client was complaining that the joints where showing through the old cloth , we did not wish this to happen to the new fitted cloth .

we reshaped the corner pocket openings from tight WPBSA template size to Snooker Control council size , around 1/8th opened up .
note this is a steel cushioned professional standard table .

my client had made some WPBSA templates out of soft wood , as you can see we have altered the angle into the corner slightly each side

the older Billiards snooker control council templates  ( B&SCC  ) where used to make the pockets more approachable for the average to good player
these are not club Bucket sized pockets and they still measured around 3.5 inch at the fall , and these B&SCC  templates date from June 1990 .
As you can see the template fits nice and snug , we kept the flat profile in place when cutting back the rubber , and there is minimal undercut .

the undercut template fitted snug against the flat face of the corner and aligned perfectly with the 3.5 radius cut falls of the slate .

the middles where also brought in line with the older B&SCC templates

as you can see we also fitted new Riley match pocket leathers and superior grade nets , and we fitted plastic ring ball rails and removed the old brass ones which where splitting the nets .
I always recommend to Snooker club owners to remove all metal ring ball rails and replace with lower cost option plastic ring ball rails as the nets last much longer .
and it is the same in Private houses , my client also sanded a round nose to the ring net plastic to make even more kind to the ring nets .
they also hang at the correct angle when a  ball falls into the net then through the net ring hole and  into the correct angle of slope , this is crucial to a longer lasting net .

the finished table

the plastic ring ball rails .
I feel we have solved our clients needs and not ruined his table by putting large bucket club pockets on there , they are still 3.5 inch at the fall ,
but they will take a ball much better in all 6 pockets .
The WPBSA plates are very unforgiving to most players , and you can soon lose interest in playing on a table with tight pockets .
there is a reason the pro players have that tight pocket , they can through years of practice and commitment play at a high level on these tight pockets , but the average to good player would be much better off with the older pre 1990 B&SCC template size .
A story I do like to tell now and again is in 1982 I was watching a young player on the next table I was working on , playing on pockets that where nearly 4 inch wide at the fall in a club in Kirkby in Ashfield Nottinghamshire  .
I said you would never make it as a pro playing on such large buckets for pockets .
That young man was a 16 year old just left School Gary Wilkinson and he was ranked at world No5 in 1991/92 season
Gary became a pro 5 years after I said he would not make the grade , just goes to show that bigger pockets do give confidence in playing and keeping a young man that interested , that he went on to play on tournament pockets that where in those days  sized by the same B&SCC templates I am still using today .
From 1990 onward’s the pockets where closed up a bit to around 3.3/8ths at the drop and a new governing body took control of the pocket size this is the WPBSA templates .
IF you are having problems with pocket openings you may decide to go through what a few people are doing and actually open them up a touch .
I have done many job’s like this over  42 the years I have been fitting tables .

A standard none steel cushion opening up of pocket

A burroughs and watts steel cushion set what it looks like under the cloth

and the same Burroughs and watts after I had completed the table alterations of pocket size .

trimming rubber back to alter pocket size .

sometimes I can just peel back the cushion cloth alter the pocket opening and put the cloth back on , but only if the fitter before did a decent enough job on the re-cover
if not you would probably have to have the cushions re-covered .
it is really best to have this work done at the same time as a re-cover .

as I have said 3.5 inch or even 3.7/8ths of an inch at the fall is not large club pockets .

this is what I call bucket pockets , at nearly 4 inch at the fall !

3.5 inch at the fall for comparison

This full sized Billiard table is based in the North East  of England
it has a very interesting plaque and an accompanying autographed by C Dawson photo .
the table was manufactured by Birmingham based Padmore’s .  ( now part of the Thurston / Clare group of companies based in Liverpool )
on one end there is  a plaque commemorating a Billiards 9000 up exhibition match between H W STEVENSON and C DAWSON in NOVEMBER 1906

you may also note Henry Murton billiard table maker plaque , on frame , this was put on when the cushions where remodeled a few years later .

A signed C Dawson autograph is also included along with this photo of the two players .

The faded Henry Murton of Newcastle , cushion modifying plaque on the other end of the table .

A nice round reeded globe leg , with lion head knee panels and a lion head in the centre of each slide in cushion panel .

Above shot of cloth condition , looks like it had a recent recover not long ago .
but maybe nets and leathers could do with upgrading .
maybe returning to billiard bag nets if someone wanted to make it how it was in the day of 1906 .

lions head in each knee panel
The table looks like it could do with a total re polishing to bring back up to a good playing order , maybe new rubber and re cloth and bag nets .
this table would make a great table for someone who is into historic Billiard / snooker  collectibles .
it is one of those tables that should not be scrapped or recycled because of the historic interest .
With many tables going down that route of re-cycling , it would be a crime to send this the same way , so our clients are willing to listen to very reasonable offers for the table ,
the table belongs to a Parish council , so as you would expect the money would come in handy for them to use around the borough for good causes .
please contact Geoff at GCL billiards , he will put you in touch with the person in charge of selling the table , and guide you to a price to offer that is fair to both parties .
this is a good opportunity to pick up a table with good history provenance at a low reasonable price.
I will be asking Peter Ainsworth a local Billiards Historian here in the UK , for his views and if he can shed any light on the history of the billiards match played on this table  , I am sure he will have it logged down somewhere .
things like
DAY  date and Time , prize money and attendance figures , maybe it was UK tour ,of these billiard players , also history of the players themselves , and who reffed the match ?

We have expanded our pool table rental portfolio by fitting two more tables into a club in Nuneaton later this week .
allthough you could buy a table in almost any colour combination , our rental tables are installed as Black pearl cabinets  mechanical coin operations bodies and side doors  .
Factory cloth is changed at 6 months and we then re-cover in strachan 6811 28 oz all wool napped cloth .
If you would like to take out one of our excellent rental packages for a Brand New supreme winner 7×4 , speak to Geoff Large at GCL Billiards
our two recover a year package is the best value around and people often say how do you do it for the price !
Let us explain why renting is just as good as owning and maybe even better with tax concessions and recover options and upgrades to new tables after 5 to 6 years .
you never need to worry that your table is looking rough or the worst table in the neighborhoods pubs or clubs  , players will be clambering to play on your new GCL Billiards rental table .
because they know it is going to be re-covered every 6 months and new balls and cue’s every year , plus an extra set of Premier Aramith  match balls at install .

We will be supplying , Two Brand new  Supreme winner coin op tables converted to Free Play for this client who prefers to charge by the light usage / Hour charge .

We only do our rental tables in coin op with cue ball return to baulk line end .
we can take out the coin operation and just have free play , but you still get the cue ball return to baulk end
this is something you do not get with normal none coin op winners , all the balls come out at rack end .
and the cue ball does not separate .
We do prefer to keep our Rental pool table’s on Mechanical straight six coin operation , but for clubs wishing to charge by the hour we can convert them so that the balls bypass the coin operation ,
but still retains the  1/7/8ths cue ball   to 2 inch colour balls  separation slot .

our Winner tables are the latest design with die cast chrome metal corners rather than the older models with chrome plastic corners
you can tell the difference when you see them . also the trim line between cushion and upper surround is an alloy thin one and not the raised plastic type that no one likes .
the cabinet finish is Black pearl satin , rather than the older black ash wood grain which goes shiny and reflects the above lighting into your eyes .

Chrome metal Die cast corner plates with raised lettering

This is a club in Coventry that has three of our tables out on rental contract with two re-covers a year allowance .
winter and summer league starts off with a fresh re-cloth .

our tables have the superior Strachan 6811 cloth fitted, this is not thick slow club cloth but a 28oz version of tournament cloth especially made for pool table use .
all 100% pure new wool and no man made fibers in sight , these cloths are very good for cue ball control , there are faster cloths ,
but when it comes to all round play this cloth is the best to use .

Green badged tables are the latest tables with Black pearl finish cabinets
The choice of professional players , and best colour for rental tables .

WE DO NOT ANSWER TEXTS MESSAGES BECAUSE IT TAKES TOO MUCH VALUABLE TIME !

Please phone us during working week hours 9 to 5  if you have a inquiry or wish for a quote  .

if no one answers leave a voice message Please .

as you can see above texts can go back and forth all day long .

We get quotes like

How much to level a table ? no post code or what type of table just how much .
or how much to dismantle a full size table transport and erect it ?  again no post codes or if the table is on ground or upper floor at each end .

after going back and forth with texts it wastes so much of my working time and also my leisure time .
when a simple one on one talking over the phone can be so much quicker and less time wasting .
if I am unable to answer the phone , it maybe due to having my hands full or I am working on a table and time of day or client prevents me from answering a phone call at that moment .
Also I think it is rude of me to run an office answering service when I am supposed to be working for a client after all they are paying me to work on their table not answer phones , so it maybe later in the day when I answer a message left on my phone .
but only phone messages not TEXTS .
I am sorry if this seems like I am ignoring people , but texts is not one of my good things , actually it is one of my pet hates .
I can talk faster than texting back and forth and get my point or explanation over much better and quicker .

ITS GOOD TO TALK

Just before Christmas I upgraded the van to a Brand new one having had the old one four and a half years and at 60.000 mile thought why not .
less worry , less maintenance , less chance of something going wrong , and keep the company image fresh .
So we have had the new van sign wrapped with a reversal of design from our previous van so look out for us on the road.
snooker theme on side , pool theme on rear .

Out side the Plough Inn at Wysall today , nice pub and very nice meals , but was visiting the pool table for a re-cover , rather than having a pint .

As you can see i have had a reversal of design , what used to be on the back door is now on the side and the side is now on the back door from our previous van .
~also positioning of phone numbers a bit different and larger on the side of the van .

I will miss this old van , it never missed a beat in four and  a half years and 60.000 miles .
I kept the miles lower because I also use my car on some jobs .
just got to put the number plate GCL 13 back on the new van and we are done .
*** UPDATE … 21st January 2018 my old van above sold off forecourt to a lady who is going to convert it to a camper .
These vans if bought  on low miles and looked after like mine was ,  are ideal camper van conversions , because you can already stand up in them without any roof conversion
and they have factory roof panel cut outs already in the roof for putting skylights in for such conversions .
Medium wheel base has plenty of room for beds and seating plus wardrobe and cooker .
Ideal for up to 4 berth .