Category Archives: News

now and again I get small tables to re-cover , not my favorite type of tables to re-cover
but you take the rough with the smooth and pull one in n ow and again .
I would much prefer to work on sectional slate bed tables above 8ft size than tables of 5ft /6ft and 7ft type and even some 8fts made the same way .
So this table I took on and found a few problems that I have come across before ina  modern Dining table with one piece slate bed .

First of all the strip down , bed cloth off and cushions stripped for re-covering
These small tables are wood screwed on cushions , believe it or not I came a cross a 10ft made the same way the other week !
it is OK for small tables like this to be wood screwed , but table’s above 7ft and maybe some 8ft should all be sectional slate bed and bolted into slate bed bolts for the cushions fixings .you get a much better bounce with proper bolted into slate bed cushion bolts .

on Snooker tables there should be a rebated slot on the rear of the wood block that joins the wood polished surround of the cushion to trap the cushion cloth in
on this table it had screwed on blocks over the cushion cloth which was stapled behind the block for fixing .

a photo of a proper slip fitted cloth , note the thin slip of wood fixing the back edge of the cloth to the cushion .

The slate bed had a few streaks of Marbling , this is natural marble vein going through the slate sediment before it was crushed and formed many millions of years ago .
this slate is Italian and the table was made the 1990s /2000.
it is estimated that welsh slate was formed 400 million years ago . and it is not uncommon to find minute sea creature fossils trapped in the slate when an old billiard table two inch slate is broken

I managed to re-cover the screwed on cushion blocks and cushions because they did not do the trick of putting the rubber on over the screws , I have had a few of these tables to do in the past
it is pot luck if the person screwed the cushions on under the rubber or below it .
if the rubber was over the screws then i would have had to take the whole set of rubbers off and refasten the rubber .

The Original cloth was not in bad condition when comparing it to other tables I have recovered , but my client was not happy with the low quality thick fluffyness of the cloth
and required nice fast short napped Strachan 6811 29 oz cloth , this was the last piece of 29 oz I had in stock .
and only enough for a 6ft bed and cushions .

I will not disclose who I did this work for as it is unfair to start finding faults on their table and saying where it is .
but I like to inform people who may be looking for a dining table and to see the pitfalls of buying one that has not quite been made correct .
My client knows about these faults as I pointed out what could have been better made to him during strip down and re-cover and leveling .
my client actually inherited the table with the House so it cost him nothing but wanted it playing better .
He knows if he wished to upgrade to a proper made Riley Diner table what to now look out for .

a few things that would have made this table much better .

1)….Slip rebates in cushions so it could be re-covered with ease .
2)… Anti Bow beams under the slate bed to stop the slate bowing in the middle
3)… Large penny washers for the cushions screws
4)… higher quality bag nets .

the above table is a copy of the original Riley Dining dual height lifter tables like this one showing the Anti bow beams and lifters which they should have incorporated into their effort of a dining table . .

the modern Riley table is made like this now

I prefer the old type and especially the barley twist leg designed one

A very nice one I renovated in Lincolnshire recently

the same table with it’s solid oak table tops on .
some tables have a differnat type of anti bow mechanism , like this Burroughs and watts anti bow adjustable threaded bar version .
a simple device of wood beam across the middle a bar stretched under and threaded at each end fixed by bracket and adjusted with nuts lifts the center of the table up if it is sagging .

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 .

I have been over to my Local snooker club to fit another table with the Strachan 6811 tournament 30 oz pure new wool cloth .
This club keeps on top of the work by having me in on a regular basis , maintaining their Snooker and pool tables.
a small club with 6 full size snooker two with match play steel cushions  and 4 match play Supreme winner pool tables.
This was the table in the centre I have recently worked on , a Riley Regis circa 1980s .


The cushions off ready to be recovered .

A before photo showing the track marking wear on corner opening fall , and wear patches in cloth and faded cushions .

another satisfied client , the table now sporting a brand new strachan 6811 tournament 30 oz weight cloth .
if you are in the area of Beeston , Bramcote , Chilwell , Toton ,  Long Eaton , Sandiacre and Stapleford .
the Stapleford cue club is the best club for this area , the tables are well cared for with regular brushing and ironing .
As Carlsberg would say Probably the best snooker club in Notts !

Dennis Taylor on a visit to Stapleford Cue club for an evening with Dennis Taylor .

I have been over to the Cueball Club on Mansfield Road in Derby today to finish off the work of three full size re-covers on their snooker tables .
today I was working on table 1 in the corner of the room .

cushion stripped and recovered in the thicker Hainsworth Smart for better wear on the cushions , I find that fitting Smart cloth to cushion is much better for wear  ,than the thinner match cloth which easily splits on the facing edge and down the middle pocket falls where the ball makes contact with the wood end of the cushions and does not last long .
so we have gone with match cloth on the bed and smart cloth on the cushions , my client at the Cueball    ( Danny )   preferring Hainsworth over Strachan cloth .

here I have stripped the bed cloth off the slate bed and I am starting to fit the match cloth to the table .
stretched at each end then the middle falls are stretched  and tacked .
at this point I have to fit a large clamp to each side of the middle fall to pull each corner out , this prevents me ripping the cloth , and getting wrinkles in the centre slate fall .

Match cloth whether it is Hainsworth or the Strachan no10 is one of the hardest cloths to stretch out .
the cloth is thinner yet it is very unforgiving when it has to form around corners or falls like a centre slate fall .
thus the clamp is used to help things along .
I have wet the centre slate fall , this helps to form the cloth into the fall and look better , the cloth will shrink a bit into the fall as it drys .
you may see some odd fading’s on the TV table around the centre falls this is Starch , I prefer the old fashioned water damping rather than the starch for fitting wool napped cloths .
the damp cloth is also better to grip than shiny dry cloth so I keep my hands damp at all times when stretching cloth on to gain ta very tightly fitted cloth .

with the corner slate fall area pulled and tacked down and the ends stretched , you can see the wrinkles have been pulled out so it is now OK to take the clamp off .
you have to relocate the clamp at each side of the centre fall you as are pulling towards the corner pocket fall , so 4 operations of clamping and unclamping and pulling out of wrinkles .

as you can see a p erect fitted bed cloth around the centre slate falls , this is the hardest part of any stretching and fitting of bed cloths on snooker tables .

a corner pocket opening .

the centre pocket opening inwards view from inside of the table playing surface shows not wrinkles .

and the same on the corner pocket opening viewed inside the tables playing area towards the pocket .

the completed table 1  ready for play .

A few years ago Snooker clubs  started using High Frequency strip lights for snooker tables
I think this craze started in the Leeds area and soon spread around the UK ,
out went the old Coffin  canopy shades and in came the modern lighting in tube and now LED daylight or soft white lighting .
I have recently dismantled a Match Riley Aristocrat table for a client  , this table was uncovered most of it’s life with the balls just set up on their spots and in the triangle area .
I was amazed at how the light had bleached the cloth and in fact the balls also where bleached , yet the dark mahogany wood cushion surround and leathers had remained unaffected .

Now I know this is a one off situation where the table lighting is controlled by an auto switch on PC system and that the lighting was on almost 24 hours a day in this part of the house
due to no windows , but it does show what is happening slowly but surely with these modern White light tubes , I cannot comment if this is happening on LED lighting , but just look at the photo .

Saturday and working again when will I ever get a full weekend off ?
Got a phone call Friday afternoon informing me of this L shape tear on a club table in Derby .
with a few bills coming in the club wanted me to sew the tear up and then around September maybe re-cover the table ,
but for now they just wanted to get the table back in use for a nominal costing .
this is what I found when I got there this morning .

a 4 inch by 4 inch tear , obviously someone knew they had done this , not saying deliberate but it took some downward cueing stabbing power and  a sharp ferrule or very hard tip to rip this cloth to this extent . Especially as this cloth has had two stretches in the past and is on very tight not slack at all .

to sew this large tear the cloth had to be sewn from the reverse which meant two cushions coming off and taking tacks out of two sides .

Right I can now get at the tear and get the cloth to close up a bit rather than trying to pull it together sewing from above , which was impossible due to tension of cloth .
so not a quick repair like some are , this tear was too large to do that . with traveling of around 10 mile each way , this repair took almost three hours of the day up .

Lock stitching the tear together from the reverse side.

when finished I always rub a little candle wax over the threads to strengthen them

the repair of tear fully sewn up and tapped level with hammer and wood block , then cloth is ironed as flat as I could get it .
there is some slight ball deviation when a ball rolls over it but this will get better as the table is brushed and ironed more .
but at least this repair will last them until September , unless someone rips it more or decides to have a go at the repair .
I have suggested  CTV in the room from now on .

not many firms would do a call out job like this , preferring to turn it into a full re-cover

but GCL Billiards do work with clubs to look for a more affordable solution to keeping the table in play until they can afford a re-cover
like most clubs , they have expensive rates and bills to pay at certain times of the year , and the budget for the next re-cover for this table is in September 2017 .

Just been over to Hunters Bar this week to re-cover 7 Supreme winner 7×4 pool tables .
6 in Strachan 6811 tournament and one in Strachan super pro speed .

with 7 supreme winners and 4 Sam K steel 9ft pool tables int his club , it gets very busy at times

a photo showing  the Sam k steel 9ft American pool 9ft Tables in the back ground .

gluing of the bed cloths to the slate bed

We strip every staple out of the cushions , cowboy speed fitters cover over old staples and it is not unusual to have 3 to 4 sets of staples left in when stripping down
at GCL billiards we like to take every staple out every time we do a re-cover .

close up of a finished table  re-clothed in Strachan 6811 tournament cloth .
the day before I went to Grantham I also re-covered 4 Supreme winners in sleaford at the Reel Club in the new Simonis speed sky blue cloth .

we have a Silver pool table at £350 Cash on collection . this is a PRIVATE SALE . and not part of GCL billiards stock .
a supreme Winner 7×4 coin operated with super six coin mech adjustable from 10p to 50p
The table has a hardly worn Strachan 777  Blue cloth fitted to it .
this pool table has come back off site and is now for sale as it stands buyer collects from long Eaton near Junction 25 of M1.
in my opinion all it requires is a respray by silver Halfords can of paint to top surround to look good again .
it is a second hand Pool table and has the usual knocks and scrapes associated with on site use in a pub site .

the top surround is suffering from coin flipping to the silver surround and has marks above where the coin mech is as seen in above photo .
this table will look good again with around £20 worth of spray paint and masking tape , that is all it requires to make it look really good like this photo below when it originally went out on site 18 months ago

the table has been used since this re-cover but no much , and the cloth is in very good condition .

This photo is the current condition of the table as it was picked up off site and as it is for sale .
this price is for pick up only from Long Eaton near junction 25 of M1.

as you can see if the top was resprayed like this photo the table would look a lot better for it .

The table side door has new locks fitted 4 silver legs to match the cabinet and two sets of balls , a set of blue and yellows and a set of spots and stripes
it has a triangle brush and two cues .
the coin mech can be set for FREE play if required .
there is also a ply wood hard top cover to the table as seen in this above photo .
the table is also up for sale on another site so please inquire to see if still available .
In my opinion the cloth has plenty of life left in it , a re-cover in Strachan 6811 is an extra £185 if required , but as said it does not require this .
these COIN OPERATED supreme winners are around £1200 to £1250 delivered and set up depending where you purchase from  , grab yourself a second hand one at below 1/4 of the price of new.

here is one example of silver 7×4 Supreme winner table with blue cloth and coin operated at £1253.00p

Supreme Winner 6 ft, 7 ft, 8 ft English Pool Table