Category Archives: News

We are experts in the relocation of Snooker tables , we move tables on a regular basis throughout the year and have many satisfied clients .
Do you have a table upstairs or in a basement location , we have moved Full size tables that are in difficult places to remove , or install into a room .
We have special trolleys to wheel slates and also a slate slide to get them downstairs , we also have lifting straps for up to 6 men to lift slates off a Slate trolley at the base of a set of stairs to a Slate trolley at the top of the stairs .
We have wraps to place around stair rails to protect them , and also a slide carpet to go over the stairs to protect from the slate slide .

Sometimes it may be possible to use a local crane hire , like this example in France to lift slates up to an opening in a Barn conversion , A Manitou fork lift borrowed from a local farmer and was on site ready for when we arrived , this was planning well in advance .
and came about because we talk about the install and like to see photo’s of where it is going way before we do the work .

Or even this example of using a crane that was already on site to lift the slates into the basement before capping with the floor area , the customer in this case even built his own slate rack to strap the slates to .

and another example of getting the heavy slates upstairs , many hands make light work as they say , and this client to keep costs low just employed a fitter ( myself)  and used his own 5 man team to lift the slates upstairs with myself making the 6th man .
These slates had another set of stairs to go up as the table was being set up in an attic room . Believe it or not one of this team was a woman she is just out of sight on the other side of the slate in the middle . she was strong though ! it really is a story of many hands make light work though and it is not as bad as the photo looks . all the slates where up within 45 minutes and all lifted up by hand and I provided all the lifting straps for this job , so no need to worry about equipment to find to get the table upstairs even if you do supply the extra men. I  am not saying we cannot supply the men , it was just that this client required a lower priced option by supplying the extra 4 men and 1 Woman !

Another table that was in an upstairs location in a Factory unit , this time the client  had the table lifted up by forklift that can be purchased if you shop @ Forklift Safety Solutions, and the table was as you see it when I arrived to finish the work off .

a full size snooker table loaded onto the van , all woodwork is blanket wrapped for the move and relocation , but if you are just having the table taken into store then for an extra charge we can bubble wrap all the woodwork to help keep damp out if say you are storing in a Garage that is unheated , note one of our sets of piano wheels at the back of the van that we use to trolley the slate on level ground .

another table just being loaded , again we make sure the polished woodwork is well wrapped to protect during the Move and relocation .
note our slate slide to the right with a blue ratchet strap , we use this to slide a slate downstairs using a strip of old carpet to protect the stairs , we only require three men for this type of removal of slates rather than 6 men to get them upstairs .
If you have a table upstairs we may ask you to send us a photo to show the stairs that we have to take the slate s down or up . we like to know exactly what we are up against before we take the work on , any firm that just shows up then starts to moan about the stairs is unprofessional , it shows our professionalism in the art of Snooker table removals that we ask so many questions .

STORAGE ,   if you cannot store your own table may we offer you an alternative ?
we have a large DRY storage area that our very good friends Jonills Removals offer our clients , we do not charge any middle men fees for storage we let you pay for storage direct to Jonills Removals  in Nottingham rather than take a percentage
And if you are moving house we can also work alongside Jonills in the removal of your snooker table at the same time as your House move , not many billiards firms can offer this all in service !
I have worked for many years with Dave at Jonills , removing tables at the same time as he moves the house , so if you required an all in quote of house contents and snooker table removal and set up at new property we can get together to work the best price out for you .

No fitter likes to lift slate upstairs , but we have to take the rough as well as the smooth work as they say .
If there are enough people on site to help get the slate upstairs then getting them up is not a problem for us.
if fork lifts and cranes can be used then go for this every time , but that is not always possible , and I would say it is very rare to get such machinery close by at the same time as an install upstairs.
above I have given you an insight of what it takes to get tables up or down stairs , I am glad to say most snooker tables are located on the ground floor and most of our table removals are straight forward and just a two man job if both locations are ground floor with solid ground and good access or a lift is available for getting slate  upstairs , but by showing you these examples it shows that GCL Billiards do have the Professional experience to tackle such work .
all above photo’s are on examples I have actually worked on , I do have many more photo’s too but I think I have put enough on to show what we do in our every day work as a billiards fitter.
In March I have a job to take 3 full size snooker tables downstairs for storage on site , this will be one of many job’s we take on throughout the year , if you have a table that requires moving by Professionals then please contact Geoff at GCL Billiards on 07753466064 or email at c.large@btinternet.com

and what a table looks like after re-locating and set up .
a very nice Riley Viceroy in oak  .

Today I have been out to Spalding in Lincolnshire , I was booked to do a re-cover in 6811 pool cloth on a 7×4 supreme winner pool table .
the venue was a fishing lake club and caravan park site.
I noticed that the cushions where going spongy so after a discussion with the owners it was decided that they upgrade to include a Brand new set of cushions supplied direct from the supreme Factory , these are not the low cost options you can buy on ebay , but Genuine supreme winner and prince cushions made  by supreme with high quality rubber used , they also come with a new set of fixing bolts .

I also took my time and made sure the table had a full service

The inside of the table was vacuumed out , and all ball rail runs and center section washed out with warm soapy water , and allowed to dry out .
I did this before i did the re-cover to allow for it to dry .

the side ball tray was given the full works of de-clogging all the grease and grime and dust and chalk build up , this was very bad and it was almost impossible for the balls could even roll down the tray
the last person to re-cover the table did not do this so it was a double dirty one to sort out  notice I got right into the flip out ball tray with the cloth .

the finished table . one of the legs had a none adjustable broken stripped thread foot , so we made this one leg the  high point and used the other feet to level the table up to that level , the slate had a dip in so we used strips of cloth on the support bars to take this bow out , the owner was most impressed in the way we went about the work and was highly delighted with the finished table
I suspect the foot was broken when the balls got stuck on all the grease and clogging of runners , to free the ball they lifted the table up and banged it back down stripping the thread on the adjustable foot.
So be aware make sure you have the table fully cleaned out , if they had done this last time that foot would have been undamaged !
GCL billiards will always do the work to a high standard , improving the tables play ability in the process , to the point you would not want another firm touching the table when it come’s to maintenance such as this .
Please contact Geoff at GCL billiards for your table to get the same treatment .

I do not know what is happening usually there is a lull in work after Christmas  , but with cheap low cost full size snooker tables flooding the market and with pool tables being played on much more , we have been getting bookings to move tables and re-cover a substantial amount of pool tables.
I have only a couple of days spare and I have quotes out for those days so it looks like the 2nd week of March before I can start taking more work in .

I do not like turning work away and will try and fit you in if I am passing for the odd pool table  re-cover or service or re-stretch of bed cloth on snooker tables .
please be patient when trying to book us for work , I am sure it will be beneficial for you to wait a few more days or weeks to get a professional re-cover by a time served Billiards fitter.

We do take our time when completing any work on your table and will not rush a job to earn a few more £s , we are not on a bonus scheme like some are .

We aim to keep costs to a more reasonable charge , and one way of doing this is for the client to supply help to lift slates upstairs if they have a 2nd floor location .

The phone was ringing all through Christmas and new Year , I am sorry if I left a few phone calls unanswered but we decided to have a long break over the Christmas holiday period and start back on the 5th of January with a good 10 day break from work .
We have had bookings and inquiries to move various tables around and also the re-covering and re-rubber work is also starting to roll in .
It seems I am on the phone every day ordering in cloth for work booked in . so if you have a table that is requiring work in the near future or not too distant future please book us early as we are very popular and do not charge VAT .

please also look at our for sale section and look into past pages to see if any table takes your fancy , all these tables are being sold direct from the private seller , and from past experience of sales from this web site , I can inform you that some Bargains have been found like the one above which was just £450 , mainly due to re-location and house sales , but also from sellers who just want to use the room for other use.

we are also being asked to open up pockets on tight tables by not only private households but clubs and even Snooker Teacher Instructors who give lessons on the art of the game , it is now known that a much more open pocket gives you confidence to build high breaks and this enables the person to gain interest as well as accuracy when they go onto playing on tournament pockets which are a shade tighter by around 1/8th of an inch , if you get bored with a tight pocket table you are less likely to practice ,but on a table with wider pockets you can rack up some decent breaks then this removes the mental obstacle that you are not good enough and builds confidence to make higher breaks on even tighter pockets .
We can open pockets from the match size of 3.5 inch to 3.5/8th and 3.3/4 inch , anything above this then I think is a step too far .
Also the table age and cushions design may limit us to how we can open pockets up as some tables narrow as the  ball enters the pocket ,  the more modern the table the less likely this is going to be the case .

another table we have opened the pockets up on , and we managed to do this without having to re-cover the cushions with new cloth , but we cannot guarantee this to be the case on every table , it depends on how it was recovered last time and if we can remove the tacks or staples without damage to the cloth .

This is how the rubber looks under the cloth

we are also experienced in maintaining steel block cushions , some firms shy away from these type of tables but not GCL billiards , Geoff is highly experienced in working on them
I am now going to show a photo below of a very bad re-rubber , this is one that was posted on a web site by a snooker enthusiast in Portugal , you can see why i say very bad when you look at how the rubber has been butchered  and hacked at in trying to form the curve of the pocket . it looks more like a faceted edge of a 50p coin rather than a smooth curve to template !

the photo from Portugal click on photo to enlarge for a better view of rough cut  , Re-gluing of loose rubber is not going to solve the rough cutting of the rubber in the above photo , the rubber in the corner pocket opening should be made as smooth as the photo of the steel cushion rubber in the photo above this one , this is how GCL billiards would rectify this problem , so if you have rough cut pockets and they have left enough rubber on like this one,  I could improve the cushions cut and smooth this all out like  in the steel block photo .
But if they have cut too much off then you may be better off having a complete new re-rubber of the cushions .
Now I am not going to flame the guy who did this as he has not had any formal training in re-rubber of cushions , the problem with many want to be billiard table fitters is they think they can learn the job in under 3 weeks , I can assure you it takes around 5 to 8 years to develop into a good billiard table fitter .

Click on photo’s to enlarge
a close up of how the  rubber should be cut and smoothed out on a standard wood  cushion . now look at the photo above this one to see a bad cut , just imagine how a ball will react when it hits all these cuts and divots and lumps , and also the cloth will split on the sharp rubber , yes rubber can cut the cloth if it is  left like the rough cut in the photo from Portugal .

just to round things off , this is how your table should look after a successful; re-rubber and re-cover by Geoff at GCL billiards .
if you want an experienced Billiards fitter to work on your Bar billiards /  Snooker or Pool table then Phone Geoff on 07753566064 or email c.large@btinternet.com

Tomorrow I am going out to Willingham by stow near Gainsborough to recover a full size snooker table .
I know this area very well but did not know this client who has owned the table for the last 12 years .
We will then be taking  a break for Christmas and new year  , we shall be restarting back to work on the 5th of January 2014 , some days have already been booked out for January , but we do have days free if you wish to have your cue sports table work done early in the new year .
GCL BILLIARDS WISH ALL OUR CLIENTS OLD AND NEW A VERY HAPPY CHRISTMAS AND HEALTHY + PROSPEROUS NEW YEAR

a photo of one of our clients table recently re-covered in 6811 Strachan tournament cloth with new nets and leathers fitted ready for Christmas Family fun

The past two days I have been collecting a snooker table that was in our for sale section by Private seller , our client had logged into GCL Billiards web site and looked in the for sale section which are tables being sold by Private adverts , and found what he has been looking for .
A rare 10ft Oak snooker table .

Above a photo of the oak table in it’s old location near Congleton Cheshire
I dismantled the table in the sellers Home and loaded with help from the Seller , I then transported the loaded table to Matlock in Derbyshire
unloaded and with some extra help we carried the slates up a sloping tiered back garden to the Brand new Wooden Cabin that had been built by the buying client .

I was very impressed with the Wooden Cabin , in that  a very nice log burner had been installed and once lit I had to take my woolen Jumper off within minutes .
I was informed by the owner that his total spend for the entire cabin with log burner and with carpet and the 10 foot by 5 foot  table installed was all done for a budget of £10.000
I know people who have spent twice that amount on the same quality cabin and table .
My only  improvement would be an annex built on to the end of the cabin to house  a toilet / shower  and a small kitchen , just in case the cabin could be used as a Holiday let later on in life when the house may be sold on to new owners who are not into snooker .

Looking out from the Cabin you have a very nice view of the Valley coming down from Tansley to the right and towards Matlock to the left , we carried the 5 slates from my van up the tiered Garden to the cabin .
I used to caravan at the top of this Valley at  a Caravan site called Lickpenny , there always seemed to be Birds of Pray circling above this valley , but I did not see any on this occasion .

With this log burner there is no need to freeze to death playing snooker , a very efficient way of keeping this large cabin warm

And the 10ft by 5ft table now erected ready for play , When I took the table down the firm that supplied the table missed out the adjustable center slate bearers .
I supplied 4 adjustable bearer brackets and two beams to make this table correct , and it installed to a good level , much better than the last firm who had put all sorts of packing to try and level it and then fill over uneven slate joints to hide the faults.
I am not going to name them other than they are based in the west midlands and sell these type of tables  . and it is not the first time I have had to retro fit these adjustable slate bearers to their tables that they supplied and fitted by their own fitter , I have put right around 5 of their supplied tables all with missing slate supports .
the new slate bearers will make sure there is no center slate sagging and balls running inwards from both sides are now eliminated .
I retro fitted the brackets and cut down the beams to fit at the sellers house so that it was ready to go up with no hassle at this end .

this table is made in china and sold by a number of firms in the UK including Titan and Riley , the firm in The west midlands also sells these and my selling client was told it was made in Birmingham  at their factory ?
I did advertise this table on my web site and it had a good interest from around four buyers looking for a 10ft table  , one enquirer thought it was a Chinese  table made from soft wood  pine and that it was a load of rubbish !
I can inform him it is not rubbish , the table is solid oak and is very heavy wood unlike pine , the table is very well made and just required a better fitment on install rather than the shoddy way it was installed from new .
I am not certain where the table is made in China or who by , but it could be that they are made in the same factory that makes the Star tables as used in professional matches on TV.

one improvement that will require doing is to open up the pocket openings to be wider , they are around 3.3/8ths at one end,  and 3.5 at the other end , our client is no  Ronnie O’Sullivan and will be much better suited to wider pocket openings of around 3.3/4 inch
as you can see there is plenty of rubber left int he corner pockets to improve the pocket to a much wider one and allow more enjoyment from our client and his friends and guests .
We have one very happy client who has now completed his dream of having a nice warm room with a good sized 10ft snooker table to play  on .
I know  there will be a few readers of this Blog look at the wooden Cabin Building and take note of it’s affordability  , and not forgetting the value it put’s on your property as an extra room for little money
I do a few install of tables into  these buildings and this year have done around three installations into log type cabins .
With plenty of full size snooker tables being given away or going for little money , this is one way of fulfilling a dream .

We are sorry to say we just cannot take anymore work on for our run up to Christmas Day
we are working flat out with some weekends having to be pulled into the workload too .
We shall be working right up to December the 24th evening .

It has been like this for the last three Christmas run ups , so we where expecting this year to be no different .
December started off with work in Butlins Skegness with 6 American pool table re-covers in Art cape printed Budweiser Cloth
then a dismantle and erect of a full size snooker table at a RAF base
a pool table re-cover , then working on our rental tables on Saturday the 6th , Re-stretch of bed cloth on full size snooker plus servicing of snooker tables in Nottingham ,
a pool table to do in Belper , then then two pool tables in Leicestershire , 8ft snooker table refurb in Derby , 7ft snooker refurb in burton on trent , a Full size snooker table re-cover .
another trip out to Leicester to recover pool tables , then to Ruddington another pool table , then Newark 2 to 4 pool tables , then up to Congleton to dismantle and load a 10ft .
then over to Matlock to install the 10ft , a full size to assemble and recover , another full size re-cover . plus working on cushions in the workshop ready for the new year .
as you can see I am pretty busy for the next 16 days which takes me up to the 24th , I now refuse to work Sundays  the Wife has banned it not me .
I am looking forward to a Christmas break and Santa is bringing me a new Guitar for Christmas if I can pry it out his hands .

If you wish to book Geoff for any work on your Cue sports table , then please leave it until the new year , besides you run the risk of Christmas drink’s being spilt on that new re-cover if you have it done before Christmas .
Geoff is now taking work on for January and February 2015   ….SNOW and blizzards permitting !

lets hope the snow keeps away this Christmas and the new year .
if the jet stream shifts south of the UK  it will dump this lot on us again .