Category Archives: News

GCL Billiards have built up a good reputation in our local Surrounding counties that is the heart of the EAST Midlands .
We do many Private Houses as well as Pub’s club’s and institutions .
Please take a few minutes to look at the following photo’s to see the vast type of clients and tables we work on and for .

Most of these clients do come back to us because they where impressed with our work ethics , for further maintenance of re-covers , re-stretching 0r even relocating the table over hundreds of miles or just around the corner . GCL billiards is the Firm to contact in the EAST Midlands for any cue sport maintenance , GCL billiards is Geoff Large so you are working direct with the fitter , a time served fitter at that,  who has the knowledge to advise on the best action of work to be carried out , some firms employ telephone answering people or maybe a secretary when making enquiries about a problem or simply good advice , these secretaries  have not got Cue sport knowledge of over 40 years hands on experience of both billiards Snooker and Pool tables of various makes and designs .

Geoff can give you instant advice 99% of the time , he may require a photo , but you are assured at GCL billiards  that the person you are dealing with has the experience to give good advice and also carry out any work on your prized Cue sports table .

Geoff worked in the Billiards snooker & pool Industry for many years working for his Uncle and later for John Hopkin  a well known figure in the billiards industry who sat on the B&STA committee with Norman Clare of Thurston Clare and Padmore’s later to revert back to Thurston , before he formed GCL billiards with his wife Carol , was he right to go it alone , YES he only wishes he did it many years ago , he had become disillusioned with the way the industry was being absorbed by Coin operating people who where only interested in speed work and volume of cash influx rather than taking their time as he was trained to do a good job by the time served billiards fitter before him , in fact three time served Billiards fitters.

Geoff is also sought after by the local pool players and pubs and clubs to maintain their table’s using Strachan quality cloth . We not only work on full size snooker tables but any size and make of cue sports table is it has pockets or rings and cushions and a ball rolls on it , GCL billiards is the firm to contact
We also Rent pool table’s on longer term contracts , using the excellent Supreme Winner in all our site’s , We only offer this as a local network based in a 25 mile radius of NG10 4JU . if you are just outside this area then get in touch we may take you on board for rental table’s .

Contact Geoff Large direct on 07753466064 or home answer phone 01159725355 also by  email c.large@btinternet.com

 

 

GCL Billiards strive to do the best work possible using the best materials , We always recommend Strachan as our main cloth to be used either for Snooker or Pool or american pool  .

We can supply hainsworth and even Euro pool cloth , but we point out to our clients the many years of tradition of Strachan cloths and why it is used by the main tour for both snooker and Pool world wide.

Strachan produce a cloth for both the Professional and the home user or youth club where wear longevity is required over high quality of finish .
So a price to suit pocket with the same Brand Name you can trust Strachan fitted by a firm you can trust GCL billiards.
You do not have to live in the East midlands to qualify for a visit from GCL billiards to carry out your recover work  , we do venture out further . please ask .

Just a few photo’s a client has kindly sent me of a table I set up for him in his Garage workshop office as he like’s to call it
Photo 1 the frame assembled and level ready for slates

The slates being put on the levelling pads that are then adjusted by spanner .

Next photo , the slates have been levelled and the joint filled with car body filler to make as one bed then all bed lightly sanded to remove any unwanted grit

The finished table with original Red cloth re-fitted , some firms will try and get you to have a re-cover , it just depends if the cloth has been fitted correct and still enough to pull tight and refit , plus the old cloth has to be taken off very carefully .

Many thanks to Steve for supplying the photo’s .

Sam K steels take expert trained fitters to set up , they are very complicated pieces of cue sports equipment , having hundreds of bolts and screws and all are vital to make the table spot on .
if you start to miss screws and bolts out of these type of tables , then they will never play right .
when buying one please make sure it is all complete .

Monday and start of another week , 5 days booked out to Re-cover 7 UK pool tables , 4 American pool tables and one full size snooker table.
This is a Regular client of GCL billiards in Grantham who we are very grateful for the repeat work yet again .
Many thanks to Malcolm and Siobhan for trusting GCL billiards to work on your cue sports tables.

A view of the club in Grantham in the downstairs Pool lounge , Sam K steel American pool 9 fts in foreground , and Supreme Winner 7 x4 pool tables in background .

Sunday today and we have been over to Coventry to install three Brand new Supreme winner pool tables in one venue . these are our Rental stock tables and the owner has worked out our excellent rates of rental of pool tables to include two re-covers a year is very good value when placed on his tax return as outgoings as Rental tables  , it was a no brainer to rent or to buy ? Have a look at these excellent tables as used by County and National teams to play top tournament games on . These tables are located at the Arches Snooker Venue in Spon End Coventry . Steve the owner was delighted with the tables as was the resident top player Josh Harrison who was chomping at the bit to get on the tables and has picked out table three as his preferred table . I am sure the Arches will get even more people playing pool now they have three top quality championship tables to play on , I can see it becoming the place to be to play pool in Coventry , you can be assured with new cloth going on every six months the tables will always play well , Steve is going to see they are kept in good condition too as he will personally see to the Ironing and levelling of the tables when they have to be moved to one side each week due to the Excellent live music on Saturday evening  that the venue also puts on .

This week I have been over in Northamptonshire to start the work on a large snooker club which has 12 full size snooker tables , 2 american pool tables and 6 UK supreme pool tables.
I started off on monday to recover the three Supreme Pool tables , and found a few faults and gave advice accordingly to sort it out going forward on the next recovers.

Photo of pool table area , the dots are dust particles from the recovering the flash is bouncing off them .

The previous firm had swapped cushions over , by bringing second hand already covered cushions they swapped the good cushions with this miss match set of 3 red rubber , 2 black rubber and 1 blue rubber , all these rubbers offer different rebound value and are all on one table so  a miss match .
My recommendation is to buy a new set of cushions and replace next time round and try and match up with other cushions to get all black rubber sets .
Once sorted out the cushions should never be mixed up , always recover and put the same cushions back on each table they came from , as the pool team will be used to the bounce and it could spoil their game to put rubbish dead cushions or mixed up cushions like these on when they have had good rebound cushions in the past.

Another mixed set this time 5 old red rubber cushions and one newer Black cushion rubber .

From Tuesday to Friday we re-covered 6 full size snooker tables in the upper room , this room also had a match set of riley steel Block cushions fitted , all the tables where Square legged Karnehm & hillman tables ,  these are very good tables to work on , but they had a right cowboy re-cover them last year and he had stapled all the bed cloths on and used the lower grade 6811 CLUB cloth when they had ordered 6811 Tournament gold .

the two photo’s above showing that the last fitter had stapled the bed cloths on , these where badly fitted cloths with loose centre pocket falls , long club cloth nap which made the tables very slow , they had only been on a year , and it was the club’s intentions to reuse these cloths on the downstairs tables but they where well past their sell by date .
Always have a bed cloth tacked on , with heads of tacks showing proud so that any future re stretching can be done with ease by simple flick out of bed cloth tacks  by leaving space to lever each tack out with a screwdriver , this has been the prefered method of attaching cloth for over 100 years , staples are the prefered method of attaching cushion cloth but NEVER on a bed cloth .
this is not the first time I have come across this fitters work , last year I did the sister club to this establishment and that cloth was taken off after just one months use .
I was told by one of the local snooker players who was speaking to this fitter a year ago , he had told him that he had been in the trade of fitting snooker tables for over 30 years , well all I can say he must have taught himself , because a time served fitter would never do this type of cowboy work , and I know he is still out there doing it and is based in the London Area so buyer beware as they say .

The Match table has steel block cushions on , giving a better truer bounce .

The corner pocket opening on the match table is 3.5 inch at the fall , I have measured all corner pockets and they are all the same , the last fitter had them al at different sizes , and on all the tables he had just used a speed drill to tighten the cushion bolts up , and not nipped them up tight after with a brace and socket , I made sure all bolts where nipped up tight .
Next week I will return for one more snooker table re-cover , and two american pool table re-covers in Strachan super pro speed cloth with 70% merino wool to 30% man made fibre , this is the best speed cloth to use , not only for fitting easy , but for playing on too .
we are very busy at the moment , a few Saturdays to also fill in before i go away on holiday , as I do not want to turn work away while it is coming in like this .
A busy firm should explain a lot of things to people , it is only busy because we care about what we do and the way we go about it , using good quality cloth and good time served Workmanship , and lastly we listen to our clients , we do not miss inform them just to make a quick exit , today for example , when I had finished al the tables I cleaned up vacuumed the floor , then checked all the levels of the tables  in the snooker room .
Then got the client to inspect , I knew though by feedback from the players that they where very happy with the work and cloth used.

Today we traveled to a place near Peterborough to dismantle a full size Karnehm and Hillman Buckingham full size tulip leg modern table .
this was not an easy job , the 5 section 2 inch thick slate   was located upstairs and had to be brought down three steps from one room.
then each slate put into a slate slide shoe and slid down the main stairs on a protective carpet run to avoid damage to original stair carpet .
the following photo’s show the table in it’s original room and also loaded onto the van wrapped in blankets ready for our drive back to our nottingham storage agent jonills Removal.

this is the table during dismantle stage , cloth and cushions removed and slates slid apart ready to slide onto trolley , you may notice the wood slate shoe slide
on the floor to the left of the table , this is placed on one edge and ratchet strapped to the slate , this is my /mk 3 version that is home made for the job and works to make the job of sliding the slate downstairs a three man job, rather than using 4 to 6 men.
you cannot go out and buy a slate slide , you have to improvise and make one , this information of how to make one passed down from fitter to fitter .
my version has been modified from the original mk1 and mk2  by adding two ratchet straps to fully fasten the slate into the slide.

some steep stairs where involved to cover over with blankets and a strip of old carpet  so that the slide could be slid without damage to owners carpet and stairs.

the whole Full sized snooker table neatly stored and loaded onto the van , every leg wrapped in removals blankets and also polished ends and cushions .

The house was very large with huge entrance hall staircase , some valuable antique tables and ornaments had to be carefully put out of harms way tyo clear a path from upstairs room to van .

The house is used for Weddings and  Business Conference meetings and has 28 Bedrooms
We arrived at 9.30 am and the table was fully loaded by 1 pm . so 3.5 hours in total for a van and three men .
I set out at 6 .30 am picking the extra men up en-route one from nottingham and another from Lincoln  , and arrived back home after putting the table into storage at 4.30pm , a 10 hour day and no time for a lunch break , we only got 15 minute coffee break once slate was loaded , then cracked on to get the work done and then back to nottingham via Lincoln .

the K&H table was bought by our buying client at very low money , this has enabled him to spend a little in having the cushions re-polished , new nets and leather and new re-cloth .
the table is being stored for around 7 weeks , by that time we will have completed our backlog of work to do , and the customer will have finished his Garage conversion , and I will be back from my two week break in Tenerife. an holiday I am looking forward to after an hectic work schedule .

It has been none stop since my last break in Tenerife about  this time last year , but I am not moaning , you have to do the work when it is in .

GCL billiard are again expanding our rental stock by another three tables into one venue . the Midlands based venue is upgrading and have worked out the Tax benefits of Renting tables over buying and also the two recovers a year that is included in the rental price . It is a a win win situation , GCL wins by expanding its rental stock and guarantees extra revenue , and the venue win by not having any major maintenance costs going forward and the tax benefits of rentals over buying . I have been informed that the three Brand new supreme Winner tables will kick start off this club to become a major player in finals and competitions in the area . now normally we would not venture out of our comfort area zone , but this venue is only just outside that area by around 10 mile  , and we are trying to reach a target of X amount of pool tables out there , this provides valuable guaranteed work and income for GCL billiards thats 6 recovers a year . Below various Black Supreme winner tables , some we have out on rental and others are what we maintain for other clients . We prefer to buy the latest Black Pearl Edition of the winner with it’s improved solid die cast chrome corners with raised lettering much more sturdy than the old plastic chrome corner plates add to this the alloy cushion trim which is much better than the old plastic black trim that breaks up . the latest Green background badge with UK pool tour logo , you can actually date a table from various designs , the Badge is one way and trims are another , also discontinued wood finish is another . We do have other colour finishes of table out there on rental such as White and Woodgrain mahogany and oak . but we would prefer to have all black if possible as they are the one’s that most like to play on , the new Black pearl finish is much better than the old Black ash as it will not reflect light off the cushion surround , a problem with the black Ash especially when they get a little older as Mr sheen or pledge  is used to clean the table the top surround gets more shinier and starts to dazzle the player when taking a shot.

Today I visited the English and Wales Cricket Boards Academy and National Cricket performance Centre located in the grounds of Loughborough University .
I was asked around a month ago to do this work so i knew to take a set of brand new cushions from super League with me as the old ones where way past their sell by date .
The cloth chosen was the Strachan Super Pro speed cloth which has a high content of wool mix within the cloth , when you compare this speed cloth with the many man made fibre cloths you can see why this is rated No 1 choice.

The table before any work was done

The badly worn cloth , you can see where the ball has burnt the cloth , each white mark is a skid burn mark as the ball is suddenly accelerated forward , this occurs mainly on 100% to high content of man made fibre speed cloths .
the Strachan Super pro worsted cloth has around 70% of merino wool content and 30% of man made fibre, this cloth maintains it’s characteristics longer than any other Premium cloths , is durable and LESS PRONE to ball marks such as the above , more resistant to tears holes and bruises , and as a bonus is treated with spill guard to protect against spills and stains , but remember spill guard is just a spray on treatment and quickly wears off , you can buy a can of spill guard and retreat your cloth at anytime on a regular basis .

The sign of quality cloths the Strachan branding , at GCL Billiards we specialise in using Strachan cloths in all of our cuesports re-covering , whether it be on pool tables with this worsted cloth or full size snooker tables with Strachan tournament cloth , you can be sure we use the best .
We can also supply the Hainsworth cloths but we tend to recommend the Strachan cloth over this , and at the end of the day it is the customer’s choice.

Bed cloth going on

The old cushions with hard 5/8th rubber and the Brand new cushions , supplied from the manufacturer of the table Super League at Master billiards .

The finished table , we supplied two new door locks and replaced one pocket liner .
Again our client was delighted with the result , the new cushions and the new speed cloth made for a very fast table , with the ball bouncing off 8 cushions when hit around the table and almost made the 9th  cushion .