Category Archives: News

TABLE HAS NOW BEEN RESERVED

This table has now been reserved for installation in a Pub in Derby this week on our excellent rental terms  , thank you to Della .
If you would like an identical table if we have not got one in stock we have to order from Supreme , this can take upto 3 weeks if they have no tables ready for collection or delivery.
I will be ordering two more this month to have in stock ready to install .

We have one Supreme winner in Black pearl ready to install , the new latest edition with genuine metal chrome corners .
We can install this table in a pub in the nottingham and Derby Area from £15 per week contract .
the table is coin operated and can be set on 50p or £1 to suit you .
Private landlords or Owners or managers not under fruit machine contracts are our normal clients .
we differ from the Fruit machine contract in that we only deal in Cue sports tables , so 100% of our time is spent maintaining pool and snooker tables , we do not get side tracked with gaming machines  .
and offer full professional service for the hire of your pool table .

is your pool team always moaning about the pool table , then get GCL billiards to rent you a Pool Table .
Our contracts are £15 per week one recover year
or £18.50p per week Two recovers per year .
A separate set of Match balls are provided for the pool team .




If you want the best Local Hire company for Pool tables then , contact Geoff at GCL Billiards on 07753466064

or email c.large@btinternet.com

We have had an influx of work coming in from Leicestershire . this shows our recent push for work in this county is paying off , most of the work has come from recommendations which is the best way of getting noticed .
Two pool tables last week and now another one to do in Wigston a repeat customer from 1 year ago .
they may be older type tables and some have cushion problems , but we can refurbish both cloth and cushions .
the first we did last week was a Traditional Super League with old type cushion barrel screw fixings .
not a good way of fixing cushions on and they will have to be replaced next time with allen key bolt fixings .

The table when stripped down showed the usual thing of spray on glue all over the face side of the slate from a speed fitter who recovered it last time .
This table was really bad in that several layers of glue had been applied over and over again as each re-cover had been done , acetone would not remove it , so i used goo old fashioned elbow grease and some coarse sand paper to make sure the pocket opening where free of glue under the cloth .

A close look of the spray on glue , what a mess !

Having cleaned the slate and stripped the cushions of every staple , we used best quality Strachan 6811 grade pool cloth to recover , the club has Pool team and they wanted the best quality cloth than the standard Strachan 777 .

the Table almost finished , we also cleaned all the ball rails and the side door tipping mech also cleaned up springs re-attached and sprayed coin mech with WD40

The next table was in an old out building being used as a garage in a Victorian house , there where some very large spiders in this table and the cloth was all moth eaten , I hate spiders !

The Pool table struipped down , it may be an old bench leg table but it plays well when it was finished .

The owner of this table wanted the budget cloth with longer nap ,although we call it our budget cloth it still has the Strachan name to it , but is the 777 grade .
This is slower than the Strachan 6811 and has a longer nap and is better for children as it will stand up to a bit more wear  , but do not expect a fast table when this is used.

The finished table , both customers where highly delighted with work GCL Billiards had carried out

I have not been adding the work schedule to the Blog recently , March was a busy month and this has carried on into April and looks like May is going to be just as busy , due to a little illness

this has resulted in me playing catch up and a few saturdays had to be worked to pull the work back on schedule .
We have had enquiries for table relocations not only for ourselves but for other cue sports firms that use us for the Full size snooker table relocations .
It is Easter this weekend and I have promised myself a 4 day break .
We have full size snooker table  recover work to do in Nottinghamshire / Leicestershire/ Lincolnshire /Derbyshire  and Staffordshire.
Pool table work to do all around the East and west midlands. Table relocations from sheffield to Oxford , and Nottingham to Derbyshire , we have two large snooker clubs requiring us to carry out renovations of many cue sports tables in the next 6 weeks in Lincolnshire and Northamptonshire.

Above one table we relocated this week
I am not saying we have no spare days , we always do , but these tend to get work scheduled for them as the month passes , they get filled up .
so if you require work doing on your cue sports table from re-cover / re-rubber , or any maintenance  or table move .
Contact Geoff or Carol on email ……….. c.large@btinternet.com  or phone 07753466064 ,
we also have a home number 01159725355 , but as we are in the field working most days the mobile is the best option to contact Geoff direct .

Selling a snooker table? please use our free advertisement page on our website.
https://gclbilliards.com/category/for-sale/

***But Please take note of the following advice.
One piece of advice for anyone who is selling a house , if the table has to be sold , do not leave it until the last few weeks to try and sell it , if you require money for it , then advertise as soon as you know you are putting your house on the market .
Last week we got a phone call from a person who had advertised their table right at the last moment , only two weeks before contracts where signed , they advertised the table on our web site free of charge , as the last day came and no sale , they emailed me expecting me to buy it but we do not buy tables we only move them , then they emailed saying I could collect for free , this was at 3pm , they said the table had to be out by that night or they where leaving it for the new home owner ! and the table was over 2 hours traveling away . to organise a van and two men and to get up there load and back then unload we would have been well into the early hours of the morning in getting back
I suspect the table had to be out because the new owner did not require it and they knew it would cost money to get rid of it quick , the old home owner tried to pull one over on me by saying I could have it for free as they wanted to get rid of the table without paying for that days wages for two fitters and a van plus miles .
We did not take them up on their offer as it really does cost us money to take a table away ! we are not Bandits trying to make a quick buck , we charge what it costs us to remove a table in wages and van use, we do not resell a table we scrap them if we cannot store them, Slates are delivered to a reclaim yard , if the wood is of good use this also is put to recycling , if low quality wood it ends up in a log burner . But there are exceptions if we find that the table is a really nice one and too good to scrap we try and make an effort to store it , and I use a third party investor with storage space for this , who would split the sale of any table in the future for use of the storage . but the table has to be exceptional for us to do this
I must point out that the table mentioned above would have been no use to GCL Billiards , you need time to sell a table and space to store it , and it cost’s us around £275 + miles charge to collect a table in wages and van use .
We actually charge £275 to take a table away  , we then scrap it as we have no use for it and we do not wish to incur storage charges for it .
£275 is such a low charge if it ends up contracts will not be signed for a house worth £000s , and the only obstacle is that snooker table has to be removed from the house before signing of contracts  , then £275 is not such a bad option to make sure contracts are exchanged .

Looks like April May and june are going to be Busy

We have had two enquiries for work to do in two large snooker clubs and I have just had confirmation to go ahead and do this . one of the club’s having another sister club not too far way too .
We have mainly UK pool tables to do in one club and a couple of snooker and a few American pool tables. this is in east Midland area .

The other club requires 7 Full size snooker table recovers and a couple of uk pool and also american pool .
It’s sister club will require work later in the year as i have already carried out three recovers at this club within the last 9 months . Both these clubs in the south midlands area .

We have had an influx of work recently which involves re-rubbering the cushions on full size tables , and these are all separate job’s we have taken in
one set of full size for a job we have coming up in clitheroe  , another in Ashbourne , another in Cambridgeshire, another in Derbyshire .
Re-rubbering is one area that I really have to use my knowledge and skill of time served Billiards fitting , many DIY people think they can take this job on , and I have seen some awful attempts trying to replicate the skilled work of a Time served billiards fitter.
To the point that the rubber is scrap after the DIY attempt , and the person then phone’s me up to do the work as they just have not had the training to do this skilled work  , I was taught by three Fitters to re-rubber , I used a bit of all their methods and skills  and added my own part into that learning too .
I allow a full day to re-rubber a set of cushions , I may get time if  I have more than one set in the workshop to glue another set on to give me a head start the next day if I have two sets in to do , but I like to re-rubber one day , leave overnight and re-cover the cushions the following day .

If I am doing the re-rubber work on the table then I can get better results in accuracy as working in the workshop away from the slate you have to rely on measurements and not visual accuracy as seen in the above photo.

The undercut is just as important as the radius

a set of Northern rubber  being glued on the glueing board before attaching to cushion block

A set of cushions that have just been re-rubbered and the angles shaped to size , they are now ready for the skilled part of hand rasping and sanding to final accuracy of pocket opening and undercut.

all northern rubber will carry a date of manufacture on , in the form of a white printed stamp mark , there is also moulded raised lettering on the under L shape the words Northern rubber
 Avoid low quality chinese rubber in red or black , this has a canvas backing and no Northern rubber lettering on it .

Above a  right way and a wrong way to undercut the rubber , which would you choose ? both done by billiards fitters , one who just rushed it . Click on the photo’s to enlarge to get a better view.

From first cut , to undercut , to hand finishing by rasp and sanding , and the type of quality of rubber used
If you require your snooker table cushions re-rubbering , then contact Geoff at GCL Billiards for the skilled work that it takes to carry this out . 07753466064 or email c.large@btinternet.com

Work is piling up and due to a little illness I am 3 days behind in my schedule.  Today is my 60th birthday, but that did not stop me from taking more work on.  A dismantle of table in the cotswolds, the owner having just sold his house for £4.75 million.  And what a place it was with indoor swimming pool, Cinema room, Gym room and snooker room, and that was just in the basement which had a lift for access, so we were very thankful having the lift to get the slates back upstairs.  I have worked in some very nice places but this one is going to stand out as the best designed one that I have worked in, smack in the middle of the Cotswolds, with plenty of land around it.

You can see from this video tour in German  of how the house was built in the cotswolds and the vast size of the plot and house  , it will amaze you , and what you see above ground there is even more space under the building where the games area was also located . the House was made in Germany and erected in the cotswolds . the owner is Igor , who you can see in the video in the Brown jacket , an nice guy to meet , he is now downsizing , he informs me that the house is now sold to a very young person in his mid twenties , who is in the sports supplement business for weight lifting .
Sadly he is more into weight lifting than snooker and wants the entire snooker and ground floor area to house his vast Keep fit machine collection .  even though there already is a Gym area most of us would be proud of !

The Riley Viceroy loaded , this is a very heavy table with good thick welsh slates and solid oak frame and solid oak  inner frame , they do not make them like this anymore.
Note that we put the slates beyond the back axle , We do this because it would be illegal to have them sitting on the back axle as the weight limit on that axle is just 1 ton = 1000 kg  , although the carrying capacity is over 1650 kg , the load has to be spread around , if we where caught with the above axle weight load limit exceeded it could be a very expensive fine and points on the Drivers license.
we like to get as much forward of the rear Axle as possible .
for years we used to load with slates at the rear for ease of loading and unloading , but where advised it was the wrong way to load because of weight distribution not even  , so having taken this advice on board we now load to be legal . it is much better to drive with weight forward of the axle , and less wear on suspension  and steering , so good for the Vehicle.

I am fully booked out for April , and I am hoping for a little slack as the weekends are getting involved with my work too .

But hey that’s life one minute your slack then the next your too busy , still got to get my investment back for the van , so removal of snooker table’s is one area I am looking to increase work in .

We have moved a few tables for clients either buying or selling snooker tables using Ebay as the selling format .
some of these people also include GCL billiards in the advertisement as a Billiard firm that specialise in the art of dismantle , Transport and re-erection of the table.
As well as our own web site which we let sellers use to advertise their tables as another way of getting their table to the Market , we also recommend they use ebay to give a double prong attack of selling.
You cannot put a direct web site link or email link to GCL Billiards in the advert on Ebay , but you can put GCL Billiards and the telephone number 07753466064 , for any buyer to get a quote for relocating the snooker table .
And for example here are a few photo’s of tables on ebay from 99p to just under £500 that are currently for sale as we speak .

This one located in sheffield from 99p start price.

This one in Lichfield from £100 start price

this one in nottingham from £200 start price

A titan table with what looks like steel block cushions on it from just £400

here is one I dismantled for a Client in chilwell nottingham from £450

and one in York for £500 or swop for pool table .
Any of the above tables and any other you wish to choose from the selling pages of Ebay , we would be happy to quote for any Table relocation
Geoff Large is a  Billiard fitter with 40 years personal experience , not a made up of say 10 years from one fitter and 20 from another and two at 5 years to get to 40 years as some firms like to tot up to mislead their experience , but 40 years time served for one fitter .
We have experienced labour too to help us move tables , and the right Vehicle to also load neat and well wrapped up , we also offer a bubble wrapping service if the table is not being set up for a while so as to store all parts dust free and also to protect against damage .
we can also store in heated Dry warehouse in nottingham through our own storage agent Jonills removals which also includes Insurance .

A table being stored on site for a client , from main house to lock up container in his own Garden .

in the container , stacked nice and neat

A table loaded onto Van , all polished surfaces are protected by blanket wraps

This Van is the correct size to carry 1658 kg load , Legally , there are many vans out there that are actually overloaded and illegal  when carrying Full size snooker tables and all tools plus up to three people.
the long wheelbase version of this medium wheelbase actually carries less weight, it is things like this that Geoff has taken on board to make sure GCL billiards are within the law when out on the road carrying full size snooker tables . A set of italian slates weigh 1000kg , welsh around 11oo to 1200 kg depending on thickness , a Burroughs and watts steel block cushion with steels and three men and tools is about up to the legal limit with around 50 kg to spare .
It is important things like this that GCL billiard take on board to make sure your treasured snooker table arrives safe and sound .
So recommend GCL billiards for any Ebay Snooker table sale, and your table just may get more enquiries knowing that they do not have to look and search for a table fitter when one is at hand and mentioned in your advert , and we have many happy ebay buyers who have used us to relocate their table.

Link to ebay Full size snooker listings

http://www.ebay.co.uk/sch/i.html?_trksid=p2050601.m570.l1313.TR3.TRC1.A0.H0.XFull+size+snooker+table&_nkw=Full+size+snooker+table&_sacat=0&_from=R40

I have been very busy recently offering a re-rubber service of pool cushions .
Many pool tables have the red rubber which quickly turns soft then rock hard and starts to crack .
the problem is the red dye in the rubber makes the rubber turn by Ozone attack , black rubber tends to resist Ozone deterioration much better
you can read more about Ozone rubber deterioration here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ozone_cracking

Although the red rubber on this clients set of cushions had not gone Hard , they had started to lose their rebound value .
the old set of Red/pink s been taken off , the new set of rubber glued shaped and end pads refitted , ready for a new re-cover in Royal blue Strachan super pro pool cloth .

an example from a past re-rubber , the red rubber is that hard and stiff it is like a piece of wood , the black rubber is floppy ,
click on the photo to enlarge to see that the red rubber is also cracking

another set of cushions stripped of rubber ready for the new Black rubber to be applied.
If you have a table that has lost it’s bounce or the cushions feel hard , it may be that just one or even half of one cushion has gone hard .
You have to replace all 6 cushions as the other 5 will not be far behind .
Contact Geoff at GCL billiards for a complete refurb of your pool cushions and cloth .