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We have just completed a third re-cover for our most loyal client.  The table is a very nice Riley Aristocrat in light oak with the standard cushions but with match play 3.5 inch pocket openings.

Many snooker tournament finals have been played on this table over the last 3 years, the cloth of choice being the Strachan 6811 Tournament.  The trophy cabinet is full, but there are more out there in the hands of the winners.  There is even a NBSA Video link broadcasting some of the big Nottinghamshire finals that have been played on this table.

The room is at the bottom of our client’s garden and it is one of the best snooker rooms that I have worked in.  It has plenty of cue room and further space at one end for seating and storage.

Our client has been very busy in the local snooker leagues, having run many tournaments and manning the website.  He even found time to help set up my website and blog  that you are reading this report on now.

The table looks very nice in oak.  There are not many around in this finish, most are mahogany.  It is a very good table to work on as it is in mint condition.  We do have a small problem of slate sag although it is only a minor problem and we are working on slowly adjusting the middle slate supports upwards by a 1/4 turn of the bolts each month.  Over time this will slowly cure the slate sag.  Rather than try and do it all in one day, this must be done over time.  If you go too far the slate will rock and will not be seated on the outside of the frame.  Experience has proven it is best to adjust a little each month.

The first photo…just look at the cloth coming off.  Apart from a couple of cue stabs here and there the cloth is mint.  If anyone requires this cloth fitted to their table please contact me as it is up for grabs with a brand new set of cushion cloths.  It is nearly as good as a brand new cloth and you can save yourself some money off the price of a new recover.

The following photos show the table in stages of the re-cover, including check for level and skim slate joints, the cloth brand stamp, the finished table and the trophy cabinet.

We where called out to a church hall in a Derbyshire village the other day to re-cover their small 6 ft Super league , this table was built around the late 1970’s .
they chose the nice Burgundy colour in 777 Strachan cloth .

It may be the weekend but for some we have to carry on working , no trip to the golf course or other leisure interests .
Today is Saturday and I am a bit behind with some work so I have to work on a set of steel block cushions , this is for a table in Barnsley that we have dismantled and taken down two sets of stairs from an attic last month then transported 8 mile up the road, it is going back up into another attic  in this other property next week , I decided to work in the back garden as the sun was out for the Re-rubber , this makes a change from working inside either in the workshop or in a snooker club , the glue smell is not so overpowering , and the black rubber that is sanded is not all over the place too .
Have a look at the following photo’s of the shaping of the middle and corner openings .

First photo above  shows the genuine Northern rubber with it’s stamp and date of manufacture of April 2013 , and fitted today 31st of August .

This photo above , shows the end blocks that are fastened to the end of each cushion for the wrap around of the cloth , these are the original block ends and have had only 3 recovers in it’s life the serial numbers are very clear to see being 4354 , the last recover was in 1988 . as you look to the left of this you can see the first slot for the cushion bolt , and you can also see two scribed lines , one fitter has put these on as a rough guide as to where the bolt should be . the cushion is then measured from the middle pockets as a centre guide and bolted up once in the correct position. the end cushions are adjusted the same once they measure the same both sides on the slate fall .
Not a lot of people realise that even normal bolted hole wood cushions can be out by as much as 1/8th , as the bolt hole clearance allows the movement of the cushion left or right by this amount. Speed fitters often do not check that the cushions are properly in alignment , a good fitter always measures his pocket openings to make sure everything is 100% correct.
The slot that you can see almost at the top edge of the rear of this cushion is for the cushion cloth retaining slip , this is a thin long length of wood hammer inserted into the slot tightly to trap the cushion cloth in from the rear , some cowboy fitters have been known to miss these slips of wood out and to GLUE the cloth to the rear of the steel plate with evo stick ! ….This should not be done .

Above corner angle no undercut yet , below middle angle no undercut yet.

this next two photo’s above , shows I have marked and cut the rubber to a template then sanded smooth , there is no undercut on this end angle yet , some players have been telling me that there is no undercut on professional tables , if that was true this photo above is how the shape of the pocket would look ,  I can assure them that there is an undercut as some of the following photo’s show . This photo above shows I have roughly cut the undercut.
Now where some players get confused with the idea that professional tables have not undercut , is the flat edge can be seen all the way to the back angle , years ago this would come to a triangle edge with no flat showing in the curve at all , when the cloth is on the cushion the nose of the cushion looks like it is moulded all the way from the front edge of the rubber to the back edge , it is not and is all hand rasped and sanded , some fitters have slightly different ways of doing it , but we all aim for the same result , the old method of sanding and rasping the undercut all the way to the top edge , makes it easy to get the ball into the pocket as more of the ball can get under the overhang of the rubber.
Today’s pockets are more difficult to pocket balls , you have to be more accurate with you’re potting.

The three photo’s above. show the stage of the undercut ,This actually the middle angle of one cushion, the end cushions are done the same but it is more of a long sweeping curve rather than the tight curve of the middle pocket, first photo you can see the rough undercut has been done and the slice marks of the knife as it has passed back and forth through the rubber , the second photo shows the undercut has been smoothed out by hand rasping , the third photo shows I have taken the sharp edge’s off the rubber top and just as it enters onto the undercut , if this was not done the cloth would split easy as the ball hits the sharp angle of the rubber , so yes rubber can cut through cloth if left sharp .
I often see where a speed fitter has just roughly cut the rubber as in the first photo, then re-covered the cushion without hand rasping and sanding , you get what you pay for,speed fitters are not after repeat work , all they care about is getting home or onto the next job they have squeezed in that day to make more money .
These speed fitters are only around £20 to £30 lower cost than a proper time served fitter , is it really worth trying to save that extra few quid to end up with a bad re-rubber.
It took me over 6 years to learn my trade as a billiards fitter , and to re-rubber is craft that you just cannot learn in one week , some think they can do it after watching over the shoulder of a fitter for just one cushion. I have seen some awful attempts of re-rubber of a snooker table , and it may come as a shock but it may be necessary to carry out another full re-rubber to rectify it , so get it done right first time and call in a professional time served Billiards fitter .
I will be adding the top rubber tape then recovering the cushions in strachan 6811 tournament cloth , I will post a photo of the finished table at a later date.

Geoff Large
Billiards Fitter
GCL BILLIARDS

We are slowly building up our stock of Rental pool tables , and we offer the best contract to include two recovers a year , one for the summer league and one for the winter league , if you do not require two recovers we can offer a reduced rental cost option .
We do require a commitment for 12 months rental paid by direct debit .
We have the following tables ready for install , two Mahogany cabinet finish Supreme Championship 7ft x 4ft Prince pool tables with mechanical coin operation set to any coin cost you require , and one Oak cabinet finish 6ft x3ft Supreme championship Winner table with electronic coin operation .
we can have these tables in you’re Pub club or office within a week . or in just a few days. they are a great money earner with no cost or maintenance to yourself .
all our tables are supplied by Supreme and are the same type as used by professional pool players and teams around the UK  including international matches .
In fact they are the No1 table sold in the UK.

There are thousands of Supreme pool tables  Rented out around the UK , and I am sure many of you know why these tables are the best to play on , by staying with just one brand of table we find spares are easy to get hold of , and are always in stock , we personally keep in stock such things as new Ball rails and pockets , new coin mech’s, Springs and screws and push bars , Balls cues etc. , if we require any other part it is shipped to us overnight ready for fitting the next day . Thus enabling to keep you’re rental table in play and making money for you .
We do not do 50/50 splits we just charge a fixed weekly rent , payable monthly , we find that if a table is set on 50p ( some are on £1) and it takes at least £30 a week , that’s less than 10 games a day , you will be making a good profit , any more than this and you are really making the table pay , we do have tables that have taken £1400 a year in each table , we know this as there is a coin counter on each table . what you do with the money is all down to you , we only take a small fixed rent which we do give an invoice for  , the rest of the money is for you’re business .

We like to rent our table’s out local to us , within a 25 mile radius if possible , this also helps in the maintenance , we find that firms who hire tables out further away from their base just cannot offer a good service , if a machine requires a quick fix who are they going to get out to you ? if you have had any issue’s with you’re pool table operator and are coming up for a renewal of contract , then please get in touch with Geoff at GCL billiards for a quote for a hire table ,

The following photo’s of just a few of our tables that are out on rent , the first photo has just had a new recover ready for the coming winter season , having just completed a first year of rental of which we have carried out all maintenance included in with the rental cost . we are not a coin operation company we only deal in cue sports tables so we are not sidelined by working on gaming and game machines for amusement , we put all our efforts into you’re rental pool table to make sure it is installed level then Ironed  and ready for play , unlike some firms who just bolt the legs on do not know what a proper billiard  iron is , throw a ball down the table and say to his mate …that’s level lets go ? or exchange over the cushions for 12 year old one’s at the re-cover stage ! We re-cover the table on site making sure you’re good cushions stay on the table .

This past month has been unusual for this time of year , in past years the Summer months are just ticking over with work , but GCL billiards have been rushed off our feet , with table dismantling and relocating , or storage and scrapping , tables recovering, and re-rubber ,  also this month we have increased our stock of Supreme manufactured pool tables for hire under our Double 8 pool hire operations , which is all part of GCL billiards.

We have good order for winter repeat  work coming in from our regular client base and some from not so regular , they used to say Snooker and pool is a winter sport , but from my recent experience it is a all year sport and all year work if you have the decency to do a good job and not cut corners. we only use Strachan make  cloth as used by the professionals all over the World . we are also NBSA recommended and the choice of the Nottingham snooker Academy  for their table work which we are improving every time we visit . also our two main suppliers who keep us constantly in stock from their vast warehouses of such things as cloth and rubber plus other cue sports parts , and last but not least our supplier of pool tables Heywood pool who manufacture the top selling pool tables in the country Supreme Pool tables.
We are proud to be associated with the six logo’s below , it shows we care about what products we use and the level of Billiard fitting we aim for.

If you require good quality work using the finest quality branded materials then get on board with GCL billiards , we strive to do the best work , taking our time and not rushing our work as many other firms do to get their quota in , you are dealing direct with the billiards fitter ,with no middle person taking a commission that will either result in the fitter having to rush to make his wages up or is just not interested in doing a good job as he is not being paid the correct rate for it .

Below are a few photo’s of tables we have worked on , these are not libary photo’s but are actual tables we have carried work out on , it shows the high quality of work , and the differant types of tables we have experience on refurbushing .

Today we have been re-covering table 2 at the Nottingham Snooker Academy.  The cushions on table 2 had a crack in the woodwork and rather than just re-cover them, I suggested we fit a good condition set of second hand steel block cushions manufactured by Burroughs and Watts,  table 2 being an early Riley table with 1.5 inch thick Welsh slate. there are many burroughs and watts steel plates fitted to differant make’s of table , Burroughs and Watts around the turn of the Century offered the cushions as an upgrade to any table haveing a 12foot by 6 foot 1.5 inch wide slate .
And in fact gave the cusions an extra wide cushion bolt slot of around 3 inch , so that the many differant slates with bolt holes in diferant positions where catered for  , and made fitting the cushions an easy upgrade. you just have to watch out for the depth of the hole down the slate from the top surface to align up.
The bolt slot is also used when aligning the centre and corner pocket openings to be uniformed to each other. slotting steel cushions is ok , but if you come across slotted wood cushions then these are to be avoided if possible , I was offered two 10 year old wood cushion sets from an old Riley’s Club that had closed down the other day , but turned them down because they where slotted.

The cushions are in exceptional condition for their age which I guess to be around 1910/20 , but may require a re-rubber in about two years time.  But the main thing was to solve the cracked cushion.  The cushions had been re-blocked and re-rubbered only two recovers ago, but we do not know when.  It could have been in the 1980’s or 90’s by the look of the rubber that is on them.  We also fitted a new set of leathers and nets.  The pocket openings are slightly over 3.5 inches at the fall, making this the second match sized pocket table in the club.

Photo of strip down of steel cushions and the old cushions on the floor that had just been taken off

We recovered the cushions and the slate bed in best Strachan West of England 30 oz 6811 tournament cloth.
Take a look below at the steel cushions from the rear before the wood frieze is put on , why they call them Steel Blocks is a little misleading , as the steel is actualy fitted behind the wood block that the rubber is glued to,you can see the many wood screws in the steel plate that are screwed into the rear of the wood overhang  block that the rubber is glued to and the cloth is stapled to  , they should be called steel Plate cushions , this plate is 3/8th thick steel , and the noise the ball makes as it hit’s the rubber is not as loud as the thud on a normal all wood constructed cushion the steel tends to muffle the sound  , the angle of the rebound is also more accurate as wood has tight and loose grain unlike the steel which is solid all the way along it’s lenth, the steel being more uniformed in it’s response of ball rebound , at the end of the day you get a little more bounce from a steel cushion but if the wood cushion is a heavy wood like Cuban mahogany or Oak then there is little differance.
they are a little harder to work on than a normal Wood cushion , and many fitters do not like them , GCL billiards are used to these cushion’s having many years of experience working on them ,where some firms charge extra for working on steel block cushion’s, GCL billiards charge the same price for steel cushions as re-covering or re-rubbering  normal wood cushions.

The finished table.

The table being played on as soon as I had finished it.

Barry and Steve are the first to try it out. Steve then took me on and he made a 46 break and completely annihilated me. I think I will stick to fitting tables and not playing on them. I am sure the members of the Snooker Academy and The Embankment will really appreciate the quality of the steel cushions.  These type of cushions are still played on today by the world’s top snooker professionals.  Burroughs and Watts were the first firm to patent the steel block cushioned table, but they called it the Steel Vacuum Cushion around 1895 and apart from the wood blocks not having the vacuum holes behind the rubber, the design is still the same over 100 years later.  Only the shape of the pocket plates have changed.

Today I was in Nottingham recovering two Supreme Winner pool tables in Strachan 6811 All wool cloth .
Our client got caught out the last time they where recovered by Speed pool table  fitters who used spray on glue to put the bed cloths on , which came off the slate a day later.
GCL billiards use contact adhesive to firmly fasten the clot to the slate and it stops on for the lifetime of the Re-cover.
just take a look at the shocking way the previous firm had fastened the cloth to the slate  .


After a good clean of the slate bed to remove over spray from the previous re-cover , we re-covered the table in Olive Green 6811 tournament cloth

The finished table
And to round things off we supplied two new Peradon Fitted dust covers , as the old one’s where falling apart

If you require a top quality re-cover using the best cloth and fitted by a qualified time served Billiards Fitter who takes their time and do it right , then contact GCL billiards by email c.large@btinternet.com or my mobile 07753466064 to speak to Geoff direct .

We also hire pool tables out in the Nottingham / Derby Leicester area , we offer the best deal which includes regular re-covering of the tables for Winter and summer leagues , again call GCL Billiards if you require a table on hire / Rental. we have very competitive rates for contract hire. We stock both the Supreme Winner or the more expensive top of the range supreme Prince , we call our Hire / Rental operating arm of GCL billiards , Double 8 Pool

Looks like my 38 years in the trade is now reaping rewards as they have found out I am now self employed and are coming over to the fitter that has always done their work .
Another club in Nottinghamshire that I have visited many times to work on their tables , this time the Secretary of the club contacted me to give a quote as the outgoing firm did not offer a new contract  .
She was most surprised to find out that I had set GCL Billiards up 14 months ago and the firm was doing very well , even in the summer months when cue sports work is supposed to be thin on the ground .
I have just three more social type club’s in this area to come on board to make this Nottinghamshire town a total GCL work zone for snooker table maintenance .
we are slowly but surely building a reputation for quality work , and if youre club is due any work on their Cue sports tables , be it Snooker , pool or even Bar Billiards , then give us a shout by phone 07753466064 or email c.large@btinternet.com ask for Geoff Large.

This photo show’s the centre pocket opening ,the wood block work on this steel block table was crumbling around the undercut of the rubber as it bent around into the pocket , and unsightly gaps where there , just as a temporary measure we filled the gap with filler and shaped it to give a nice tight fitting block to the slate bed , we still have another table to do at this club next week , and to show the gap just look at the photo after this , we are recommending new blocks and re-rubber in two years time which will solve the crumbling wood  block  for good  , which was caused by use of large 3/8th and 5/8th tacks in the 1960s , as fitters in those days did not use staple guns , large tacks just destroy the woodwork under the cushion.


the last photo is the finished table , a burroughs and watts steel block cushioned table circa 1920s , they have two identical matching tables at this club .

notice all those metal and plastic cue cases hanging on the far wall , all club’s used to be like this when I first started 38 years ago , when club’s closed down , cue’s are often left by members who have passed away , the club’s either gave the cues away with the table or has a blind auction , a pot luck auction so to speak  , you may end up with a £5  pool cue in one of those cases or an £800 antique hand spliced record break peal cue .

continuation of Blog post ……

The second visit to the club today to re-cover the other Burroughs and Watts steel cushioned table , this one was in much worse condition with the cushion block crumbling , we are looking to re-block and re-rubber this table in two years time , so we did a quick repair job for the client , we would have liked to do the proper job of re-blocking this time round , but funds from the club prevented us doing this , so we are staggering the tables so that this table gets new blocks next time and the other table will get new blocks the re-cover after , of course new rubber will also have to be fitted at the same time .

the crumbling cushion block , this was caused in the 1960s when they used tacks to fasten the cloth to the table , it should have been replaced on the last re-rubber ( Before my time ) but was overlooked , the blocks have been filled in to make the shape back up just to get them through the next two years , and the table is due a re-rubber now anyway , so in two years time it will be sorted .

The finished table , both levelled , and the cushions when covered do not show any signs of crumbling cushion blocks, The client is very happy with the work that GCL Billiards have done.

Note the odd looking table shade lights , these where a custom made light for the club when it re-located premises to make way for a new Tesco, the lights are covered with a Brown velvet type cloth , They are not my cup of tea  , the architect / project manager   who designed the room also put Air conditioning units directly above these shades you can see on the far table the flush vent in the ceiling above the shade  , this one leaked within the first 3 months and caused water damage to the shade and table cloth  , if only they had asked me about such things , putting air con above a table is asking for trouble they always leak condensation and to put it above an electrical item is just not on  , although the lighting looks the business and blends in with the décor , there are much better options out there that are made for the job , but I must not complain too much , they did make the right choice and take the Burroughs and watts match play tables with them rather than replace them with modern rubbish. and they have kept faith with me as a billiards fitter who will always strive to improve their tables condition.