Todays work was to set up a 9ft Snooker table, a rare 9ft Riley Viceroy in oak. The cushions having been picked up and re-rubbered at the weekend, we returned today to set the table up.
You may notice that this square leg Riley table has very deep archways fitted between the legs, giving the Viceroy its distinctive look, of a very solid table. There are not many Viceroys about and this 9ft one must be a very rare beast indeed. I have seen plenty of the Riley Imperial which is almost the same table with only small archways, but not many 9ft Viceroys in my 37 years of fitting.
The re-rubbered cushions with best Northern Rubber UK manufactured not your Chinese rubbish.
The new cloth just before fitting, note it has the embroidered logo of Strachan and is 6811 Tournament quality, again made in the UK from the finest of wool. The archways veiwed from this angle really look impressive and for anyone not too keen on square legs, picture this table or its full size version, in a barn conversion with matching oak beams.
The cloth has been hand stretched on, marked out and spotted then ironed. Next job was the refitting of the cushions and those brand new nets, leathers and ball rails.
The finished table set up and ready for play. Note the brand new condition pool table on its side in the background. If anyone is looking for a nice attractive pool table this one is going for less than half price complete with new lighting shades cues and rests etc at £450. It is the home play version and retails at around £899 plus delivery and shade which this one has, a three section brass one.
The table looking from the black end. Notice all the pool trophies on the far wall, the client is a local pool shark by the looks of it.
Our client was lucky enough to get the original matching roller scoreboard worth around £500 on its own retail in a billiards shop in this condition (also made by Rileys) and a vintage cue wall rack with original bone clips.
When our client first contacted GCL Billiards, he informed us that the table was a Fitzpatrick & Longley of Sheffield. I put him right when I first looked at the table on the cushion collection day that is was a Riley Viceroy. The end plate you see here was put on by this firm and the original Riley one has been taken off. If you look slightly to the right of the plate you can see where the original screw holes for the larger Riley plate used to be. The firm should not have removed the Riley plate. This badge was put on becuase they did a re-rubber, probably in the 1950s as the table is circa 1920/30. The plate is just advertising the Eclipse frost proof cushion by Fitzpatrick & Longley. They should have fitted it to the other end panel and left the Riley plate on the table.
To round things off the client also had a new light fitted, the new twin tube High Frequency type by Dextra with COOL WHITE LIGHT tubes fitted. This being a 9ft table a 6ft twin version is all that was required to light the table up. The table is situated in a special games room at the bottom of the garden. It is one of the better built buildings I have seen for such use, a real man cave … but I think his partner has other ideas about its use.
If you have a table you would like setting up or dismantling, moving and setting up, then ask GCL Billiards for a quote, c.large@btinternet.com or phone 07753 466064.
