Riley Aristocrat steel match cushioned table installed this week in Derbyshire and why I do not do stair work with slates anymore .

We had an install upstairs , now I do not do upstairs or basements anymore due to my age ( 68 ) , and a back that has failed many times over the 46 years I have been fitting , so the client got the builders to do the lifting of the slate upstairs as he had specifically asked for me to fit the table due to my years in the trade and what he has read and heard about my fitting and ethics on workmanship , and therefore I assembled the frame and fitted the cloth and did the levelling work before the slates where placed on the frame .

NEVER put slates on an unlevelled table and then send for a fitter , as the frame will bend to the shape of the floor and you end up taking the slates off and reshooting the frame level again .

this way of fitting using the builders to lift the slate upstairs , my back lasts and I will be doing re-clothing for a few years yet , well into my 70s and maybe even into my 80s , we had an old fitter at the firm I used to work for , Elston & Hopkin Billiards ltd of Nottingham , that was doing fitting into his 80’s so it is not unheard of .

Don’t get me wrong I still take on table moves ground floor to ground floor and man handle slates but no stair work for me now .
so if you still require a full size snooker table move from ground floor to ground floor , I am still doing this .

The cloth of choice for this table was Hainsworth Precision on the bed and Hainsworth smart on the cushions , the reason for this is , extra fast cloth for the balls to roll on the bed , and thicker cushions to so they wear better , especially around pocket openings where ball is directed to and therefore wears out quicker , imagine what would happen if you put the thinner finer napped precision on the cushions , it would wear out very fast .
so most Time served Billiard fitters will recommend a thicker cloth on the cushions when using a match or precision cloth as the main bed cloth choice .