Visited Butlins in Skegness last week for a three to four day stopover to re-cover 6 american 9ft Brunswick pool tables
Rob and Wayne booked me into accommodation for the week of which we are most grateful for .
Rob chose the cloth design again for this years new format of Printed Artscape Budweiser with stars background .
This year he went for three different colours of the same design rather than have all the tables in one colour like last year .

Myself and Steve get stuck into stripping the tables down ready for the new cloth design

I prefer to get the cushion retaining slips out and fit the new cushion cloth first ,
then turn over and strip the staples out before fixing new cloth into place on cushions
this makes for less turning over of the top surrounds.
the cushion cloth also has a pattern that must match up like wall paper to the bed cloth so careful fitting to make sure it all aligns must be done .

once the cushions are done we strip the bed cloth from the slate bed removing all the staples
Speed or cowboy fitters leave most of the old staples in and cover over the top , what the eye cannot see is their motto .
GCL billiards works to a standard and that means every old staple out .

The cloth colours where Purple  / Green and Gold . here is the Purple version , the faded in rings of light is the printed pattern it is made to look like a spot light is shining on it
note the shading goes into the cushion cloths , Artscape pattern cloth is designed like wall paper the cloths are colour coded so we know which cushion and what position on the tbale to fit , so that we get the matching pattern blending into the cushions too .

all 6 tables completed , alternate Green /Purple corner tables and gold in the middle all sporting that Budweiser logo with stars background pattern

a photo with no flash , this really shows up the pattern in the cloth
the tables are getting on a bit now , so next year they may be replaced with 9 supreme winner type tables , Rob is undecided yet
he may get another few years out of these , spares are now getting hard to find for these old tables but we still manage to keep them going .
and these 9ft American pool tables take some hammer in the 12 months that Bultins are open .
Sticky hands ice cream coke and other stains will appear over the coming months , but lets look at these newly re-covered cloths freshly recovered , I always get a buzz out of fitting cloths like these
.
I also popped into the green baize at Butlins , which has a round 16 full size snooker tables , I fitted some nets and leathers and made a few quick repairs , I am due back in February to carry out some re-covering work in there and other bits and bobs .
Albert who is in charge of the green baize is constantly looking to keep all 16 tables in use , and he regularly phones me up to keep me up to date on repairs required over the year .
as does Wayne for Hot shots .

We cannot take any more work in before Christmas and New year
I am working 7 days a week on the run up to the 25th to get the work that is booked in completed .

please email me for work inquiries as I am too busy to even answer the phone at this time of the year
Bookings now being taken for work in January .

email      c.large@btinternmet.com

Sorry to say but we are not available to contact this week
we do have regular work at Butlins in Skegness twice a year
and November is six american pool table renovation time
we will be back late Friday as we also have a full size snooker table to re-cover in chapel St leonards and an 8ft snooker table to install in Newark on the way back to Nottingham
we cannot be reached by phone due to the metal buildings we are working in , we have no phone signal .
same again for emails , we have no on line service available as it is shut down week at Butlins and we are off line .

Last years cloth design at Bultins hot shots was purple Budweiser

we visit Butlins twice a year in November for the american pool tables and then again around February time for the snooker tables in the Green Baize club

I have been over to a very local club to me about half a mile down the road .
A return booking to this club who have two tables
Re-cover of TABLE ONE  plus fit new set of nets , and re-stretch  bed cloth of TABLE TWO

Table ONE being prepared for a Game after the Re-cover

We have had an email that suggests that a firm is about to start trading in china useing gclbilliards.cn domain .
I tend just to ignore replying to these firms that are only trying to sell me the trade name domain .
GCL billiards do not trade in China or with any importing of Chinese goods Direct therefore we have no use for a CN domain name
But a firm could register in China and fool people World wide into thinking they are part of GCL billiards.com or .co.uk which I hold both domains to .
I suspect to start selling low cost cues and other billiard or snooker equipment or even tables with GCL Billiards brand name on them .
so if you do any trading with gclbilliards.cn it is not part of the UK firm GCL billiards .
which is Run by Geoff & Carol Large .
any other firm other than the proper gclbilliards.com useing GCL billiards as a trade name is a Scam so be warned .
GCL Billiards do not have their own brand or range of cues so if you see any they are not from us and where not supplied by GCL billiards UK .
but we may in the future bring out a range of cues , this is something I have been thinking about over the years but we are just too busy at the moment with maintaining our clients table’s which is the core of our business to bother with retailing cues and accessories .
as a UK firm we try and use as many UK made products as possible supplied by the UK registered firms of  Strachan branded cloth / Peradon  / and Hainsworth and Zuzo Happ .
there is some cross over in Chinese supplied parts but we try and look for other options before going down that route .
We are fully committed into supplying UK manufactured products and services made by UK workers putting money back into our own economy .
no cheap labour and no cheap goods .

This week I have been over to the Cotswold’s to dismantle a 9ft billiard table .
my instructions was to dismantle and store on site for an up and coming party celebration in that room , and at a later date to reinstall and maybe renovate the table with new rubber cloth and ball runner nets and rails .

this is a john Stevens table circa 1910
it has had  a modern set of Italian slates fitted at some time in the past and has a sage green cloth .
with bag nets .

from this end you may see that the half moon shape in the cushion has the original gold transfer of Stevens .
it has had a polished woodwork renovation at some time and they masked that area off to retain the transfer makers name .
Not a bad table but it has had some modifications , and the holes in the cushions are a bit hit and miss in alignment  to the new 1980’s slates , also the pockets are very tight and the rubber looks past its best , the limited edition sage green cloth is a cloth produced to look like it is aged from new .