I have been over to Burton on Trent for the hottest two days of the year where the temperatures hit 33 deg
The work was re-rubber set of steel cushions and re-cover and also replace the nets and leathers .

quality is one area GCL billiards will not let standards fall , rather than fit lower cost Chinese rubber we always use UK Retford Nottinghamshire based Northern rubber
which is regarded as the best Billiard table rubber in the world .

two angles a middle angle and a corner angle , these where exact copy of pocket openings of the original table , having manufactured on site a cardboard template to reproduce the same opening as before but maybe with a slight opening up of the rear .
You may notice the smooth rounded rasped and sanded finish to the rubber , no rough cut sharp angles but a nice smooth entry to the undercut of the rubber .
Steel cushions are not easy to do , they weigh so much more than a standard wooden cushion , and are not easy to handle .

The cushion in the process of being re-clothed ,  this is also a fine art to forming the cloth around the corner and middle angles without wrinkles and creases .

the 5 section 2 inch thick Welsh slate bed , this has to be cleaned of all old chalk dust and compacted spot dust .
also the area around the bottom cushion has a tendency to accumulate a lot of dust as brushing directs it down to that end , this also compounds and solidifies forming a ramp of compact dust
hence why some balls can come off the bottom cushion and jump upwards and banging back down around 6 inch from the bottom cushion .
this is one reason along with others that you may experience ball lift up at rebound .

Bed cloth fitted Strachan 6811 tournament 30 oz grade , the line is to mark the spot locations out upwards from end of slate.

the transfer on the underside of the cloth

aligning the cushions back on , the pocket openings have to be spot on for steel cushions to align the rear woodwork , if they are out of alignment the wood will not bolt back on .
you have to align the bolt holes in cushion woodwork and end pocket alignment which is a rather tricky job .
Click on any photo for a close up .

almost finished , Frank inspecting the table .
our clients where delighted with the work and the way we went about it .
this two table club I have visited many times in the past 40 years . they know me very well and can trust me to carry out work to high standard .
after working in 33 deg temperatures I was very hot by the time I got Home lucky for me that I used to keep Koi Carp a few years ago but for the last 8 years it has become a salt water plunge pool

Nice day today just one re-cover to do at Stapleford Nottingham  then work on some cushions at Home int he afternoon .
it was nice that Jed had the air condition units  serviced yesterday . out side was 27 deg and inside around 18 / 20 deg
The cold air was a welcome addition to yesterdays sweltering  job  .

this visit was to re-cloth a supreme winner in Strachan 6811 cloth
this photo before I started shows that some wear is still left in the cloth but there was an hole in one cushion and some sewn up work previously done .

cloth stripped off the slate bed and cleaned , then glue under cloth edge and edge of slate with contact adhesive .

every staple is removed , unlike other firms who leave them in and re-cover over the top we remove EVERY staple

The re-cloth completed , I also cleaned out the cabinet and ball rails and then checked level
there are 4 Supreme winner tables at this end of the Club , and 6 full size snooker tables taking up the rest of the room , plus the Bar area .

We have completed a very painful installation in Croydon South London of which  two visit’s was required to complete the work !
This table used to belong to an old client of mine Mr smith who had passed away and his Widow had sold it to my new client Adrian in Croydon .
This table is a very special table in that it was the Robsteve model billiard table of 1911 which was a facsimile ( exact copy ) of the Billiard table as used in the Roberts Steven’s billiards final of 1905 at Caxton Hall .
Burroughs and watts went on to make very few of these tables and they are very scarce , and you do not come across them often , they have unusual 2.5 inch thick slates when the norm would be 2 inch slates , Roberts insisted on this spec of extra thick slate .

this is a photo before I dismantled it for my new client Adrian , who purchased it from my old client Mrs Smith  and was removed from a property in the grounds of Litchfield cathedral .
as you can see it was in very good condition apart from it requiring new rubber and and a re-cover in Strachan 6811 tournament cloth .
I found it very hard to load this table with just two of us and we had to bring it down some steps to the van , I was overloaded for the short trip back to Nottingham , and becuase of this i had to get Adrian to come up with another van to collect the table .
Part two of the deal was to go down to Croydon to install in Adrian’s Bungalow .
Now this is where it got tricky , Adrian had underpinned his bungalow and dug out for an entire basement to be built under the foundations of the old Bungalow , this was the whole floor which comprised of two new Bedrooms and the new Snooker room , with an upstairs loft conversion I was told it was the only three story Bungalow in South London !

Unloading some of the woodwork from my van , Adrian had already picked up the slates and part of the woodwork
this table was one that my van would be overloaded so best do things legally , and use two vans to transport it .

the slates where going to be man handled down a slope of boards , but after accessing the dangers of this I called it off and asked Adrian to get a Crane in , a builders lorry was used with HI HAB crane on it , they used straps and gently lifted each slate in the air and lowered it onto the boards and slid them down useing hydraulics , this light pit is 8ft deep , if we could not hold the weight back then the two people at the bottom would be in Hospital or a morgue  .
The risk was just not worth it , and Adrian had waited two years for this table so another week or so was not going to be a problem and we managed to pull the work back in when I was down that way two weeks later.
In fact that weekend I dismantled a table and set it up in one day in Essex , then onto Adrian’s who had got the slate on the frame to finish this table off by 9.30 pm , then slept over at Adrians , and on way back called into Windsor to pick up a full size Karnehm and hilman table to bring back to Nottingham .

I had set the table frame up and leveled it ready for the slate to go on , and left Adrian a piano trolley to get the slates onto the table .

the slate positioned and level and filled in on the slate joints ready for sanding smooth as one bed .

as you can see this is extremely thick slate bed .

Myself fitting the wood cushion frieze over the steel cushions .

an imposing table made from the finest Cuban mahogany with thick chunky legs and steel cushions , this was the Rolls Royce of tables in 1911 .
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the finished table , all that Adrian has to do now is fit some decent lighting .
as the spot lights do not work very well , I have instructed him to get the twin tube office lighting
High frequency and twin whit light tubes , two units 1.5 metres long end to end will come out at 10 foot lighting
like these examples .


We got there in the end Adrian was very pleased that he finally got the table he bought two years ago set up in his dream Snooker room .
We do not often have to walk away from an installation , but the risk of injury could not be ignored .

We have had another insurance job come in due to flooding.
this is the second table in two months that has had to be dismantled while the room is dried out and fully redecorated .
this is normally around 2 to 3 months between the table being taken down to being reassembled back up .

I have worked on this table around 4 times in the past 5 years , I have re-covered it twice and re-stretched the bed cloth also opened pockets out
and replaced the Rubber , our client takes really good care of it and has it maintained regardless of cost .
it was no coincidence then that he contacted Geoff at GCL Billiards when he recently experienced the recent flooding in Gotham near Nottingham .
GCL Billiards are reputable insurance approved when it comes to Billiards Snooker and pool table removal or replacement due to unfortunate circumstances like a flood or fire .
Insurance people find it hard to find the correct person or firm to take on such a task as dismantle and removal of a full size snooker table during renovations of a damaged room .
and GCL Billiards are now known to a few insurance companies out there who have used our expert services of dismantle and dry storage and renovation of table to a like for like quotes .

this is what our client awoke to find one morning a couple of weeks ago
the best part of his garden and neighbours garden under water , the building at the bottom of his garden is his Snooker room .

a good pump around two days later reduced the water level
Our Client thought he may have got away with the room being under water , but it had just crept in by about 1/2 an inch to 1 inch , and water had been soaked up into the carpet and the bottom of our clients snooker table legs .

We have now dismantled the table and taken it to a dry storage depot that we use from our storage partner Jonills removals .

it will stay in storage drying out slowly over the next two months
because the room was very wet and damp , the Billiard cloth also soaked up the dampness like a sponge in the room just out of the damp air !
not a lot of people know this,
But a Snooker / Billiard cloth gets damp from just damp air , it will shrink when drying out if taken off on dismantle still damp and will not fit back on correct .
the cloth is made from 100% pure new wool so it will shrink when it gets wet , because this table had to be taken out of the building to dry out the cloth will have to be replaced .
Expect a  shrinkage of around 1.5 inch all the way around the cloth .
this was also explained to the insurance company , and they have also given the go ahead for a complete re-cover of bed and cushions in like for like , Strachan 6811 tournament 30 oz cloth
We expect to return the table and erect leaving ready for play when the room has been fully dried out and redecorated in around 2 months time .

I have just spent two days at a clients Home in Corby Northamptonshire.
My work for the two days was to set up a full size Karnehm and Hillman table and fit adjustable slate bearers , plus re-rubber and re-cover plus fit new nets and leathers
My client and his wife was also putting me up for a night with evening meal and Breakfast on site at his very nice home , this is a common thing with some clients who wish the table work to go smoothly with less traveling .
and I was most grateful for the offer of this which meant less traveling and more time on the job .

so the first part of the work was to fit some adjustable slate bearer’s or Muntin’s as we call them in the billiards industry
these are converted joist hangers with a bolt and lock nut attached .
I would recommend  this conversion as a very good upgrade on Snooker / Billiards tables , especially those built in the 1980s onward’s which have soft Italian / Chinese / Brazilian  slate which is prone to sagging if not supported in the center .

this photo shows the adjustable bracket’s fitted and the muntin slate bearer in place and screwed up to the center of the slate bed .
this will support the slate down the center of the table , and if any movement down then the slate can be easily adjusted upwards useing the bolts

to stop wood being screwed into a metal picture frame plate is screwed to the underside of the muntin bearer ,
so that the bolt only makes contact to the metal plate area , thus stopping the wood being damaged by the bolt .

a simple conversion yet so effective and makes the table slate bed much better to keep level , and adjust if necessary .
most modern Snooker / billiard table’s made today have this system fitted .
but there are thousands of tables out there which suffer from slate sagging , so always ask for this conversion if possible if you are having a table re-errected .

slate’s on level and under surround cloth tack wood linings fitted , and joint’s filled

Onto the re-rubber work , I glue all 6 strips together on my gluing board .

and we also glue the blocks of the cushions ready to make the contact adhesive  that we use work
both rubber back and block facing have equal amounts of contact adhesive spread onto them .

the rubber we use is very high class Northern rubber as used on world championship tables
made in Retford in the UK , now owned by Hainsworth
You can see this set of 6 cushion rubbers  left the Factory in March 2016 , so only 3 months old , we only buy our rubber as we require it .
We do not want to end up useing older stored rubber on our table work .
you can get lower priced Imported rubber , but we only fit the best the £60 saved is not worth the risk of being found out , we like to keep our reputation clean
so we only use high quality materials in all our work , the only time I use imported rubber is on UK pool tables which have imported rubber on from new unless the client asked for an upgrade to Northern rubber  .

the rubber is skillfully shaped and undercut smooth , you will not find any re-rubber done by Geoff at GCL Billiards cut rough and just covered over
I have even sanded the sharp wood angle to prevent cloth splitting when a ball falls against it down the pocket opening .
An example from another firm of rough cut rubber below .

just look how rough some fitters think is acceptable !

the rubber fitted to the block rebate of the cushion .

the cushions re-covered we now pay attention back to the slate bed ,
the filler we put in yesterday is sanded smooth over the joints and the whole bed lightly sanded to make as one smooth bed .
The level is also rechecked at this point .

the bed cloth laid on top of the slate ready for tacking .

The transfer of the Strachan 6811 30 oz tournament cloth used .
all Strachan cloth carries one of these transfers every 10 feet .

To make try and combat counterfeit cloth Strachan also embroider two blue lines for Tournament cloth or Red lines for club cloth
to one edge , they also embroider Genuine Pure Quality Strachan 6811 tournament to the side too .
Strachan by the way is pronounced STRAWN .
6811 tournament 30 oz is the most used cloth in the world , it has a very good reputation for durability qualities while retaining speed  and close nap , and is 100% pure new wool .
We only use the best manufactured cloth made in the UK.

Bed cloth fitted and marked out ready for ironing

the table is now complete apart from the cushion buttons which my client has for now misplaced

I also supplied a peradon black fitted dust cover and a set of second hand very well made hard top sections that tongue and groove together
the silver dust cover was also put on to protect the black cover , this table top is going to be used for when my client have Family and friends  around for Christmas and parties for dining off
the cover also has rubber inserts that protect the cushions .

My clients home , the snooker room is to the left of the main house with bi fold doors .

Just now and again I like to refresh my own stock of pool Supreme winner tables that we rent out to pubs and clubs
I had a couple of pubs close down or terminate the contract due to landlord moving on and Brewery stepping in
and deciding they want their recommended large firm rent the tables to them .
who do not do as much as GCL billiards to maintain them to a higher playing standard , so their loss and my buyers Gain .
This table originally supplied with a blue cloth was only on rent 6 months and then two weeks in another pub and one week at a  local tennis tournament.

So I decided to free a little space in our storage by selling a couple of tables , one to a firm in Leicester and this one to a Private home in Nottingham
I really should not have sold this one as it was as new condition and could have been passed off as new it was that good  .

end photo of the Supreme winner pool table 7×4 foot in Black Pearl finish

Side photo of coin operated Latest Edition green badged supreme winner , re-covered in best Strachan 6811 tournament cloth .
new cues balls and triangle and box of chalk and dust cover .
Sold for £695
the same table brand new on Ebay is £1234.50p  including delivery and set up and Peradon dust cover .
A saving from new of £539.50p and this table is as new as you can get .
As you can imagine our buying client was delighted with his purchase and around £500 in cash saved .
we do not often sell our own stock rental pool tables , but I have a couple of new ones ready for hire on contract rentals .
and prefer to keep rotating my new stock in and ex stock out , as I buy a few new ones at trade this means , I can rotate old stock in storage gathering dust out for new or cash in lieu waiting to buy new  , so I move them on and reinvest in new stock as and when I require them .
I do not have any more for sale at the moment but I do sometime release the odd one for sale , these are old stock latest design green badges pearl finish tables at £695 plus delivery and set up .
around a £500 saving on brand new COIN OPERATED machines .
please do not compare none coin free play Supreme winner pricing with a coin operated type , the coin op ones are much more expensive .
I normally only sell on after at least three years of use on contract rental hire .

I have been working in a large country house near Grantham  , now a hotel and conference centre
a few years ago I moved this table from an out building to the main house , unfortunately table is not of good manufacture and  a few mistakes with the build when it was new .
the main mistake being they made the side cushions too long resulting in the end cushions having been packed from new by the original installers .

on strip down I came across this , the end cushion has hardboard packing to make them fit the table .
the side cushions are too long and make the end cushion sit off the end of the table by around 3/8ths
so the original manufacturer just packed it on install ?
there is not a lot you can do with these cushions to rectify this on site , maybe replace with a decent set of cushions but I was instructed to re-rubber the cushions and then re-cover the table .

cushions off and rubber stripped off ready for re-rubber

this how I re-rubber and shape the cushion openings

and file smooth , a perfect pocket opening every time by GCL billiards

the other manufacturing fault was the way they slotted out for slate bolts , this is not as good as a perfect hole
the bounce in the cushions would not be as good as a perfect bolt hole cushions , as they are removing wood out of the cushion they are also removing weight of the cushions
a vital design of cushions is to make them heavy and stiff and bolt up tight for excellent bounce
all these did perform well enough they would have been far better if designed correct .

The bed cloth going on

I did have to attend to a very bad slate joint , someone had attempted to move the table and had disturbed the filler out of the joint

Bed cloth fully fitted

the table fully re-rubbered in best northern rubber made in the UK
fully re-clothed using best Quality UK made Strachan 6811 tournament cloth 30 oz weight
Brand new Leathers and nets Peradon UK supplied

UK Peradon supplied fitted dust cover

When I was re-rubbering the cushions I was asked if I had a lighting shade as they where using a very small pool table light placed very high
I did have a second hand 3/4 sized lighting shade that is hung also high would do a job ad was far better than what they had in use so I let them have this at a reasonable price
it was in very good condition

this is what they where playing under ?

the very Grand entrance to the large country house .