Today I have been working on a table I installed in 2008 carrying out a full recover of cushions and bed cloth , all though I have been maintaining this table for near on 40 years .
these Riley Solid oak Imperial tables look  very nice when installed in an old Barn conversion with exposed oak beams the table blends in.
and I have installed some of these Riley square legged tables in old Barns
But this table is situated in the sports Center foyer of a Campus in Leicestershire that belongs to Nottingham University .

The cushions stripped down , I re-rubbered this table in 2006 when it was sited in the professors mess / Canteen club on the main Nottingham University  Campus

The finished table re-covered in Strachan 6811 all wool cloth
Tomorrow I just have to bring a set of cushions in for re-rubber using best northern rubber  , then it’s bags packed and ready for an Early flight Saturday morning to Portugal setting up a 10ft snooker table
I will be away working all weekend and be back after a couple of days break on Wednesday the 10th of June
please be aware that I will not be able to answer emails or telephone calls while I am away .

We will be away from the telephone and email from Saturday the 6th to Tuesday the 9th of June .

 

I have just two full size snooker tables and maybe a pool table to re-cover this week along with a couple of job’s in the workshop , this will take me up to the weekend .
Then I am away from Saturday the 6th for 4 days in Portugal fitting a clients 10ft Snooker table.
I have a couple of jobs when I get back which takes me to the 11th of June , I also have Monday the 15th of June off for a funeral of a close Cousin who I used to work with many years ago in the billiards trade.
If you require any work to your cue sports table in June now is the time to book , please be aware of the dates above that I am away from the office and phone and try and contact me on the 10th of June onward .

The 10ft K & Hillman table which will already be in Portugal and on site when I fly out on Saturday .
I am also taking work bookings for July of which we have only two days booked out at the moment .

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Today I have been over to Lincoln to finish off the renovation of the playing surface and remodeling of the cushion rubber of this very nice E.J Riley Billiards dining table with dual height position of playing surface and dining height
I dismantled this table around two weeks ago and transported the table over to Lincoln for my clients Mark and Heather who had just downsized and moved into a very nice retirement lakeside Log Cabin Lodge, and to be more local to their Canal barge moored close by and fishing lakes of which Mark is a very keen Angler .

The table fully re-covered in Strachan 6811 tournament cloth .

We also replaced the bag nets and fitted new broad bow leathers , this was not a low cost option leather but a full size set cut down with thick leather for long lasting years of play .

this is the part that makes these Riley dining tables such a unique piece of equipment , a three part brass lifter with dual position settings allow the table to be lifted upwards to play snooker on.
and then to lower for the dining boards to go on for sitting at for an evening meal.
You can also see the knurled round screw part , this allows for easy level of the table , a simple twist up or down to adjust the level.
The vertical beam of wood , there are two of these that are under the slate to stop the slate bowing , we refer to these as the anti bow beams , some poor quality designed tables do not have these and those tables sag in the middle and the balls all end up in the center of the table , these Riley Billiards diners are made with anti bow beams to remedy this .

This is the Dining table with the top leafs fitted , this table is solid Oak finished in a medium oak stain , the table was already in this condition when I moved it , but the cloth was faded and the cushions had very poor Bounce.
We rectified this for our clients , the original rubber on these small 6ft tables are nothing more than   larger version of Catapult elastic , there is not much bounce from the cushions even when this table was new.
I removed the small 1/2 inch L shape rubber , which was still in very good condition , but with poor bounce from it being too small and not really fit for purpose.
I replaced it with a larger version of the L shape rubber this being 5/8th by 5/8th . the balls now rebound 4. to 5 runs up and down the table and around the table off 7 cushions when hit hard .
the rebound value will also increase as the new rubber is bruised in , and the cushion cloth gives  a little .
I also allowed more pocket opening to offset the more overhang of the new rubber , my client is very happy with these new larger openings as he was struggling to pocket balls on the tight openings it used to have .
and admits the bounce is very good now .

The balls set up for the first game .
My clients added the following quote in an Email to me .

Dear Geoff

Please find some pictures of our Riley Dining snooker table that you completed the renovation of the playing surface today.

It is Really Lovely now and Mark is Practicing hard with a 37 Clearance on the first game.

” The Transformation of my Table has been amazing from a lifeless faded green cloth to a joy to play on, The whole Experience of Dealing with Geoff has been superb. He dismantled the table in my old home , and then moved it to our new Home and set it back up again . He Recovered the table slate bed and worked on the cushions in his workshop . He has returned today and put it all back together again and it is stunning once again .

Please use this quote if you want to Geoff.

regards

Mark and Heather Dawes .

……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

thank you Mark and Heather

It was a pleasure to work on this table , it was in very good order woodwork and polish wise , it only required some forward thinking of the larger rubber and pocket openings and the new cloth and pockets to make this table far better than it originally was .
With over 40 years as a Billiards fitter , I find it second nature to do this now , I am always looking to improve a table to make it play better , and for the client to be satisfied that they could not get a better job done elsewhere .
these Riley Dining Billiards tables where made from the early 1900’s to the 1960’s by E.J Riley .
they come in different leg designs and there are a couple of rare ones , one being the Oak Barley twist , the other being the serpentine top version .

here are a few other designs of this table .

The very rare Serpentine top with cabriolet legs , look closely at the cushions the surround is curved in a serpent style hence the name serpentine . the wood tops match this .
This one is for sale in our for sale section and  a very low cost which is a bargain for someone although there is woodwork damage and it require a full renovation

An 8ft version with the swing out lifting solid cast iron handles , this is the turned fluted leg style

The square fluted leg style , this and the fluted turned leg where made in their thousands
Can you spot what is wrong with this Table above ?
the pocket plates are very cheap and nasty top plate with screws , these should not be on a Riley diner , the tops will not rest on the cushions even and will rock
The problem with owners lifting the playing surface up with the pocket plates damages them and makes them loose , people fit these nasty low cost option pocket plates to try and fix it , they are just making it worse ,
NEVER lift the table to playing height or lower it by grabing hold of the pocket plate all ways lift under the cushions

a 5ft version , some think these too small to play on , but the old gentleman who had this renovated thought very highly of it.

this is the modern version of the Riley diner , later versions with reeded legs where imported from china , these are no where near as desirable as an original Riley diner circa 1900 to 1950 .

the dining tops of these Riley dining table are normally in 4 section all though on the 8 ft version they can be 5 sections .
Note the green strips of cloth , this is to protect the polish of the cushion capping when placed on top .

a photo of a renovated rare 7 ft version of the Serpentine Riley dining billiards table with cabriolet legs with tapered ends to legs rather than ball and claw or pad feet which where also available .

the cabriolet ball and claw version .
If anyone is interested in a renovated 6 ft mahogany Riley diner with Cabriolet legs with tapered ends  we have one in store ready to renovate , ask Geoff for a price for this table fully renovated polished new rubber and cloth balls and cues and delivered and set up .
Price dependent on distance to travel .

We have been over to Derby this week to re-cover 3 full size snooker tables and 4 supreme winner pool tables
The cloth they chose was Hainwsorth Match cloth .

This is a light weight match cloth and a more expensive option for a re-cover , rather than the more widely used Hainsorth smart or Strachan 6811 tournament .

We re-covered 3 full size snooker tables this week in the main Hall , with the option to go back next week to complete a 4th .

Hainsworth Match costs around 1/3rd more than standard Hainsworth smart cloth.
so The Cueball club is going upmarket in ensuring all their tables have Match cloth on , normally only the match tables are fitted with Match cloth .

pool tables during re-covering , we vac out the tables when we do a re-cover

we also wash out the rails to remove sweat / grime wax and fluff , a common black grime type grease which builds up over time , if not cleaned and can stop a ball on the rail system
when this happens the player normally picks the table up and drops it down hard to free the ball , this may result in broken feet and the table will then require a new leg to re-level
by keeping the internals clean this prevents sticking balls .


ball rails that are dirty , if left will result in sticking balls !

one of the tables finished and ready for play

During a re-cover , the slate has been cleaned of any bad re-cover over spray glue on the playing surface , GCL billiards only use contact adhesive spread on with a comb
the glue is spread only to the edge of the slate which is underneath the cushions , there is no glue on any part of the slate bed that a ball has to roll over .

An example of a very bad spray on glue contamination of playing area , this had to be cleaned off before new cloth was applied , spray on glue is bad for pool table re-covering .
always insist on contact adhesive put on with a spreader comb . It is very annoying to players to have balls run off or deflect over uneven surface area or suddenly stop on a lump of glue that is still on the slate bed  , and the main culprit for this is spray on glue is speed fitters trying to shave off time in the recovering process.
why fitters still use spray on glue is a mystery to me , I have always spotted the fault of using this type of glue so have never been tempted to use it having seen the problems it causes .

Two of the 4 tables that have been treated to top class Hainsworth Match cloth .
if you require a re-cover to your cue sports table , then contact Geoff at GCL billiards for a quote.

email           c.large@btinternet.com

or phone 07753466064   / o1159725355
we are based in Long Eaton but we do travel around many parts of the East midlands and beyond .
in two weeks time I will be in Portugal setting a 10ft snooker table up in an holiday villa for a client .

 

TABLE HAS BEEN TAKEN not available anymore , you have to be quick to snap up these FREE tables .

the table above is free to collect , it is upstairs , our client would like to have the table removed by the end of May .
Reason for give away , the house is sold and new owners would like to use the room for other purpose .

this is a unique opportunity to acquire a Free table .

GCL Billiards would be happy to quote for the dismantle and delivery of this table , for a quote please contact Geoff on 07753466064 This table must go

or email Geoff  ……….. on email ………………. c.large@btinternet.com

I have been contacted by a client in the West Midlands who purchased a table from a firm not too far away , close to Sheffield.
He was after a Genuine UK made  twin bolted framed Riley Aristocrat to match specs including pocket openings as close to template as possible which is 3.5 inch at the drop.
I was also instructed to replace the bed cloth due to an accident with a chocolate bar that his Daughter had left on the table .
Here are a few photo’s that describe some of the faults that I found on close inspection.

the first thing that stick out was the center pocket openings where not central to the table  , as you can see from this photo , the pocket fall is slightly positioned to the left of the cushion center pocket gap ,
this made the baulk end pockets very tight 3.1/4 inch and the spot end pockets at 3.5 inch .

as you can see the template does not fit within the cushions , the center pocket is too tight .

From this photo, you can now see that I have altered the pocket opening and centered it up to the fall , the center pockets are now to match spec. that was the easy part to do , my client can now pocket balls at a bit more pace ,
before they where being spat back out , as there was not enough gap to allow the ball to fall properly. they where ricocheting back and forth between the tight close together angles .
I was not re-covering the cushions so could not see if I could improve the undercut a bit more to reduce this even further , but did comment to my client that on the next cushion re-cover.
I could improve them a bit more by cleaning up any rough cut rubber that had not been finished off smooth .

By careful removal and fold back of the cushion cloth on the corner , I placed my template and found that I had to remove a fair amount of rubber to make the pocket openings 3.5 inch at the fall .
above I have drawn around the template onto the top of the rubber to show just how tight these pocket opening are , the fitter who closed the middle pockets up , did this to make the corner pockets wider
The table pocket opening where not uni formal , you had two at 3.5 inch two at 3.1/4 inch and the center pockets tight and out of alignment with the center fall .
It was apparent that they just made the two spot end corner pockets that are used most in the game of snooker to template and just bodged the other corners and middle openings , and made a quick exit .
The camera tells the story so they cannot deny this .

With the rubber cut and sanded and the undercut also smoothed out , the baulk end pockets are now 3.5 inch , the same as the spot end corner pockets they are all uni formal .
It is always better to re-rubber on the table rather than on a bench , I have been re-rubbering cushions for 40 years , and I always ask if I can re-rubber on the table rather than take them into the workshop ,
it is much better to set the pockets to the tables own slate falls .
Sometimes it is not possible to do this as the table may be in storage or dismantled and you have the cushions to work on , I tend to make a mock pocket opening up using a large square and cardboard to find the slate fall
Different fitters are taught different ways , but I find my way suits me and I end up with good pocket openings that are not going to cause a problem going forward .

My clients table with correct pocket openings with templates in the pocket , and new bed Strachan 6811 tournament 30 oz cloth fitted.

One other problem that was spotted , the use of wood screws to hold up a loose pocket plate , these where only loose because they had not set the center pocket opening wide enough making the corner pocket plates sag down .
I removed these screws and packed a little cloth inside the two pin holes that the twin pins from the pocket plate locate into , this made them ultra tight .
the use of screws over time would mean the ends of these cushions being chewed up , the wood falls apart and the pocket plate will become even looser .
A bad way of finishing the job off .
I also noted that this table did not have the proper adjustable slate muntins , under the table , these should wind up to the slate to prevent sagging down in the middle .

above  photo , the top button has a hole for a button but no hole in the side long frame rail with nut has been drilled , this is a a dummy bolt hole to make it look like it is a genuine twin bolt hole table , but the fact that the dummy bolt hole is near the top of the leg rings alarm bells it should be lower than this .
The table was ordered to be a genuine twin bolt UK made  Riley Aristocrat match table , in my professional opinion if I was asked , is that this table was originally a one bolt hole frame table , extra bolt holes have been added , but the end of the frame has only one bolt in and the top bolt hole is a dummy , this would not be the case if the table was genuine Riley Match play Aristocrat .
now I do not name and shame other firms , I do not get into arguments , but if a client is paying me good money to put a table right and asks why it was bad , I cannot say I will not comment , he is paying me not only for my time but my professionalism in the art of a fully qualified billiards table fitter , so if he asks me what the problem is before I remove the first screw and it is as obvious as these photo’s then I have to explain truthfully .
I take photo’s to prove this to be the case and also explain it by posting on my web blog .
so if you have a problem with a way a table is performing , it may be that the rubber is sitting on too high block work or that the pockets have not been cut to a template correct or set up correct in alignment as was the case here .
If you have any of the above problems then contact Geoff  at GCL Billiards on email c.large@btinternet.com  .
We will try to help sort out any problems you have been having with your table .