We are very busy at the moment , we have work all over the place to complete , and we only have around 8 days in total left to fully book us up for end of November and December .
so phone us if you require work before Christmas .

some of this work is local to us and we are in Derbyshire for the rest of this week , next week we have a re–cover in Northampton and then we have 2 days left last week of  November to fill in .
We start December off with a weeks work in Lincolnshire , and then work in West Bridgeford /  Belper / Leicstershire / Derbyshire / and Burton on trent .
We have from the 16th of December up to the 23rd free , so if you require work on your cue sports table before Christmas , please book us now to fill these last few days in .

we have a mixture of snooker and pool table work in at the moment plus we also have our own tables to maintain in the pool table rental side of our business .

We take our time and make sure the work is done correctly , we never rush and try and get as much work done in a week as possible , our work is skilled and requires time we are not on bonus for the amount we can do in a day .
and our clients are more appreciative of our work that they re-book us for future maintenance .

With over 39 years of working in the cue sports trade as a time served Billiards fitter , Geoff has worked on just about every cue sports table manufactured and sold within the UK .

I had an enquiry for a Rental pool table last Friday , so I phoned up the supreme Factory in Heywood  to order a table for this new site
I was shocked when I found out that no Supreme winners where available until after the new year .
I suspect this is down to Christmas orders for free play winners for Home use and Christmas presents , once they set their table manufacturing machines up for home use tables you have to wait for the target volume of free play tables to be reached before they reset back up for coin op tables , then there is the colour of cabinet change overs too so if you wanted one in Black and they are on a white run you have to wait until that target order of white  is finished  .
Add to this around 8 cabinet finishes and colour ranges and you may be waiting some time for an order you have put in , and I haven’t mentioned 6ft and 7ft version change overs .
so popular is this make and style of pool table they are working at full capacity and cannot keep up with demand , you have to be really lucky that you drop an order in at the right time to get the colour and coin op version we require .
Lucky for me I had another supplier/ Supreme stockist who just by chance had stock piled a couple of Coin operated tables and they kindly let me have one in the Black pearl finish that we and players favour. .

GCL billiards latest rental site near Matlock in Derbyshire , a brand new Winner supreme probably the last one available in the UK before Christmas , all others in production at this moment in time have already been spoken for up until the New year !

The owner of this establishment was very grateful for us pulling out all the stops to locate a table for him .
I am going to invest in having a couple in stock all the time for my rental business , as the demand is outstripping supply .
I have people phoning me up asking if I can get them one , but I am afraid I only had one lucky chance at getting this one in .
GCL Billiards is expanding every month in the Rental pool table business , we are getting a very nice sizable round of pool table sites from Coventry to Matlock
but the majority of our rental sites are in Nottingham and Derby area .
if you are looking for a pool, table for hire , then give Geoff a ring on 07753466064 , we cannot guarantee a table before Christmas but we should be getting a couple in for January .

This week we have been very busy starting off in Worksop Nottingham with a pool table re-cover , then over to Castle Donington to install a pool table we sold.
On Tuesday and Wednesday we where up in Clitheroe in Lancashire installing a full size snooker table then we re-covered it in best Strachan 6811 west of England cloth
on the way back I called in at Blackburn to inspect a badly fitted table with pocket problems and bad packing under the slate .
There is some major issues with this table that could have been sorted by the seller at the warehouse or workshop before they took it out and fitted it , I was asked for a report on the table which I gave and I think I shall be hearing from the owner to put the problems right .
On Thursday I travelled over to Forest town just the other side of Mansfield to re-cover a nice home play pool table , and in the afternoon over to Bingham to level an American pool table that some removal firm had installed and very nearly broke the table doing so .
This American 8ft table had a three section slate bed and the cushions bolted through holes in the side , they took the legs off at the home they where moving it form and then put the legs back on when they installed the table in the new home ,
the piano trolley they used had bent the side cushions in and I not only had to sort that out but also put extra screws in the legs which where in danger of falling off , now this client had young children who could be crawling under the table and if the legs came adrift the table would come crashing down on the toddler , a truly shocking job , that table should have been fully dismantled and moved in sections then re-set back up, the owners where very lucky no one got injured , do not let Removal men touch a sectional bed cue sports table , call in a professional billiards fitter for this work , it may cost more but the implications of what can go wrong is worrying .
On Friday just one local job about 3 mile from where I live , this was a first edition winner supreme pool table with rock hard rubber in the cushions and in need of a re-cover , I had been recommended tot his client by 2 or 3 people so the word gets around the local pool leagues on who to get in to re-cover their tables.
Recommendation is the best compliment any firm can get , it shows you did a good job on the clients tables and impressed that much that they are spreading the word around their friends who then also pass on the recommendation of using Geoff at GCL billiards to do any maintenance on their cue sports table.
here are a few photo’s of two local pool tables re-covered this week , one had a brand new set of cushions fitted .

The oak colour wood home play table in forest town Mansfield . during strip down, all the staples in the cushions where removed , we do not do speed work and staple over staples .

and The forest town oak colour home play table after a re-cover in Strachan 6811 all wool cloth , Green is the most restful colour to the eye and that is why it is the most used colour in our part of the world anyway

the Sandiacre mk1 Supreme winner , just unscrewed the cushions and trying the new cushions for size , the new cushions where around 1/8th longer , but our client was pleased with that as tighter pockets will improve his game

The reason we replaced the cushions , as you can see this old red rubber is starting to turn over . it is also rock hard , even harder then the soft wood that it is attached to , the balls where hitting the cushions and just dead no rebound at all it was like hitting an iron bar , the rubbers having solidified that much .
note the woolly unbranded cloth used , I often get people saying a firm is quoting £20 less than you to recover my table , well here is what you will get for £20 less rubbish none branded thick woolly cloth .
I use Strachan branded cloth all wool construction in two grades for pool tables 777 and the much desired 6811 as used and played on by county players as well as on Match tables in clubs and pubs up and down the country .
There are other brands offering good quality but the Strachan 6811 is good for wear the other thinner cloths may be very fast but do not expect good life out of the cloth .

The finished supreme winner mk 1 pool table , note the alloy trim around the outside edge and the alloy body corner sections , as well as the flat chrome corner plates , the actual body and legs of the table has changed very little on later models of the winner , this table is now playing very good , it is good for level and the cushions are superb the balls fly around with very good rebound value  of over 7 cushions when a ball is thrown around the table in a clockwise direction .
these rubbers will get even more rebound value once bruised in .
The client is that keen he bought a proper billiard iron , a new set of balls , and the very best pure pig split end bristle brush you can find .
Below is the latest type of winner supreme , you can see the changes mostly in the top surround

the difference is , corner moulded chrome pocket plates , curved over top surround with no alloy trims , the corners of the main body is black and not alloy finish , and the internal runners have a groove in them to stop balls jumping up out of the pocket .
and the black finish is not wood grained but matt finish called Black pearl , the supreme winner is the most popular pool table in the UK , and they seem to hold their second hand value because they are very sought after in the second hand market , some times it is best to buy new because you will get the satisfaction of new balls / new cushion rubber / and new cloth , I have seen second hand winners sold for around £400 which require new cushions / new cloth / and new balls add these to the price of the £400 and you are around the £650 price range , now look on Ebay and see what some are selling a brand new home play supreme winner in Black pearl for , you will be surprised that the price is a round the £650 to £700 price , so was it worth buying second hand ? and you get all the
latest design improvements like the new metal moulded corner plates and anti bounce out ball rails , and an unmarked as new Black pearl finish and you can specify 6811 Strachan cloth .

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A table I re-covered a few month’s ago . this one is the latest design.

the latest corner plate with supreme moulded raised lettering .

A close up of the corner plate on the latest winner , note the black pearl anti glare finish ,and improvement over the shiny black ash which reflected the light into your eyes when playing .

An improvement in the ball rails was made because the flat curved shiny type the balls bounce upwards and back onto the table , the newer slotted type with allen key fixing is the best type to have , we can supply and fit the new type as a replacement to the curved shiny bounce out type at the same time you have a re-cover , just ask for these to be put on the van if you book us for a recover for a Supreme winner or Prince model they both take the same size and type runners.

The past two days have been spent up in Clitheroe in Lancashire .
My client Mark has been working on the woodwork of the table for a few months and was waiting for a relocation of his family business to incorporate an upstairs area for his full size snooker table.
Mark was looking for a table back in February of this year and just happened to view my web site and one took his fancy from the for sale section which links sellers to buyers direct with no middle men fees .
the table had just been placed up for sale when Mark spotted it and he knew it was the table for him , here is a link to that original listing .
https://gclbilliards.com/very-nice-thurston-full-size-snooker-table-for-sale-in-radlett-hertfordshire/

Mark purchased the table direct from the seller , no middle men fees where added,  it was a direct no fuss sale.
Mark then used GCL billiards to collect the table for him and deliver it to Clitheroe .
we where instructed to re-rubber the cushions and return them so that Mark could sympathetically restore the table’s woodwork.
when Mark had relocated the family business we where instructed to return to erect the table and re-cover it in Strachan 6811 tournament cloth .
and here are a few photo’s of that work .

With the frame put together and level ready for the slates which where leaning up against the far wall ready to go on .

the 5 slates being placed onto the frame , we center the center slate up on the frame and then pin together the slates making sure we keep the overhang equal on both side and ends

The 5 slates all located together , the cloth tack lining is screwed around the outside edge , and the fine level of the table is done , the slate joints have had a skim of car body filler to make the 5 section bed a seamless  12ft long bed of slate.
there will be no slate joints showing through the cloth on this table.
the slate is 2 inch thick welsh slate and the table is of  Thurston manufacture circa 1896 . one of the first concealed pocket plated tables when all Billiards firms moved from top plate pockets to concealed plate pocket fixings.
This early concealed pocket plate had an unusual fixing method where one end of the plate screws into the end cushion and the side cushion is a square lug push in fixing , the center pockets are square lug fixing on both sides .
This makes for a tricky screwing up of pocket with the ball rail attached , but back when this table was made it would have had just ball bags on for Billiards not ball rails for snooker , snooker was not the main game until after the 1930s.
it was all billiards back in the early days , and is why all tables should be called A Billiards Table and not Snooker tables .
and my job title is billiards fitter .

the bed cloth fitted to the now level table

the cloth of my choice and of most of the UK’s clubs  , the very popular for wear yet speedy 6811 Tournament Strachan 30 oz all wool cloth
I often get asked why not thinner match play cloth a used on TV or other companies equivalent like Hainsworth Precision or Match cloth
the brand that is used on TV is Strachan and it is an all wool cloth with no man made fibers that are supposed to make a cloth last longer, but in my opinion will not .
This 6811 30 oz has been the main cloth used in clubs up and down the UK since the 1980’s / 90’s , it is not thick but then is not too thin , if you use a thin cloth then expect it to wear out in under a year even in home use.
this 6811 tournament will last a minimum of 2 years and maybe up to 10 years depending on how much it is used in home use , in a club around 18 months to 2 years is the norm .
Be aware of inferior cloths , GCL Billiards do not fit sub standard or low grade cloths .

the main design that attracted Mark to this table where the very solid large turned legs , We both thought these where mahogany when we picked the table up .
Mark got in touch with Peter Clare at Thurston to see if he could delve into the firms records of Thurston’s and see if they have any information about the table from the serial number stamped into the frame
Peter informed mark that it had Walnut legs and the table was made circa 1895/6 , but I can see a flame in the side wood that must make the frame wood used a flame mahogany like what you would get on say the back of violins
some times referred to as fiddle back mahogany .
The Walnut legs where extremely heavy  , you may also note the key slots in the legs located near the frame bolts  , this is for the cover plates called Knee panels to us billiard fitters , they simply just slot onto these key slots .

the finished table , ready for play , originally this table would have had buttons over the bolt holes in the cushion
when we picked the table up , someone had screwed flat panels over the bolt holes you can see these in the first photo in our selling clients house before Mark bought the table   ,
Mark is having new buttons made for this table to return it back to it’s original looks.

and what the player sees when he is down taking a shot , these old Thurston tables if found in good condition like this are very sought after , they where made in a time when money was no object , I doubt you will find craftsmanship like this in china where most of the worlds cue sports tables are now made , solid Walnut legs , top quality flame mahogany , double bolted frame , high quality Welsh slate , the Chinese may copy us but they cannot produce quality like this .
and what makes it even better , these tables can be picked up at very keen prices at the moment , but finding the right one is the key to a trouble free purchase .
we actually have one of these type Thurston tables up on our for sale web site for FREE yes FREE , and here is a link to it
https://gclbilliards.com/category/for-sale/

not as good woodwork wise as Mark’s table but for Free you cannot complain , if any one is interested in this old table then click on our for sale section for more details , get in touch with Geoff at GCL Billiards and he will pass on the details of the seller to you
the only part that is missing off Marks table is the original Ivory name plate , if any one has one please let Geoff know and Mark will be happy to pay you for this .
it should look something like this photo below , but in better condition . and maybe have a Victorian name instead of Edward V11 as she would have still been on the throne when Marks table was made.

just had  a look back through some photo’s of Thurston ivory name plates and I think that Marks table would have had a name plate very similar to this one below .

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