We have just completed some more work for Butlins in Skegness
this time we where working in the Green Baize , they have 16 Full size tables located in this room and all require some work on a rotating basis , they also have two table tennis tables and 6 dart boards plus a lounge seating area .
This time we where called to recover some of the tables and also check round all the tables for nets /leathers and nuts and screws on ball rails and repair as necessary .

The snooker in the Green Baize at Skegness Butlins is Free to play  , so the tables do get some heavy traffic over the year and need regular visits from GCL billiards to maintain them
we also get called out for emergency repairs , some of the Butlins Clients do get a bit rough with the cloth and accidents do happen .
Butlins are a valued client of GCL billiards and we always try and be as competitive as possible , but never cut corners , we use the best cloth and materials to maintain them and still take our time to make sure the work is done to a professional standard .
We have a very good relationship with Rob , Albert and Wayne at Skegness , we like to think we are trusted to do good work and we strive to maintain this standard , that is why we get repeat work and will always regard Butlins as a main Client .
We know other firms are always contacting Butlins for the work at Skegness , we like to think we have proved our worth as good contractors and a feeling of mutual trust has emerged over the last couple of years between the Butlins management and GCL Billiards  .
We hope to continue our working relationship with Butlins for many years to come .

I have been over to a country village in Derbyshire to help the owner improve his potting skills on his refurbished Riley Aristocrat Steel Block table.  I found a few faults with the table on inspection and recommended the following:

Open up the 3.25 inch pockets to just under 3.5 inch at the fall.  These pocket openings were far too tight and reminded me of the old billiard tables size of 3.25 inch pockets of Joe Davis’ era of the early 1930’s.

I also found one cushion bolt snapped into the slate and the level was not good enough.

Also they had fitted Hainsworth Smart cloth and the owner was complaining of very slow table cloth speed.  Not surprising it is was a little slow around the spot end as the end cloth was not tacked down for 2 feet.

The cloth looked a bit rough and the owner did iron this on a regular basis.  I recommended Strachan 6811 Tournament 30 oz.

So I got to work opening the pockets up on strip down, slicing off a fair amount of rubber in the pocket openings to my template standard fit.  These old Templates are not the current type as used by World Snooker but they are as near as you can get.  Apparently normal billiard fitters are not allowed to own a set of current templates.  So I used the old ones as a guide and found them to be just under 3.5 inch when covered in cloth at the fall.

A painted silver riley Aristocrat with cloth off.  Note just one bolt in corner leg.  I think this is a licensed copy of a UK made Aristocrat which I have noted have two bolts in the frame at the corner legs.
1 and 3/4 inch Italian slate

I always like to show my clients that I use the best Strachan 6811 grade Tournament 30 oz cloth , the embroidered writing with blue lines confirms this and also the transfer every 10ft on the underside of the cloth also confirms type of cloth and the weight  standard . Club 6811 has two red lines this higher grade tournament has two blue lines .
This cloth replaced the lower grade Hainsworth smart which was a bit too thick and the nap was not as fine as this 6811 T .

the templates used and the size of the pocket opening at the slate fall is a shade under 3.5 inch , with the cushions being steel block the rubber starts to open back up after the slate fall , normal older table cushions like the old Riley imperials have a tendency to close up to by a 1/4 of an inch as the rubber bends round into  into the pocket fall . some thing that Snooker players cannot understand and ask for the pockets to be opened up on normal cushions and I have to explain why they cannot do this , unless they opt for replacement modern cushions or steel block .
any way the owner is delighted with all his corner pockets being at Match standard of a shade under 3.5 inch and that the middle pockets where also to template , these where slightly tight too before I started the work.
if the middle pocket openings had been correct and both side cushions pushed apart by a further 1/8th then the corner pockets would have been even tighter  at around 3.1/8th at the drop , I always start from the middle pockets when looking at the correct pocket openings in the corner , get the middles wrong and you also get the corners wrong on steel cushions,  so the first thing to check if corner pockets are tight or too generous on steel cushions is the pocket opening at the centre pockets which should be 3.3/8ths if cut correct .
once the centre pockets are correct then you can adjust the corners to template or just below 3.5 inch for Match sized pocket openings. you do this by cutting excess rubber off and then hand rasp and sanding rubber to form the correct angle using templates as a guide.
If you want club sized 3.5/8th or above sized pockets you just take more off but keep the same profile as the template curve .

the side cushions being positioned so that the centre pockets are correct with the centre templates fitted into the opening , the Cushion bolt photo is showing that I rub candle wax over each cushion bolt , the main culprit for snapped cushions bolts is grit into the bolt hole and also thread binding , a little candle wax rubbed onto the thread makes for a lubricated thread , you may ask why not use WD 40 or oil , well the oil and WD40 will leach into the slate and you will get stains in the cloth around each bolt stud insert inside the slate .
Never be tempted to use any oil based lubricant on bolts on a snooker table , once inside the slate the oil will be there forever and your table will be ruined especially if you have under slate heating as the heat will force the oil upwards .
and I have seen it done a few times. Use Candle wax it is much better suited for the job.
I have still to get the snapped cushion bolt out of the end slate , this will be done in 6 to 12 months time at Re-stretch , I will order a slate insert and new bolt for this .
This will be a tricky job as the end slate will have to be turned upside down and the old lug drilled out , the hole to be cleaned of all debris and new insert threaded lug put in and car body filled over to keep inside the slate , I put melted wax in the thread and on the bolt when putting the car body filler in to keep threads from getting fouled with the filler .

A photo showing that the corner pockets although not the official templates they are not far out as the two balls show they are not generous pocket openings

a white ball on it’s own for comparison

The finished table.  My client will add a few words about the work at  a later date.  He has yet to play on the table and he is installing three tube heaters under the table around 10 inches below the slate bed on a trip out thermostat set at 25 degrees Celsius.  When this work is done the table will be even faster.  He did comment that it was already faster than the Hainsworth smart cloth that was used when he bought the table from a firm in Leeds.

I was really shocked that they had left him with centre and corner pockets so tight.  I did not have my camera with me for the first part of the work otherwise I would have taken photos of the pocket openings.  As for the snapped cushion bolt, they also chiselled some of the frieze bolt hole away resulting in a missing frieze bolt too.  We will sort all this out on the re-stretch and make the frieze a much better fitting to steel cushions.

This is the third time I have visited this club to Re-cover their Full size snooker tables
they seem to suffer cushion cloth split after around 18 months of use and play for 6 months with split cushions ?   , and after some research I found it was down to meticulous cleaning  of the tables , not really  bad thing as it is very hard to fine people so enthusiastic to look after club tables .
Just a little guidance on the cloth splitting  , and how it was happening and a simple adjustment of less pressure to the brush at the cushion angle is all that is required

I have got to know the person who cleans the tables very well and I have given him a new Pure Bristle Brush to replace the badly worn one so that this prevents the wood of the brush making contact with the cloth on the cushions .
this and the sharp angle of rubber is what was the cause .
I have sanded the angles a little too , a slight rounding off of the sharp edge will also help prevent cloth splitting of cushions .

The main room , 5 Riley Imperial Snooker tables Circa 1930s ? with New Cushions fitted by Riley Services in the 1990’s
this Venue is very well used and believe it or not snooker is less than £2 per Hour . the table’s get re-covered every 2 years for that and I always replace on one of the tables with new nets and leathers every time I visit .
Thus the nets and leathers are also kept to a reasonable standard of maintenance .

I have been to a local youth club to re-cover their small 7ft American three section slate pool table in best quality Strachan super pro speed cloth .
Although just a youth club I still used the best cloth as I think this cloth is far better than the Euro American pool cloth and I charged the same price as the lower cloth so the youth club leaders where delighted with that .
Just a couple of Photo’s one before and one after .

the original cloth was the easy to rip type of cloth , and would not have been my recommendation to use in a youth club .
The new cloth is more durable and I think a far better colour than the off blue/green turquoise colour used before .

We will be closing for business on Friday the 28th August for 4 Days while we are out of the country.
For any Emails or telephones calls please wait until Tuesday the 2nd of September for a reply .
We are off to Amiens in France to watch Ice Hockey , our local Nottingham Panthers ice Hockey team are playing in a pre season Tournament there.
I have been watching the Nottingham Panthers since 1980 with my wife and 4 years later when we had our first Daughter we also took her just 4 months old and the second Daughter too they are now aged 29 and 23.

The last time we where over there I did not have time to look around Amiens as I divided my long weekend , with a work trip setting a table up in a farm house for two days and Ice Hockey for two days
This time around I will have more time to see the sites of Amiens , and I am hoping to see a few World War one memorial sites and battle fields if possible , take a look below at the river side Cafe’s and the Grand Notre Dam of Amiens
it is amazing that this monument of a Cathedral is still standing , look at the end of war photo taken in 1919 of what Amiens looked like after world war one , and then take into account another war to contend with as well .