Until 1840 most tables were fitted with wood beds.These beds were made up in three sections being 6Ft 6″ wide and 4Ft 2″ giving 12ft 6″ by 6 Ft 6″. A frame 1 1/4″ thick was made for each section and into this frame were fitted panels 8″ square and 1″ thick made of hard wood tongued and grooved. The grain of each panel would run in the opposite direction to the next. This was done to prevent , as far as possible warping and casting. It was still necessary to send skilled men to plane over and level the table beds on a regular basis. Some real examples are quoted below from work sheets.

“12th February 1825 : Travellers Club - Taking off cushions and cloth planing over and levelling the bed.

On occasion it was necessary to remove certain sections altogether.

“2nd November 1826 : Letting in several pieces into the bed , planing the bed and finishing complete”

It is true to say that a few slate beds were supplied by Thurston prior to 1840  , it was not until that year that the supply became more frequent. This was due possibly to the short supply from the quarries and or the difficulty in transporting the slate to the customer. There was of course the constant risk of breakage. The first record of a slate bed appears in an entry dated 1st October 1834 ; it was supplied with a full size table to “White’s” , St James ’s Street London. The very early tables had only four pieces of slate and were between 7/8″ to 1″ thick. They were placed in position on the table and screwed down to the frame. It was thought at first that this would be enough to ensure a level playing surface. However it was subsequently found that atmospheric conditions affected the frame causing the slate joints to be forced upwards and slightly out of position. This in turn caused a ridge and a jump of the ball. Thurston overcame this difficulty by letting brass dowels into the joints so that the slates fitted closely together and could not move.

The first record of this occurring was in November 1842 when work was carried out on a table owned by a Mr Edward Green who was a first class billiard player and the proprietor of a public billiard room in Leicester Square. The record said ” Billiard table taken down , slate tops removed and put in cart , slates joined together with brass dowels , table levelled and face polished prior to cartage back to Leicester Square”. Once slate slabs became more plentiful and railway transport became available the slabs were obtained in greater thickness. Thus slate slabs were now 1 1/2″ to 2 ” in thickness and in some cases even larger. Due to the weight of the slabs there was no need to screw these down to the frame , they rested on the table with their own weight with the cushions bolted into them . It was of course necessary then to increase the size of the wooden frames to withstand this extra weight.

Queen Victoria was a huge advocate of the game and even as a young girl she played regularly. On a royal journey she was quoted as saying ” At half past 3 we went to Baren Hill , Sir R.Buckley’s place (10th Baronet) M.P for Anglesey on Monday September 17th. We breakfasted downstairs at 9am then I played and did other things ; at 1 we lunched  ; I then played on the piano and a little before 3 played Billiards downstairs with Victoire (daughter of Sir John Conray )”

There is no doubt that she was very fond of the game. A table was delivered to Windsor Castle soon after her coronation , and another was delivered at Buckingham Palace in 1840 This caused Thurston problems as there was a strike of quarrymen. A local newspaper reported that although the men were on strike a small number of employees were employed to ensure that the slates were prepared for the Queen’s order. This table when installed stayed at the palace until 1888 , this was replaced by another table in a more traditional style with bulbous legs. The old table was eventually sold to a gentleman in Hounslow who on his death bequeathed the table to Hounslow Conservative club. The table is still there now and in daily use.

When King Edward VII’th came to the throne he removed a lot of the Queen’s items including the Buckingham Palace table which was replaced by a table supplied by George Wright & Co of Westminster Brideg Road Lambeth . The second table to come out of Buckingham Palace was sold to a gentleman who in turn sold it to The Billiards and Snooker Control Council for their match room in Haringey. This table was eventually purchased by a wealthy Australian who had it shipped to his home down under.

There are some very old tables still in existence including one at Knole House in Sevenoaks It is described as a “Charles 1st painted oak billiard table on turned baluster supports with moulded straight stretchers”  The table is undoubtedly the work of skilled joiners and it was made circa 1660 at the birth of cabinet making. Additionally there was an old table at Parham House in Sussex. This table was made in 1751 and was inscribed “William Hopkins” however it was renovated by Burroughs and Watts and fitted with a slate bed and modern cushions before being transported to its new home at Loxwood Hall. The construction of this table was absolutely first class and from the date found on the panel , the quality of the carving and the design of the legs , it is believed that this came from Chippendale’s workshop in Conduit Street London. This wonderful table was eventually purchased by The United Services club in Ware , Hertfordshire before being sold to a private individual in Ottawa where it is now erected in his home.

The construction of the table has not altered much in the last 100 years , although each manufacturer had their own specific ideas in the design process. A table for a private house would be richly carved and of either a Spanish or a Cuban mahogany. A club would often have a plain leg or a simply turned leg as opposed to  a highly carved masterpiece.  The major companies used skilled architects to design all of their products including Scorers and Cueracks. They often offered the service of producing an entire fit out for a Billiard room including carpets , smoking room chairs and coffee tables. This was undoubtedly an expensive job and record’s show that in 1894 Thurston fitted out a room for a Mr Mellin (well known Baby food manufacturer) of Wickham Hall West Wickham in Kent . The table was extensively carved  and a turkey pattern carpet was even fitted in the lavatory. The total order came to more than £900 which was an absolute fortune in those days.

In the 1861 Great Exhibition Thurston exhibited a carved oak table which depicted the Wars of the Roses around the side and end panels of the frame. The table was sold to the Earl of Warwick and erected in Warwick Castle. Unfortunately the table was later exhibited at another Exhibition many years later and became another victim of the Luftwaffe.

I have just come across an excellent site for all of you interested in the hobby of collecting valuable antique cues. The Cue Collector.com is the brainchild of Gordon Radford who has been ably assisted by Andy Hunter.

Andy previously wrote in detail about cue collecting for the “The Amateur Billiard Player” which was published by the EABA from 1996 until 2003. I will not go into too much detail as you can see for yourselves the care and attention that has been put into this wonderful informative site. It complements the site created by David Smith “Cues n Views” perfectly. I did not really have a favourite cue , but I would be delighted to be the owner of a Black Arrow cue made by Blackpool Billiards works circa 1950. An example of which is shown in the picture.

www.thecuecollector.com

The game of Snooker is supposed to be a peaceful way of passing a few hours. The variety and the number of accidents relating to snooker are surprising. Here’s a few we have come across !  

Fire crew in baize rescue

Mirror, 1999Pool player Delroy Harvey, 17, had to be freed by firefighters after getting his arm stuck while trying to find his mobile phone, which had fallen down a table pocket in Wolverhampton.

Pot Stuck

Mirror, 2002Firemen freed a pool player, 46, who got his arm stuck in a table when he reached in to grab a ball in Lewes, East Sussex.

Boy Recovers After Snooker Cue Impaling

June 6, 2000. GRIMSBY, England (Reuters)A British schoolboy impaled himself on a snooker cue which pierced his scrotum and emerged through his stomach. Surgeons at a the Diana, Princess of Wales hospital in Grimsby, northern England, worked for an hour to remove the cue. A spokesman said Monday the boy, Porl French, 11, was recovering at home.

“Other children say he was stood on a chair pretending the cue was a pogo stick. He was apparently holding it between his legs when he slipped off,” the manager of the snooker club, Tony Graham, told a Grimsby newspaper.

Hans de Jager gets Jimmyed

The following is a Bob Jewett contribution to alt.sport.pool, reproduced with permission.One of the shots in Artistic Billiards called the “Jimmy” — I don’t know why it’s called that — has you shoot a stick- vertical masse shot near the corner in which the cue ball hits the first ball and then at least four cushions in that corner before coming out to hit the second ball. The shot requires a special technique to get the stick out of the way bacause the first object ball is less than half an inch from the cue ball. You have to pull the stick away from the ball just as you hit it.

Anyway, Hans de Jager relates the story of a competitor at a championship (World? European?) who moved sideways at the wrong time after pulling the tip out of his free-hand bridge on the up-stroke. Took most of a finger off. Blood all over. The other players had to move to a different corner for that shot. Something to think about the next time you feel sorry for yourself for whacking your knuckles on the table. Hans gives classes in Artistic Billiards, and as far as I know has never lost a student.

Woman survives being skewered by snooker cue

(Ananova 21/6/01) A woman was pinned to her car seat when a snooker cue pierced her body following a crash in Nottinghamshire.The cue had been in the boot and the 21-year-old was a back seat passenger. The cue entered the woman near her kidneys and re-emerged through her thigh.

It took fire and rescue workers two hours to free her. She was taken to hospital with a section of the cue still inside her, but released after three days.

Doctors at the Kings Mill Hospital, near the accident scene in Mansfield, said the cue had missed all her vital organs.

The woman, who comes from the Beeston area of Nottingham, has not been named. Two other people in the Kia Mentor car suffered minor injuries following the crash in the early hours of Saturday.

Sergeant John Blaylock, of Nottinghamshire Police, said: “We are very grateful the injuries suffered by this woman were not more serious. Something like this could easily have proved fatal.”

He said she had been left with puncture wounds.

And he added: “It appears the car she was travelling in collided head on with a second vehicle. The circumstances of the accident will be investigated to see if any criminal action will be taken.”

The driver of the car, Ian Butterworth, of Britannia Avenue, Nottingham, said his friend had complained of a pain in her back following the accident.

He said: “I put my hand behind her and there was something piercing her.”

The Mirror reckoned the cue went into her back, emerging inches from her navel.

Have a break… use a rest!

James Newman writes:”A friend of mine, Richard Grainger of Gloucester, broke his toe while stretching for a shot with the rest.”

Intriguing. Did he hit it on something or did it just break spontaneously?

James replies…

“Nope, It just broke. I was busy laughing at him as he was having to use all the furniture (extended cue, extended rest etc.). He was also hampered by a red, so he had to stretch up on tiptoe to even see the shot properly; next thing I knew he’d dropped everything, sending balls flying, and was on the floor clutching his foot!”

Its always nice to receive a positive response from a customer. We recently installed Two full size Snooker tables including a Match table in Yorkshire - our client has kindly written the following response.

Dear Ted & team,
I’d like to take this opportunity to say a huge thank you for the consultation and installation service your company provided us with at Swillington Miners Welfare Club in Leeds. Right from the first contact which was an initial email enquiry requesting a consultation, I received nothing but what can only be described as a first class service, something which is difficult to find these days. We requested an initial face to face meeting to enable your company to put together a solution to solve the problem of two very sub-standard snooker tables at SMWC. The appointment was made, the site survey was carried out and a detailed report supplied back to myself which enabled me to put together a viable business plan to present to the committee of the club. After pitching to the committee it was decided that an investment would be made in the snooker facility at SMWC with Elston & Hopkin being hired to remove and replace both the snooker tables.

The two tables were installed within what was a rather tight timescale and to a very high standard. From a financial perspective, E&H provided an affordable solution which suited the very tight budget SMWC actually runs on. We purchased a refurbished K&H snooker table which was presented in first class condition, ready to play with all accessories. The second table we have taken out on a rental scheme. This is a Riley Aristocrat refurbished table, set up as a tournament table, once again left ready to play with all accessories. The Aristocrat has provided the club with the facility to stage big matches, a few of which have already taken place, and feedback from all the players has excellent. More importantly, Swillington is now firmly back on the map as a top club in the area to play snooker and consequently we are getting more customers, more events and most importantly, more revenue generated securing a healthier future for the club.

One of the old tables was dilapidated and disposed of, and the other was removed and refitted in a private property nearby with minimal fuss. Not many companies would be able to offer such an all round tailored solution and bespoke service with professional advice, first class fitters, and business acumen as E&H can and did.

From start to finish, E&H have proved to be a fantastic partner in the big changes that have taken place recently at SMWC and I would have absolutely no hesitation whatsoever in recommending them to anyone.

Thanks again to you all and we look forward to seeing you in February for the 6 monthly maintenance visit!!!Cheers, Rob.

We have recently been fortunate enough to acquire a number of Ivory balls are historically an important part of the history of the game of billiards. On that basis we thought some detail about a product that we take for granted today might be of interest.

In both the 18th and 19th Centuries Billiard balls tended to be made out of wood. Ivory balls were occasionally used but it was not until 1820 that they were in constant use. From that time until the 1860’s all balls used for Billiards , Snooker and other cuesports were made of Ivory. However Ivory was a very expensive and unreliable material. It is hard to believe that only four good quality Ivory balls could be made from an individual tusk.

The balls were turned to a diameter that allowed them to be further altered when they went out of true. The porous mixture of ivory made the balls very susceptible to sudden changes of temperature and extremes of heat and cold. As a result it was suggested that they should be purchased between the months of May and September. Additionally a keen player would immediately put the balls away in a box filled with cotton wool and keep them from both a heat and light source.

In 1860 a Scot called Peter Kinnear moved to the USA where he settled in New York. He set to work to discover an alternative to Ivory that was both cheaper and more resilient. He had a friend John Wesley Hyatt who was a chemist and between them they worked on a new product.  They discovered a perfect solution in the form of “Cellulose Nitrate” later known as “Celluloid”. This was the first of the modern plastics.

In 1868 The “Albany Billiard Ball Co” was formed and it produced the “Hyatt” ball which was sold in England as “Bonzoline” named after the company that imported the product. In 1901 one of the brothers involved in “Albany Billiard Co “came to England and he started to produce a ball that became known as “Crystalate” this was a composition ball with a “Cellulose Nitrate” base.

The Crystalate ball was marketed by “The Endolithic Co Ltd” and in 1909 this company in conjunction with E.J.Riley brought from Australia a sensational young player called George Gray . Due to his phenomenal performances on the billiard tables including many record breaks the reputation of this new ball was assured. The reputation was such that “The Billiards Assocaition and Control Club” made it the standard ball for all matches. Thus we had two competing companies with a similar product and as such something had to give.

In 1912 an agreement was reached between “Bonzoline” and “Endolithic” for the joint marketing of the balls. The ”Crystalate” ball was made in Tonbridge , Kent and the “Bonzoline” was made in Albany , New York. Once the Great War was over financial pressures ensured that both balls were made in one factory and by 1931 “The Composition Billiard Ball Supply Co” had been created.

However the Europeans were not to be outdone and in Germany an entirely different ball was being created. The ball , known as the “Case Resin” ball had a Phenol and Formaldehyde base. It was rather lighter than the cellulose equivalent had superb colouting and a more translucent appearance. The firm making these balls was called “Raschig”. The experiments on this ball were carried out by brilliant German scientist called “Koebner”. 

Dr Koebner was both German and Jewish and was pre Second World war in England where he wished to stay for obvious reasons. A deal was struck for Dr Koebner to stay in England and teach “The Composition Billiard Ball Co ” how to make the resin ball. Fortunately this agreement was concluded in 1937 which almost certainly saved Koebners life. Dr Koebner continued to work on his product in the UK which was marketed as the “Vitalite” ball.

The manufacturing process for “Vitalite” was much more sophisticated than the Cellulose ball. The raw materials were mixed under heat in large stills to produce a substance that looked like Golden Syrup. The substance was poured into glass flasks and then underwent a number of baking treatments lasting several days. This left a hard plastic block which then had to be ground and polished into a sphere. The addition of “Aniline” brought about the superb colour. Once World War 2 was over the “Vitalite” ball was marketed extensively in Europe and gained a wide acceptance internationally , however the “Crystalate” ball was still the most popular in the UK.

By the end of the Second World War a Cast Resin Ball was also being made in Belgium by “Saluc” now known widely as the excellent “Aramith” ball. However their domination of this market took some considerable time. In the late 1960’s the raw materails required for Cellulose Nitrate were becoming both scarce and expensive Therefore in 1972 a new “Super Crystalate” ball was produced. It was an instant success and had particularly bright and vibrant colours.  The ball was very hard and durable and was adopted by the “Billiards Association”. The ball was used extensively by Professionals and used on the TV series “Pot Black”

However Saluc were not to be outdone and as word spread of the quality of their products their market share rose considerably from the 1960’s onwards. Eventually they became world leaders and the only manufacturers of phenolic balls today. It now exports 99% of its production to 60 countries worldwide. In addition they have 80% of the world market of all cuesport balls - who says nothing famous comes from Belgium !

Snooker is not a game normally associated with bad behaviour. However over the years there have been a few , how can we put it “characters” that have become successful in the game.  Here is a Top Ten of well known rogues !

Quinten Hann
The Aussie cue master’s talents on the table were unquestionable but his temperament was. The peroxide blonde ladies’ man was known to concede frames with more than 10 reds left on the table and break off by smashing the white into the pack of reds. He once played barefoot after breaking his toe during a parachute jump and after a feisty match with Andy Hicks he challenged him to a boxing match. Hann retired from the game in 2006 days before a hearing into alleged match fixing. At the hearing he was banned from snooker for eight years and fined £10,000.

Alex Higgins
When it comes to bad behaviour The Hurricane ticks every box. The super talented Northern Irish player loved drinking, smoking and fighting - he once head-butted an official, verbally abused a referee and threatened to have Dennis Taylor shot. Higgins was the ultimate floored hero, he was a master of the baize  but with it came a hunger for booze and gambling. He played his last major tournament in 1997 and even then reacted badly to defeat and had to be ejected from the arena.

Bill Werbeniuk
“He was a great drinker but also a very good player. Only he could get tanked up with 10 pints before a match and still win.” This is how Jimmy White paid tribute to the big Canadian when he died in 2003. Wurbeniuk was a larger than life character who claimed that a hereditary tremor in his arm meant that he had to imbibe copious quantities of booze before a game to stop his arm shaking. He even convinced the Inland Revenue and, for a while, claimed lager as a vocational expense. Despite the boozing, Wurbeniuk was a top player but eventually the drink got the better of him and he quit the sport. Before his last professional match in 1990, he said: “I’ve had 24 pints of extra strong lager and eight double vodkas and I’m still not drunk.”

Ronnie O’Sullivan
The Rocket is never far away from scandal, having made as many headlines for his antics away from the table as he has by winning countless titles. In 1996 Ronnie was handed a two-year suspended sentence, a £20,000 fine and advised to donate £10,000 to charity after he assaulted an official at the World Championships. The same year he was accused of bad sportsmanship after playing left-handed against opponent Alain Robidoux. Then in 1998 he was stripped of the Irish Masters title after testing positive for marijuana. More recently the Essex Exocet got into hot water for making lewd remarks and gestures during a press conference at the China Open.

Cliff Thorburn
The third Canadian to make the list is Cliff Thorburn, the first player to make a maximum break of 147 at the World Championships. In 1989 he was fined £10,000 by World Snooker for using cocaine. He retired seven years later.

Jimmy White
The Whirlwind upset the authorities in 2005 when he announced that he would be competing under the name Jimmy Brown. This came about after he struck a sponsorship deal with the makers of HP Sauce and announced he had changed his name by deed poll to James Brown, and would wear brown clothing when competing at the upcoming Masters tournament. World Snooker subsequently announced that he would continue to be called Jimmy White.

Peter Francisco
Silvino’s nephew Peter was also tarred with the match fixing brush. The South African was banned from snooker for five years following an investigation into his 1985 World Championship match against Jimmy White. Due to an unusually high number of bets on the score line 10-2 in favour of White, betting on the match was suspended. When the game finished 10-2 officials analysed the match and banned Francisco.

Silvino Francisco
The 1985 British Open champion was arrested in 1989 over match fixing allegations, but was cleared of all charges. He was declared bankrupt in 1996 and earned a living working in a mate’s fish & chip shop. A year later he was sent to prison for smuggling cannabis.

Tony Knowles
Lancastrian Knowles was a mainstay of the snooker circuit throughout the early eighties, but will be remembered for the saucy stories of his sexual exploits that he told to a tabloid newspaper in the 1983. After the lurid stories were published he was fined £5,000 for bringing the game into disrepute.

Kirk Stevens
Canadian Stevens was snooker’s playboy during his time at the top of the game, but his flamboyant style of play and outrageous dress sense soon led him to the wrong side of the tracks. After being accused by Silvino Francisco of being high on drugs during the final of the 1985 British Open he admitted he had a problem with cocaine and returned to Canada. Stevens soon dropped out of the top 50 and made a living selling cars and doing up people’s gardens.

 

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