Its been a busy day’s blogging just to catch up on current events.

I am truly delighted to now be able to offer to our customers an excellent UK manufactured table that is designed and built especially for us by a renowned UK manufacturer.

The good news is that we have been able to agree a situation whereby we are able to offer a superb product at a price equivalent to the price for an imported table manufactured in China.

Thus we expect this range to be very popular with customers looking for a keenly priced table which does not compromise on its quality. In fact the full size tables even come with a steel block cushion. The tables (as you would expect) utilise British rubber and only the best kiln dried hardwoods.

We offer two models - The Rossall and The Sedbergh. the tables are available in Mahogany or Oak and come with a full set of accessories. Full details are available on the website. Quality just got cheaper !

The pictures on the website and above are library pictures of the new models. We will update these to real life pictures of installed tables as soon as possible.

We have just completed a renovation of a delightful and rare Burroughs and Watts antique table based in Warwickshire. The table a “Steel blocker” required re-rubbering , recovering and the pockets setting up correctly. This work requires a mixture of skill and patience to ensure the final result is perfect for the client.

We are very fortunate to have the services of Geoff Large our Senior Billiards fitter who has now got 27 years of service in with the company. Geoff is an expert at this type of work and takes great pride in achieving an outstanding result.

We do a significant amount of re-rubbering jobs (always with first class British rubber) that completely transform the enjoyment of the table for the owners. If you require a similar job carrying out please do not hesitate to get in contact.

The clients view ” Its like playing on a different table ”

You will soon see on the front page of our website the comments and references from a host of our satisfied clients whether they be domestic or commercial. Give us a ring and we will gladly quote for any work.

    Check out these astonishing designs on traditional English Pool Tables. They look to be perfect for Family Entertainment Centres , Tenpin Bowls , Youth Clubs , Piers or Amusement Arcades. However if your looking for something different to go in the family playroom . You have just found it. Further details on the website.

  Delighted to report the range has just got bigger with two more stunning models from the design house in Pisa.

These tables are designed for special locations where appearance is everything. The full range can be seen on our website with some updated examples of tables actually sited in individuals homes and commercial locations.

The dominant American billiard game until the 1870’s was American 4 ball billiards. It was a direct extension of English billiards. The points were scored by pocketing balls , scratching the cueball , or by making caroms on two or three balls. A “Carom” is the act of hitting two object balls with the cueball at one stroke. Due to the fact there were so many balls , there were many different ways of scoring and it was possible to make upto 13 points on a single shot.

American Four-ball produced two offspring , both of which surpassed it in popularity by the late 1870’s. One game was known as “Straight Rail ” which was based around simple Caroms played with three balls on a pocketless table. The other popular game was “15 ball pool ” which is the predecessor of the modern game. The word “Pool” meant a collective bet or ante. Many non billiard games , such as poker , involve a pool but it was to the billiards game that it became attached.

The term ”Poolroom” now means a place where pool is played , but in the 19th century a poolroom was a betting parlour for horse racing. In modern parlance a bookies ! The “Pooltables” were installed to entertain clients between races. The two became connected in the public’s mind but the unsavory connotations of a ”poolroom” came from the betting aspect , not the playing of a game. 

” Fifteen Ball Pool ” was played with 15 object balls , numbered 1 through 15. For sinking a ball, the player received  a number of points equal to the ball. The sum of the ball values in the rack is 120. Therefore the first player to get to 61 was the winner. This was the game used in the first American championship pool tournament held in 1878. This competition was won by Cyrille Dion who was Canadian by birth.

More about the development of the game in future blogs.

One good turn deserves another. Thanks very much to the Savile Row website for featuring our company and tables on their website. This has given us a great deal of satisfaction and demonstrates that we continue to operate in a manner that is getting the right results , delivering a genuine level of service and selling the right products.

They have an excellent website detailing a number of high quality products. The web address is as follows.

http://www.savilerow-style.com/

                       I thought I should mention that we now have more autographed Snooker prints available for those who would like them. Each one of these prints has a genuine handwritten signature on a numbered print that has been independently verified and comes with a certificate of authenticity.

The prints are extremely glossy and very high quality. They are available in our online shop. We have Ronnie O Sullivan , Jimmy White , Dennis Taylor , Steve Davis , Mark Williams.

Fabulous presents for the snooker fanatic.

All prints are in Ltd Editions of 500 and are 420mmx594mm.

 American Pool as we know it today can squarely trace its popularity to the work of one man.

Michael Phelan was an immigrant from Ireland and in 1850 he wrote the first American book about American Billiards. He was influential in the devising of rules for the game and looked for improvements in Table design. Thus Diamonds were added to the table cushions to improve aim and cushion design was improved to assist the bounce.

On January 1st 1859 Phelan became the first American Billiard columnist and continued to write weekly articles in ‘Leslie’s Illustrated Weekly’ . He was a tireless promoter of the game and started to manufacture tables to meet the new demand. Thus the company of Phelan and Collender was formed and in 1884 they merged with another company that became very famous - J.M. Brunswick & Balke. The new company ‘Brunswick - Balke - Collender’ was synonomous with American Pool right upto the 1950’s.  

More in the next Blog

 One thing is for certain , no-one is entirely sure how or when Billiards first came to be played over the pond.We have seen references suggesting that the Spaniards imported the game in the late 1500’s but as you might expect the evidence does not exist to support this theory.

It is a far safer bet that the game was brought to the States by either British or Dutch tradesmen and settlers. However it is believed that due to the influx of immigrants from all over Europe the tables used reflected the derivatives of the game enjoyed in Britain , France , Italy and elsewhere.

It’s known that a number of cabinet makers in the 1700’s manufactured Billiard tables in small quantities , clearly seeing the opportunity afforded by the imported tables.

By 1830 the game had caught on to such an extent that Public Hall’s were created in the larger conurbation’s.The most famous of these urban location’s was ‘Bassford’s’ in New York. The games of ‘Pin Pool’ , and ‘Fifteen Ball Pool’ were developed here. Its thought that the oldest Billiard game’s played in the USA were ‘One Pocket’ and ‘Four Ball Billiards’. ‘One Pocket’ being the earliest game circa the late 1700’s . The majority of American’s would have played ‘Four Ball Billiards’ which was played on and English Billiards sized table with only four pockets and four balls , two white and two red. It was played similarly to English Billiards by aiming to pocket balls , go in off (scratch) or by making cannons called ‘Caroms’.

We will pick up further detail about ‘Straight Rail’ and 15 Ball Pool in our next Blog.

 January has surprised us , we felt that business may be quiet especially after such a busy December. However we have gone from strength to strength as the month has gone on.

Its always a pleasure to attract new customers. Its particularly good when they are relatively local and have previously used other suppliers. Therefore when we completed a Pool Table recover which led to a further order for a 9Ft American Pool Table as you can imagine we were delighted. We have installed that table and are about to install two more K-Steel tables for one of our longstanding commercial customers in Lincolnshire.

The American Pool business appears to continually get better and we are sure that this is mostly due to the fact that its such a sociable game and enjoyed by both male and female. We intend to put more information on the blog with regard to American Pool . …..Watch this space !