taffy
Distinguished Member
Posts: 514
|
Post by taffy on Apr 14, 2022 10:51:38 GMT
Can anybody sell me one of these old pre-war Sams skittles? cheers Taffy Attachments:
|
|
taffy
Distinguished Member
Posts: 514
|
Post by taffy on Mar 26, 2022 21:19:12 GMT
Congratulations Margo and Tommo!
Bar Billiards for the 40th....seems appropriate!
Cheers
Taffy
|
|
taffy
Distinguished Member
Posts: 514
|
Post by taffy on Mar 17, 2022 21:50:01 GMT
The table was donated by Dunstable Fire Service to someone in April 1990.
The ski drop across the top 5 now consists of a vertical piece of wood screwed to the end frame, then a piece of damp MDF (4mm) that has been sawn to miss the runners and then soaked into its curved shape is added. The waterslide decals after 2 coats of laquer to strengthen them and seal the numbers in. they are still incredibly delicate....3 coats next time! I should have put them on like this but used black. or white on 'clear' and be able to view the wooden background. Taffy
|
|
taffy
Distinguished Member
Posts: 514
|
Post by taffy on Mar 17, 2022 21:35:45 GMT
Latest table to join the Newmarket Stables of one David 'bach boyo' Lloyd is a narrow Sams I was fortunate to buy off 'Ozzy' here on the site at a more than fair price! So a thanks to Phil for thinking of me and after a trip to hailsham it was soon back in the workshop. As with all my tables I always try a new idea or two and stick to other tried and tested ideas that i now consider to work! So, it was off with the laquer using a belt sander and orbital sander for the little stuff. so, 3 coats of Danish oil and 2 coats of natural beeswax. a new premier cloth made for a Jelks only made it lengthwise by about 5mm...it was fully stretched and just made the wooden frame on the ends. The table lacked the usual 4 items namely; The timer cover (and funnel shoot) on top the money box underneath. the tally counter. the bar (a wooden board) I added the usual ski-drops and know the dimensions in the top of my head. I also narrowed the wood for this as the lanes in a narrow are well; "narrower"!. The big difference this time was that i decided to lower the under tray by 40mm. This means the balls come down FAST and straight into the fingers of the player breaking them.....sorry, freudian slip there.... no, i counteracted the speed by using the carpet underlay. The task was easy to do; 30-minutes work it was that easy, all i had to do was chop the threaded heads off the table's coach bolts for the tray to fit nicely. I then used rubber foam strips in each lane of the ball tray (by your knees) and hoped the last downhill bit wasn't going to see balls take off and crack a knuckle. If it worked I knew that the balls wouldn't keep bouncing back out of sight. WORRA TREAT! the balls are now silent, fast and there's not even a 'boom' from the very thick rubber pads. a 100% succes and something I'll do again. Now the undertray IS visible for the last 10" of downward travel when viewed from the side, but, I used some 5mm ply and some mastik/silicon and sealed the view off (as well as helping with the noise containment). I'm presuming that old Alfred Sams decided to make the tables tamper proof when he introduced the 'bulkhead bang' that is all too familiar to everyone. The second new idea was the use of waterslide decal paper. I downloaded what to me is the correct script/font and best that "I" could see; "Old Stanndard TT" its called which is one that won't be lost on Sav! Now not being great with computers i knew this was going to go wrong so I found the script, asked to download it, clicked, looked in my MS Word screen and there it sat! Old Standard TT. I'm not over happy with my efforts and will have another go. I also used that bloody awful, cheap rubber I found for sale on ebay on the front edge of the bar and I can now say 'yes, it has a deserved place on a BB table...just not on it but under it!'. New peradon balls complete the job. I decided to save the score discs and tacs, converted the timer to the £1 coin, and left the cushion rubbers as they felt nice and supple. I even left the leatherette - but not the D and it has an old/new quality to it now. From now on I think, any new Sams I get will have the undertray lowered the 40mm and i may put a security bar across to make it anti-tamper. Taffy
|
|
taffy
Distinguished Member
Posts: 514
|
Post by taffy on Mar 9, 2022 9:19:53 GMT
A table or two will be required imminently. Ideally good value and needing some work rather than top money and immaculate. Jelks or wide Sams. Will be making it spot on and putting it in a pub.
cheers
Taffy
|
|
taffy
Distinguished Member
Posts: 514
|
Post by taffy on Mar 7, 2022 13:55:51 GMT
Hi Taffy, Your softly-softly approach sounds the best way forward. A House Competition is a great idea: a wooden shield with metal plaques for the winner's name would give them something extra to play for. And everyone likes having their photo taken, especially if it can be displayed here, on the Forum ! You could even get the Chairlady to present the prize ... tommo very subtle Tommo....I like it. BTW Tommo White Horse, 1 Market Street, Swavesey, CAMBS CB24 5QG is "back in the game" and in the 3-pin league. the table at the white swan, stow-cum-quy is an ex-parrott I'm afraid. Taffy
|
|
taffy
Distinguished Member
Posts: 514
|
Post by taffy on Mar 1, 2022 10:07:02 GMT
yes it is the 4-pin comp please. I filled in a form asking for the change as well. thanks
Taffy
|
|
taffy
Distinguished Member
Posts: 514
|
Post by taffy on Feb 28, 2022 10:50:04 GMT
well I scrolled down and filled the form in. I checked and the link is to 4-pin, it says it in the address bar.
On your advice, I just kept scrolling down and down and there she blows! That needs sorting out. Someone needs to explain it is 3-pin at the top. You should be able to give a link to click on the bottom half of the page for the 4-pin.
Taffy
|
|
taffy
Distinguished Member
Posts: 514
|
Post by taffy on Feb 28, 2022 8:36:38 GMT
I've just paid. To be clear, this is the 4-pin comp being played on the Sunday this time right?
looking forward to it. always a great place to be and we're well looked after!
Cheers
Taffy
|
|
taffy
Distinguished Member
Posts: 514
|
Post by taffy on Feb 12, 2022 12:38:19 GMT
So the Market Inn could be buying a table for two league teams of which one may go back to the Red Cow? So they wouldn't have a table without two league teams playing every week but may end up with a table and lose a team anyway....
Fun.....
Taffy
|
|
taffy
Distinguished Member
Posts: 514
|
Post by taffy on Feb 9, 2022 11:12:23 GMT
These diagrams show the new shots that are on with a modiified table. The reason for the two different distances to the 50 hole are because that is what I measured and not what i wanted! The manufacturers actually leave 2-4mm between the slate and the wooden frame. The idea is that you get the slate clothed, cupped and laid in the frame. You then add the cushions temporarily and held by a spare pair of hands or whatever and then you start measuring really, really carefully. you want the distance to the middle three holes from each cushion to be exactly the same to the mm. to get this you have to pop the cushions out and then use wedges of wood. what doesn't help is that the wooden frame will bow in or out on old hardwood tables and it the frame comes in or out; so does the cushion so that measurement can go to pot. So, sometimes I'm not just wedging for the slate position but if I support one side with 5 wedges correctly, I can jam out a bowed-in side on the other side with a single wedge in the middle because 1 wedge's pressure can't fight 5. unfortunately, on that slate, i got the middle line and top 5 spot on but one 50 hole is more infield than the other....shame! when you have this middle line bang-on, you then glue down the D with its middle line in line with the 3 holes (200, 100, 30). Then you can use the leatherette panel to keep the tail of the leather on the D that falls in the gap out-of-site - well that can now be forcefully squeezed tight during the glueing process. As for the cloth in your original question; There is only one answer to that as Sav here has taught us all, you want the fastest shortest cloth (read; most expensive) you can get! "shagpile" is no good here. Bouncy cushions and fast cloth are vital to excellent performance. The problem is that one ball is near a hole and the other ball is off to a hole multiple distances away. On a slow cloth you hit the ball so hard to get one ball heading say back to a 50 that the cue ball goes in a hole near the contact point at 90mph! Or you hit the balls softer and have the opposite problem and this time the object ball didn't make it to its intended target and ran out of legs. The faster the cloth means that both balls get to stay down in a softer shot. Now I recently did a thread on a 'narrow' i did before Christmas and discovered a new technique that i've used three times now and really works whereby I've just increased the number of tables done with my contraption to 5 and it is without a doubt really proving itself now. I took up - i think it was Alan Mee's suggestion - to use a "copydex" type rubber glue, for those outside the Uk it is what infants would use and is both weak and safe. Photo 1; bought the glue off ebay...simple enough. The basket is the "squeeze cone cage" in your mop & bucket. I simply cut the bottom off. I then got 8 rubber bands and 8 small crocodile slips. feeding the rubber bands into the cone cage is easy and I just leave the bands in the jaws of the clips. photo 2; you can see the crocodile clips inside all pulling hard on the rubber bands. If you had little hands you could have the cone cage up the other way but my hands peel 10 bananas a day..... Now you can fit the pocket ring and tap it in! photo 3; I've started glueing the underside of the 8 flaps of the cloth and put the pocket ring in the wrong way up. I then tap the ring in and it drags the cloth in with it brilliantly. I can't tell you how well this works! But a loose ring isn't quite as effective...but still draws the cloth into the hole, you just have to perhaps tap the ring in further. I'm experimenting with glue on the visible side of the flaps of cloth for looser rings, so to give it a bit of bite when tapping in. the cone cage can be moved immediately onto the next one. This really works. My one fear for you is that your concept or feel for driving the rings into what size hole is going to be different to mine. The hole in the slate needs to be around 62.4mm I think Sav and I agreed. With the thin (good quality) match cloth; that works and the rings suck the cloth down the holes. The glue under the flaps is pressed against inside wall of the holes in the slate. That is all they have. Alan Mee (he uses the nom-de-plume "Alan Turner" here) shows a great youtube video of pulling down hard a cloth and stapling it. You should be glueing a wooden frame around the perimeter of the slaate. I make mine out of 3/4" 9-ply. cheers Taffy
|
|
taffy
Distinguished Member
Posts: 514
|
Post by taffy on Feb 9, 2022 11:03:43 GMT
here is a drawing of my best table, I have 7. This one is a Sams that had an MDF wooden base. Having played it for about 1.5 years I decided to make a superscore table, a table I felt and still feel is for the future of the game. Note that all the top 5 pockets are set further back which allows the diagonal reverse 200 more easily and means more balls will run along the back along a narrower corridor and are more likely find a hole. by pulling the 100 back but sending the 50s forwards, a cue ball can hit the cushion then the ball in the diagram and then roll over and into the 100. The 50s are more infield because you need the extra 5-10mm. Lets say a ball sits against the cushion right adjacent to the 50 hole. Another ball can't pass the sitting ball twxt ball and pin but with this set up the cue ball squeezes through and clips the sitting ball that comes off the cushion into the 50 hole. You'll note what might sound like a contradiction. The 30 hole just goes back but the 20 holes go back and out while the 10 holes do it even more in the corners. yes, the 10-holes do go 'OUTWARDS' cutting down the room for the reverse diagonal 200 shot but you gained that room by sending eth holes back to the back cushion. the net effect is that the corner reverse 200 shot still has a little more room but you can do reverse 200s between the 10-20 and even the 20-30 holes. The table is riddled with shots! Its a very high scoring table and I put up a youtube video of it with me getting over 20,000 points on it in one game 'wi-mesellff'. Just search something like 20,000 bar billiards...dull as dishwater but well..... This table layout is for 4-pin. if playing three pin then standard will do - i guess. Taffy
|
|
taffy
Distinguished Member
Posts: 514
|
Post by taffy on Jan 26, 2022 12:36:48 GMT
here's three more. The girl is described as a french prostitute! Thanks to Wellingborough for the top and bottom ones. you know who you are; Tony! Taffy
|
|
taffy
Distinguished Member
Posts: 514
|
Post by taffy on Jan 26, 2022 12:34:35 GMT
oddly enough, I also downloaded the very same poster! The middle one is currently for sale on ebay France. Taffy Attachments:
|
|
taffy
Distinguished Member
Posts: 514
|
Post by taffy on Jan 24, 2022 15:22:40 GMT
I'm sure that at some point pubs have had signs up that said; "Bar billiards through here" "Bar Billiards upstairs" etc.
Is there anything like that someone wants to sell?
cheers
Taffy
|
|
taffy
Distinguished Member
Posts: 514
|
Post by taffy on Jan 18, 2022 19:25:41 GMT
|
|
taffy
Distinguished Member
Posts: 514
|
Post by taffy on Jan 17, 2022 9:18:44 GMT
So much harder in those days to get things going in the countryside. a league in 1938.... makes it really early on doesn't it!
Taffy
|
|
taffy
Distinguished Member
Posts: 514
|
Post by taffy on Jan 13, 2022 11:35:48 GMT
The unique Sam's table at the five bells in cornard is up for sale, due to the pub being sold and redeveloped (into flats) that table has easy drop pockets, so may interest Taffy I've already placed a bid Dave. It is the same as my Blue one Chris but green cloth. Easydrop, beading, pre-WW2, cues in the end (i think). She says it is mint but the last time I saw it, it was so dreadful i pleaded with DL & Sudbury to refurb it for her as it was probably beyond her pocket and get her back in the league. She tells me that she had two teams at one time but after marrying (an Asian husband) the players left the pub. It is there till September she thinks. Taffy
|
|
taffy
Distinguished Member
Posts: 514
|
Post by taffy on Dec 29, 2021 20:11:26 GMT
three more photos. 1. front decals which look suitably 'aged'. 2. the scoreboard - a thing of beauty! 3. size matters! huge new cushion rubber is next to the old tiny rubber. Taffy Attachments:
|
|
taffy
Distinguished Member
Posts: 514
|
Post by taffy on Dec 29, 2021 12:36:04 GMT
|
|
taffy
Distinguished Member
Posts: 514
|
Post by taffy on Dec 23, 2021 7:34:59 GMT
i played with them once and the noise was horrific. like you were hitting your teeth with a hammer.
that would be a second reason to ban them!
Taffy
|
|
taffy
Distinguished Member
Posts: 514
|
Post by taffy on Dec 22, 2021 8:46:31 GMT
ban on easy drop rings Tommo. Its not like everyone pulled them out of their tables overnight? the sale of easydrop rings on new tables maybe.....
Taffy
|
|
taffy
Distinguished Member
Posts: 514
|
Post by taffy on Dec 15, 2021 8:47:02 GMT
did I once read on here, a thread from 2007 or so where someone had visited the site, mentioned 4-pin and members wanted to know what it was? it seems centuries ago now.
Taffy
|
|
taffy
Distinguished Member
Posts: 514
|
Post by taffy on Dec 14, 2021 9:27:29 GMT
Ernie says he remembers the Buntingford League, and played them once in the Inter Area League, but they were a four pin league. Interesting that it was 4-pin and probably at the time, about as far south as it went? unless (as Cyril used to say; YOU KNOW DIFFERENT")! cheers Taffy
|
|
taffy
Distinguished Member
Posts: 514
|
Post by taffy on Nov 30, 2021 10:36:49 GMT
If I recall the return leg was played in wet conditions! I kid-you-flippin-not! The table was just inside the door and the landlord kept the front door open open all day. Entering the pub in my mae-wester and galoshes we put out a good team and were very hopeful that 4-2 could be equaled - but for the 4-pinners this time.
anyway, the cloth was damp and the game became a lottery. the game was again played in a friendly atmosphere and the final result was an honourable 3-3 draw. Ally and I got invited that friday to a private Bar Billiards/Beer/Pies party in someone's living room in Cherry Hinton (on the edge of Cambridge) and we talked of 'the greater game'. I think that most of the 3-pinners had never seen the 4-pin game played before and couldn't visualise the '70/110-shot' I'd recommended. Of course the object ball would go through a pin in 3-pin for that shot.
we never got to play Sudbury or wellingborough after this which was what i tried to organise. Nobody seemed to get it that we only had 6-7 players in total, the entire lot of us. So we were the ones that needed accomodating... and then Covid came...
Taffy
|
|
taffy
Distinguished Member
Posts: 514
|
Post by taffy on Nov 27, 2021 18:19:37 GMT
yes, you could be right. 1923. Motorhome and not sure where we'll pitch up.
Taffy
|
|
taffy
Distinguished Member
Posts: 514
|
Post by taffy on Nov 27, 2021 17:29:26 GMT
Yes I've already booked the manx up as it is 100 years and they are going to make a special effort I'm sure!
Taffy
|
|
taffy
Distinguished Member
Posts: 514
|
Post by taffy on Nov 27, 2021 9:27:01 GMT
I've just done 50 hours on a Narrow Sams. new underboard in 6mm ply with a razor sharp front edge, 4mm furniture pads abound, carpet underlay, ski-drops all round she is a thing of beauty and goes into the Social Club at newnham croft this weekend.
the slate is backed by a piece of wood across the holes but it intrudes inwards a little on all 9 holes. the pocket rings couldn't drop and someone had tried to iron them down! The pocket rings look similar to the scarlet red ones but are brown. I had old Mick remove 2mm from the shoulders of the rings and they all drop in nicely now.
Another thing I noted was that the shaft on the timer is stamped "N.E." and then "I.O.M" and I recalled reading somewhere that the last tables manufactured were by Sams and even after Sams someone on the Isle of Man made them for a time. Can anyone enlighten me more on this?
I wish Sav you would get those rings made!
Taffy
|
|
taffy
Distinguished Member
Posts: 514
|
Post by taffy on Nov 24, 2021 14:30:52 GMT
so in an evening you would have 2 games in div 1 and two games in div 2 and a player spare in each league?
the next week move to pub 2, then the next pub 3 and the next pub 4 before returning to pub 1 on the 5th week?
so the landlord sees what? at least 4 games in an evening?
The old way of doing it which I haven't seen at all is called Ladder Bar Billiards. Basically, within one pub, there are names on the wall and you move up and down the ladder depending on losing and winning. you are meant to seek out the player you should play above and ask for a game but I guess if you just lost to him then you will be challenged from below. You organise the game for when you both can but I don't see why you shouldn't have a club night where the number 1 player plays number 2 and then player 3 plays 4 etc. If you can't make it you contact one another to play in between so that by the following Tuesday the previous fixtures are settled.
It sounds like; "not leaving the pub games of singles" might have some Guernsey mileage in it!
It would be good to hear from someone who has done this and list the pitfalls plus obstacles and describe their solutions?
I intend trying to run 'leagues of three players' and try for example; 'The Tharp Arms A' away at 'The Red Lion A' and then immediately the return fixture the following week. Then, eventually with more players; 'The Red Lion B v The Tharp Arms B' would be the alternative fixture on the same night. Then, following week the two games would swop premises. This way the Landlord always has something on even if it is half the size of old - every week. Very social by the second fixture's end I feel! But look below at how many games the players would get. it's 3 out of the 6 games. Sometimes for the Captains it would be 4 from 7.
So, I'm hoping for 3 doubles, 3 singles and a Captains for a 2-0 point win if 4-2, 5-1, 6-0 but 2 points to 1 point (for the opposition) if it is a 4-3 win after the Captains played at the end. I wanted it so that the 7th game only goes ahead if it is 3-3 and if 4-2, 5-1, 6-0 = it doesn't take place and it is 2-0 points win/won. Not sure on that last one......
The ladder thing appeals but a good record needs to be kept.....
regards
Taffy
|
|
taffy
Distinguished Member
Posts: 514
|
Post by taffy on Nov 23, 2021 17:37:56 GMT
how does a singles league work?
|
|