philmac91
Junior Forum Member
Back from hiatus, still crap!
Posts: 24
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Post by philmac91 on Aug 5, 2023 20:36:20 GMT
Yes definitely Clive, it's a sad situation. It's a shame Wallingford died a death as once upon a time that league was as competitive as it got.
I suppose it is difficult to keep track of these tables short of literally driving to all the listed venues and having a look.
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philmac91
Junior Forum Member
Back from hiatus, still crap!
Posts: 24
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Post by philmac91 on Aug 5, 2023 20:37:49 GMT
It makes me wonder as well, do we have records of where these tables went after the old leagues folded and venues did away with them?
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Post by tommo III on Aug 5, 2023 21:49:12 GMT
The answer to that one is that the situation is diverse and rather depends on the area the league covered.
In Sussex, the Crawley League and Portslade league folded in the last century: Portslade was absorbed by other coastal leagues, whereas Crawley pubs took to pool in a big way and had the bar billiards tables taken back by the table operator. Recently the latter ceased operation and has been selling his tables privately on eBay. The Horsham league has shrunk down to nothing, the few venues that remained applying to join an adjacent league.
Surrey bar billiards would have gone completely had not the league been pro-active when B-B Ltd of Ascot was dissolved, and the (Redhill) League raised a share issue and bought the eleven tables. Other leagues north of the Thames have saved themselves in similar ways.
With Kent, again it's diverse: Tunny Wells own their tables, but Dover and Deal folded last year and the tables were bought as a job lot by a Forum Member who has started his own league up. The Canterbury League was enormous in the last century, but again went down to nothing and the Kent table operator shipped some of the tables to Bristol to start up a league. Who knows what happened to the rest? A statement was once made that tables once existed in their thousands, now it's only hundreds. We know that some were shipped abroad, some to Guyana and to the United States - but haven't been heard of since. ......Maybe the ship went down and 1000 tables are being held by Davy Jones in his locker !!!!
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philmac91
Junior Forum Member
Back from hiatus, still crap!
Posts: 24
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Post by philmac91 on Aug 5, 2023 22:54:53 GMT
It makes me think, even if collectives in areas around the country wanted to start a league they'd likely not be able to get hold of tables!
I wonder if there's a gap in the marketplace that could be filled.
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Post by tommo III on Aug 7, 2023 12:04:37 GMT
It makes me think, even if collectives in areas around the country wanted to start a league they'd likely not be able to get hold of tables! I wonder if there's a gap in the marketplace that could be filled. It's a sad fact, Phil, that our game is suffering a slow death and what you see now is the best that can be wished for. The average age of competing players must be somewhere near sixty by now, and all-too-few youngsters are taking up the game. The Forum's tables map shows a multitude of tables where there is no organised league and I would imagine that many of these have already disappeared: some of these are simply survivors of a long-lost league (especially true in Hampshire where there was also a Winchester League and a Southampton League, with Portsmouth struggling on manfully). I sounded out the Somerset ones a few years ago and those that were still there were in a very bad state of repair. Evidence exists of attempts to plug the 'gap in the market' in terms of modern builds of table. The 'Supreme' table had too much Pool DNA, were a lot heavier to handle, and had electronic timers which are not at user friendly as the clockwork ones. The batteries are expensive to replace, many of this type of table being sold for a pittance once they packed up. Then there is the invention "Trilliards" which has been around for ten years but I've yet to come across one on my travels ! (Check out the thread under "It's Bar Billiards Jim But Not As We Know It")To sum up, bar billiards only survives where the interest is there already, and we should count our lucky stars for the diligent persons who continually strive to keep the whole thing going. Cheers, tommo
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