Is there hope yet ?

I heard over the weekend that the Redhill League is regaining one of its prime venues.
For many a long year the Flying Scud was seen as a centre of excellence, and its team were habitual League Champions and represented the county in AEBBA competitions, but then dear old Mike the landlord emigrated to New Zealand and the table became a casualty under the new regime.

Now the pub has changed hands yet again, and a table is back in there. The team that used to play there have been sanctioned to use it as their venue for the second half of the season.

In Crawley, for many years bar billiards was concentrated around a single venue, the Windmill. I - and many like me - played a total of thirteen league seasons there, some in the Horsham League, but mainly in Mid Sussex. Then one season a new landlord took over, it was obvious he didn't like the bar billiards, riff-raff started to use the pub, it became very unpleasant to play there, and that was that. With no teams to play there, the table made a very rapid exit afterwards.
Now we hear that - again - a new landlord has taken over, and he is very keen to promote pub sports.

These two examples prove that there is an element of luck about whether a bar billiards venue is viable. And a lot of it is purely down to the attitude of the landlord. Admittedly, sometimes their hands are tied by brewery policy. But it is gratifying sometimes to see a venue from the past have a resurgence of interest - almost as if it has suddenly dawned on them that staging regular league matches brings in ten-plus regular midweek drinkers into a pub which otherwise might be a bit 'quiet' on certain nights of the week.

[Sparky]

This is good news for both leagues Tommo and can I assume that there may be a return to the Windmill soon ? ;)

[Kevin Pringle (R.I.P.)]

When I went down to Kent to live and joined up with Sav at the Alma, just the same thing happened a pub rich in tradition of the Dover & Deal and Kent BB scene, holding finals nights in the hall in the rear etc.
A new landlord or plonker as a better description managed in a very short period of time to turn it into a pub full of low lifes, had plans bigger than his brains and totally f**ked up this once great venue.

It is totally down to landlords or managers as most are now, they have wild ideas on how they are going to make their fortunes, and maost couldn't arrange a p1$$up in a brewery (pun intended).
Sad to see and there is nothing any of us can do unless we all decide to become pub managers, hmmm thats an idea why didn't we think of that earlier ;D

[Richard Stowe R.I.P.]

;D ;D Our own pub, 8-) Mines a large one, :o pub I mean. Something along the lines of the Post Office Vaults in Wantage. Four stories above ground with two basements below. You could have one table in the public bar and one a few stories down. If I remember rightly there was enough space below ground for a dance hall, I think it's where they used to house all the accumulators for the exchange.