Post by Deleted on Apr 25, 2014 15:42:42 GMT
Got to thinking recently - many of the tables we see coming up on eBay are "narrow", ie. 34" wide rather than the standard 36" width. How did the variation come about in the first place ?
The 4-Pin game seemed to have captured the market for the 'slim jims' and possibly this variation was invented to encourage league play on these tables in East Anglia, around The Wash (where it was known as ‘Snookerette’) and possibly also in the north of England.
3-Pin leagues sprung up in as many as 15 counties and our version was played on the wider tables, which favoured high scoring around the 50 pockets which are further away on a narrow table !
Yet nowadays 4-Pin players seem quite happy to play their version on either type of table and the majority of league games seem now to be played on these !
To find the answer, we have to look at the manufacturers who mass-produced these tables in their hundreds – maybe thousands – 50 to 80 years ago.
- Rileys, based in Accrington, Lancs and who merged with Burroughes and Watts to form “Riley Burwat”. These were outlawed In Sussex leagues in the early days as the game was made ‘too easy’ by the Easidrop pockets (four bars within each cup to make the ball drop immediately). High quality B & W tables were however shipped to the Channel Islands where they have been maintained ever since.
- SAMS, later SAMS Atlas, based in Hoddington, Hertfordshire, with whom the Sussex table operator (Ralph Tarratt) had a commission to supply in their hundreds to pubs throughout Sussex. The point was reached when no further SAMS tables were made, but the business continues to operate in son Rod’s name on a hire and maintenance basis on whichever of these original tables are left. Tarratts also supply Pool tables to pubs and clubs throughout the county which is the more profitable side of the business, pool probably subsidising bar billiards to a certain extent.
- Jelkes of Holloway, London, with whom Bar-Billiards Ltd of Ascot, Berks took out a similar commission to supply the remaining active counties. Similarly, the point was reached when no further new tables were made and B-B Ltd ‘went it alone’ with their own workshop to fit new baizes, legs and clocks when the occasion arose – which I would imagine was quite often as the game grew in popularity and the tables were in constant use during the set opening hours of each pub. The remotest county, Kent, was also one of the most thriving (with a huge Canterbury League) and therefore demanding of after-sales service, and accordingly set up its own independent hire operation and workshop as “Bar Billiards Kent” Ltd. As with Rileys, they stayed faithful to the original design, although B-B Kent indulged in a bit of creative customising, fitting a new shape of leg and backboard and reducing the length of slate in the interests of standardisation and interchangeablity. As with Riley, though, no tables were made to ‘narrow’ dimensions.
So why then are there so many Narrow SAMS tables about ?
Remember that there were other rival manufacturers about in the early days, such as Kay’s, Jeffrey’s, Atlas, Padmores, Clare’s and Thurstons, with mergers and takeovers being commonplace as the firms struggled to compete against each other in the emerging market.
There are also long-established names such as Elston & Hopkins (based in Lincolnshire) and Hubble and Freeman (based in Maidstone) but these are more in the way of table distributers rather than makers.
Anyway, Padmores were bought by the Clare Group in Liverpool and subsumed into the Thurstons brand. Whilst Atlas were bought out by SAMS Brothers.
My theory is that SAMS Brothers, having acquired one of these businesses, in whole or in part, discovered that the assets thus obtained included a job lot of Italian slates (possibly 100 or more) to the narrower dimension on speculation of future high demand, following the successful sale of one or two prototypes. It could even have come about due to an order to supply tables being cancelled. Or even as a simple miscalculation when placing the order !
So what to do with them ? Too late or too much hassle to reject them back to Italy, and too valuable to scrap, so SAMS probably just went ahead and made them into tables and offered them at a reduced price.
Most of these would have been bought and later sold privately, and many ended up in the hands of the Brewery conglomerates and began to be circulated in pubs as part of the gaming machines arrangement, later the stock to be swelled by the modern day manufactured Supreme tables.
So there we have it………….unless anyone can come up with a rival theory !
The 4-Pin game seemed to have captured the market for the 'slim jims' and possibly this variation was invented to encourage league play on these tables in East Anglia, around The Wash (where it was known as ‘Snookerette’) and possibly also in the north of England.
3-Pin leagues sprung up in as many as 15 counties and our version was played on the wider tables, which favoured high scoring around the 50 pockets which are further away on a narrow table !
Yet nowadays 4-Pin players seem quite happy to play their version on either type of table and the majority of league games seem now to be played on these !
To find the answer, we have to look at the manufacturers who mass-produced these tables in their hundreds – maybe thousands – 50 to 80 years ago.
- Rileys, based in Accrington, Lancs and who merged with Burroughes and Watts to form “Riley Burwat”. These were outlawed In Sussex leagues in the early days as the game was made ‘too easy’ by the Easidrop pockets (four bars within each cup to make the ball drop immediately). High quality B & W tables were however shipped to the Channel Islands where they have been maintained ever since.
- SAMS, later SAMS Atlas, based in Hoddington, Hertfordshire, with whom the Sussex table operator (Ralph Tarratt) had a commission to supply in their hundreds to pubs throughout Sussex. The point was reached when no further SAMS tables were made, but the business continues to operate in son Rod’s name on a hire and maintenance basis on whichever of these original tables are left. Tarratts also supply Pool tables to pubs and clubs throughout the county which is the more profitable side of the business, pool probably subsidising bar billiards to a certain extent.
- Jelkes of Holloway, London, with whom Bar-Billiards Ltd of Ascot, Berks took out a similar commission to supply the remaining active counties. Similarly, the point was reached when no further new tables were made and B-B Ltd ‘went it alone’ with their own workshop to fit new baizes, legs and clocks when the occasion arose – which I would imagine was quite often as the game grew in popularity and the tables were in constant use during the set opening hours of each pub. The remotest county, Kent, was also one of the most thriving (with a huge Canterbury League) and therefore demanding of after-sales service, and accordingly set up its own independent hire operation and workshop as “Bar Billiards Kent” Ltd. As with Rileys, they stayed faithful to the original design, although B-B Kent indulged in a bit of creative customising, fitting a new shape of leg and backboard and reducing the length of slate in the interests of standardisation and interchangeablity. As with Riley, though, no tables were made to ‘narrow’ dimensions.
So why then are there so many Narrow SAMS tables about ?
Remember that there were other rival manufacturers about in the early days, such as Kay’s, Jeffrey’s, Atlas, Padmores, Clare’s and Thurstons, with mergers and takeovers being commonplace as the firms struggled to compete against each other in the emerging market.
There are also long-established names such as Elston & Hopkins (based in Lincolnshire) and Hubble and Freeman (based in Maidstone) but these are more in the way of table distributers rather than makers.
Anyway, Padmores were bought by the Clare Group in Liverpool and subsumed into the Thurstons brand. Whilst Atlas were bought out by SAMS Brothers.
My theory is that SAMS Brothers, having acquired one of these businesses, in whole or in part, discovered that the assets thus obtained included a job lot of Italian slates (possibly 100 or more) to the narrower dimension on speculation of future high demand, following the successful sale of one or two prototypes. It could even have come about due to an order to supply tables being cancelled. Or even as a simple miscalculation when placing the order !
So what to do with them ? Too late or too much hassle to reject them back to Italy, and too valuable to scrap, so SAMS probably just went ahead and made them into tables and offered them at a reduced price.
Most of these would have been bought and later sold privately, and many ended up in the hands of the Brewery conglomerates and began to be circulated in pubs as part of the gaming machines arrangement, later the stock to be swelled by the modern day manufactured Supreme tables.
So there we have it………….unless anyone can come up with a rival theory !
