What do you use your snooker table for? If you answered that you use it for snooker games, I am not surprised. However, after examining the background of these tables, you may be interested in other uses for them. When you have a sturdy, raised surface available to you, many other uses for it start to percolate in your mind. But first we will look at the normally accepted wisdom about these tables.
by MatthewKerridge


What do you use your snooker table for? If you answered that you use it for snooker games, I am not surprised. However, after examining the background of these tables, you may be interested in other uses for them. When you have a sturdy, raised surface available to you, many other uses for it start to percolate in your mind. But first we will look at the normally accepted wisdom about these tables.

Formalized as a separate game in eighteen seventy five, snooker was first conceived by British soldiers. Colonel Chamberlain is credited with creating the first rules, while serving in India. The word snooker was transferred from its original use for describing greenhorn recruits. It was a derogatory way of describing the unskilled player. Then it became the name of the new game. Today's tables are usually six feet by twelve feet.

Snooker games were inspired by billiard games. Billiard tables had arisen from the desire to bring outdoor ball and disk games indoors. The movement of this type of sport indoors created the need for a raised surface. Safety and logistics argued against having these games played without a limiting barrier. So the game field was reduced to a raised table with a cushion around it to stop the loss of the balls.

Craftsmen wrestled with the production of an efficient cushion for the new tables for many years. Several methods were tried, including strips of wood glued onto the sides of the table. But this was unsatisfactory at best, as the repeated vibrations would eventually compromise stability. But John Thurston of England was convinced that the answer to the cushion problem would lie in the innovations in the field of rubber processing. He was able to bring the tables up to a new level of construction when he developed England's first fully rubberized cushions.

The familiar green wool covering of the snooker table is a reminder of the origins of pool games in the outdoor setting. The green wool covering is made with a nap running in one direction. Consequently, this makes a difference to how the ball performs, depending on how it approaches the nap. This is not an issue when playing on a table topped with slate. There are different grades of the green wool for use on different types of tables. Those destined for heavy duty public use are outfitted with a stronger grade of wool cloth than those destined for homeowners' dens.

There is no need to clog up our dumps with old, worn out snooker tables. They can be recycled into usefulness again as a child raising aid. Parents of twins, triplets or even octuplets would find that a snooker table makes a great changing table. It is at the correct height, and it has a safety feature already there--the cushion. Tiny infants will not accidentally roll off while the parent attends to the other seven babies. All the siblings could be well within the parent's view at all times. When the little ones get to the toddler stage, they can use the snooker table as the staging area for their creative play. It may serve as a fort one day, a dungeon the next and any other building required to fuel their play. When you hang a few sheets off the sides, you have created a template upon which your children will build. If you have put off child rearing until the last possible minute, you may be less enthusiastic about teaching your child skills requiring your stooping over to get involved. This brings me to my next suggestion for using the old snooker table. Stop trying to run your child off to a good start when he attempts bike riding without safety wheels. You'll be so bent over, you may never get up! Enlist the help of a friend who likes your child. Betw3een you, heave the kid and his bike onto the ancient snooker table. Give him a gentle push and your friend can catch him. It won't take many sessions of this to get him going independently.

Get a sturdy snooker table so that it will survive many years of family use. The investment you make will pay off over the years. This will be especially true if your great grandchildren take their first unaided bike rides upon its surface.

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