Burroughes and Watts

[Frankie6972]

Can anyone give me any insight on these tables please. One up for sale so just inquiring, I have never heard. Thanks

[DeanH]

Burroughes & Watts are an old company that made very good tables and often well worth purchasing
But i do hope that our resident table fitters will pop on here and give you more info.

Do you have any link or photos to share for more information as they made many models over may years

Please do not confuse the current firm of the same name with the old firm as they bought the name and rights of but have no connection with the old firm

see https://www.snookerheritage.co.uk/co...roughes-watts/ for more info

[Frankie6972]

Hello makes sense because it says Burroughes and Watts Canada. Yeah I will see if I can upload pics

[mikee]

B&W tables were made of the highest quality and plenty of them came with steel cushions too ,the slate used was 2 inch thick Welsh or Irish ,most were made of Oak or mahogany.these tables will last 100’s of years,in fact many of them now are well over that .B&W tables can be set up to play to professional standards if you get one with steel cushions ,but their not with out a few quirky problems either ,one being middle pocket bounce out ,this is when you hammer a ball into the centre of the middle pocket hard ,hit the back of the plate and the ball can come back out on to the table ,this is nothing to do with rubber or shape of the pocket but the pocket itself ,there isn’t enough depth there to handle that type of really hard shot ,it’s just the way the cushion freezes and pocket plates are designed ,snookers a power game now and these table were built mainly when billiards was the game .Apart from that they are better than most modern tables in quality .It’s very hard to date each table because all records were lost when the Luftwaffe bombed the factory in the war ,leg design is the best way to get a rough idea of each table .Geoff Large a table fitter has set up and worked on loads of these tables and rates them highly ,and he still posts on here occasionally. posting some pics of the legs and cushions would be helpfull

[DeanH]

Hello makes sense because it says Burroughes and Watts Canada. Yeah I will see if I can upload pics

Often old British makers would ship components to Canada and US to be finished locally

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[Cue crafty]

Burroughes & Watts are an old company that made very good tables and often well worth purchasing
But i do hope that our resident table fitters will pop on here and give you more info.

Do you have any link or photos to share for more information as they made many models over may years

Please do not confuse the current firm of the same name with the old firm as they bought the name and rights of but have no connection with the old firm

see https://www.snookerheritage.co.uk/co...roughes-watts/ for more info

That's interesting, in there it states Tom Burroughs's went to Toronto to manage the office they opened there, they also sold tables in the west Indies. Makes sense why snooker used to be the main sport there over pool at one time. Cool stuff!

[philip in china]

I am no expert on tables and not even much of a player, so take what I say with a grain of salt!

B & W tables are about as good as old tables come. They are made from superb materials and would grace a palace. Do they respond like a new table by Star? I don't know. It doesn't matter to me. Their patented "Rigidus" design was a technical advance which improved table design before WW2. As stated above there are no records as the factory was bombed out in the blitz

Remember that the main consideration with a table is how well it is set up. When I really was in China, several years ago now, I had a cheap Chinese table but it was set up with great care and had a good cloth. It played well. Some of my friends were better players than me, not that that is setting a very high bar. They were all completely happy with the table.

So analysis:
Am I happy with my B & W table? Yes I am. (BTW I ought to add it was refurbished by Riley just before it was shipped to me here in Bulgaria).
Would I swop it for a new Star or similar? Not a chance. It fits in perfectly with the decor and ambiance of my snooker room and I am 100% happy with it.
Does it have steel block cushions? No, but having said that the South American mahogany from which it is made is so dense that the bounce is very goo. I could have steel blocks made, but at my stage in life and standard of play I wouldn't have this done.
Is it good enough for tournament play? Of course not That doesn't matter. The closest I ever get to that is when I have one of my parties here and we have our own little tournament.
What should be done to anyone who gets a beautiful pre war Cuban mahogany table and sprays it with rattle cans of gold paint because that is what they are like on television? Well I had probably better not say anything about that or my post will be deleted.

Photos of the table are somewhere on the forum.

[mikee]

I will add any steel blocked table can play as fast as any other ,It makes me laugh when some people play on Star tables and say they are so much faster than so and so table ,its a load of bollox .Slate is slate ,steel is steel ,its not fuel injected on Star tables ,it comes down to table heaters ,thin cloth ,Northern rubber and how low the blocks are set and thats it .World snooker have been using thinner cloths over the last few years and it just happens to coincide with the contract Star have ,the Rasson tables are just as fast ,and so would anything else be if it was set up the same .I remember Selby saying last year his Star table plays nothing like the tv tables as his cloth wouldn't last a month if it did .So there you have it ,West of England no 10 that you can buy can't be the same product as is used on tv .B&W tables are quality built and would rate at 10 out of 10 ,Star -1 iprobably

[fkhan]

I will add any steel blocked table can play as fast as any other ,It makes me laugh when some people play on Star tables and say they are so much faster than so and so table ,its a load of bollox .Slate is slate ,steel is steel ,its not fuel injected on Star tables ,it comes down to table heaters ,thin cloth ,Northern rubber and how low the blocks are set and thats it .World snooker have been using thinner cloths over the last few years and it just happens to coincide with the contract Star have ,the Rasson tables are just as fast ,and so would anything else be if it was set up the same .I remember Selby saying last year his Star table plays nothing like the tv tables as his cloth wouldn't last a month if it did .So there you have it ,West of England no 10 that you can buy can't be the same product as is used on tv .B&W tables are quality built and would rate at 10 out of 10 ,Star -1 iprobably

Do Strachan have a separate no. 10 cloth for tournament and home use? That's news to me.

[Danger Steve]

If cloth was any thinner you might as well just spray the slate green and call it done!

[Frankie6972]

Thanks for all the reply, indeed it has 2" thick slate, seller said it's in great condition, pockets may need replacing, felt great.Here is 2 pics

[Cue crafty]

Lovely, that looks solid as a rock. Pockets look original so it will benefit greatly from a few updates, but looks like a great original table.

[Danger Steve]

Christ! That’s a lump of a table… It’s not the prettiest is it?

[DeanH]

Christ! That’s a lump of a table… It’s not the prettiest is it?

like your children... you love them no matter what!

[Cue crafty]

Christ! That’s a lump of a table… It’s not the prettiest is it?

Its a great table for radio....