B & W Steel block table

[maryfield]

Could 100 Upper cast his knowledgeable eye over this B & W steel block table and perhaps give an indication to its age. This table is at the polishers undergoing full refurbishment to bring it back to its former glory.

[100-uper]

Could 100 Upper cast his knowledgeable eye over this B & W steel block table and perhaps give an indication to its age. This table is at the polishers undergoing full refurbishment to bring it back to its former glory.

From contemporary adverts, I can confirm that his model of table was called the "County" and was being produced by Burroughes & Watts between 1911 -1913 (at least) when it was described as "a popular and inexpensive design for clubs." Geoff Large may be able to add to this from his experiences.

[Geoff Large]

Yes Edwardian fluting and broader chunkier legs , they did do a simular Early design with top plates that was victorian and the fluting was larger and the legs more slender , also I think the vitorian one had arched knee panels , edwardian ones having squared off one's .
but as always if a customer wanted certain design tweeks I am sure B&W watts would put arched knee panels on this Edwardian design if asked .

Has this table got the shallow centre pocket plates , the type that reflects the ball back onto the table with a hard shot ...later models had a more recessed plate to rectify this problem ....it looks like the shallow ones from the rear of the plate making it an earley model ..although replacement plates where available to modify the table ...i think these recessed plates would have been a design tweek of the late 20s early 30s .

Geoff

[maryfield]

Sorry for the delay in responding to your post Geoff. I didn`t take pics of the centre pocket plate. I was actually planning to plug the cushion cappings and fitting either two pin Riley match plates or bolt through match plates, to avoid the bounce back you mention.

[maryfield]

We used to own a snooker club which had Smith and Nelson tables. When they were installed in 1982 we quickly discovered that the pocket plates were too far forward and the cebtres would bounce out constantly. Smith and Nelson took the cushions back to their workshops, in Leeds I think and re-bored them so that the plates sat further back,curing the bounce back. Whatever happened to Smith and Nelson. Their tables played superbly. We subsequently opend a second club in 1985 and bought 14 Riley Regis tables. These didn`t compare with the Smith and Nelson one`s.