Table height

[philip in china]

Snooker was invented and the rules set in the 19th century. At that time people were much shorter than they are nowadays. I just wondered if the game would be very different if tables were a bit higher.

I am only small myself at 5'7" but one man here, who is very tall, said he had tried snooker but didn't care for it. He asked me how I would feel playing on a table that came up to my knees! An exaggeration of course but I thought that the subject might stimulate some discussion.

[Redphex]

in my opinion, having a slightly higher table is better to play on and beneficial for your back!
my private table was "on the high side" of the rules, if not a bit beyond and it was definitely better to play on than most of the club tables I know.

come to think about it - also most recommendations for working surface heights have changed over time. my kitchen for example is set up higher than it would have been made years ago.

problem of course is, if you have a private table that's higher, you might notice slight problems at any other location that has lower tables ...

[Geoff Large]

Not all tables are the same you can get tables within 29inch to 32 inch from the floor , and in some case's on the same table you can get a differance of 2 inch from one end to another due to the floor being sloping or uneven .
take a tape measure next time you are playing at youre local club to see how far the floor is out . measure down each 4 corner pockets from top of slate to floor .

I have in my time had to higher a 8ft table for avery tall Profesional Cricketer by placeing 4 inch mahogany turned blocks to each leg , his wife required a stool to play .

We also shortened a full sized table's hieght that came from a police station , it seems that the original order was for a high table , when the station was closed we shortened the frame by 2 inch off each leg and put this in our snooker hall in nottingham as table number 18 .

as for the hieght issue of players , tall players tend also to have longer arms so have the advantage of the longer reach , small players have the advantage of holding their stance more before back ache sets in . I would say it is more of a disadvantage for smaller players , but I guess there is someone on here with all the stats of world champions under 6ft somewhere.