Snooker fan with no access to snooker table to play :(

[Norgannon]

Hello everyone !

I'm new around here.
My name is Aloïs and I'm a french 22 years old computer science engineering student and future snooker world champion.
I really enjoy watching snooker and I spend way too much time looking at snooker videos on youtube.
I watched some as a child on TV and completely forgot about it afterwards and ended up rediscovering it recently completely randomly.

I would really love to play snooker myself, I would probably be terrible at it, but with time and effort I hope to end up being ok and even why not (dreaming is not forbidden) entering Q School in a couple of years for fun and maybe somehow get to play snooker for a living. (Yeah, that escalated quickly )

Well at least I would like to be able to start and begin to play a bit. The problem is that I live in France. There are very few billiards club around where I live, and not any of them have a snooker table. The closest club that has a proper snooker table is 60 km away. Closest clubs have 3-cuschion billiards tables with no pockets.

I do not think I can fit a proper full size snooker table at home and It is way too expensive anyway for now.

I can afford for couple of hundreds of £ of materials.

So here is my question : would you advise to go and play other cue games more accessible where I live and maybe get to snooker later or do you think I can play snooker on a smaller table ? A smaller table would probably still be challenging to play for me but in the end, is it a proper training for actual full size snooker ? If the average pot distance has to be on average multiply by 2, the change must be quite a chock.

There are 6 ft light folding tables for 300£ online it looks quite cheap and I'm afraid it would only be a quite expensive children's toy.
There are 7 ft actual heavy tables for 500£ that looks legit to play American billiards would you recommend starting playing pool / snooker on this ?

The last option would be to save my money to play in clubs with maybe better quality but it's less practical and limits the time to play.

In six months my studies are over so I could probably save then to buy better gear or even try to find a job in the UK to get easier access to snooker.

So yeah, the final question is what would you do if you were in my situation ?

Thanks for you help and have a nice holiday everyone

[jrc750]

Have you even played pool at all ?
Maybe do the 60Km trip to the real table for a day to try it out and see for yourself how difficult the game is

[Norgannon]

No I've never even played pool

Yeah I guess if I go and try snooker on an actual table I wouldn't even pot a single ball.

My guess would be I have to buy an American pool table and train on it and when I feel comfortable enough I can do the 60 km trip for a day to see how real snooker is like.

[sealer]

Hello everyone !

I'm new around here.
My name is Aloïs and I'm a french 22 years old computer science engineering student and future snooker world champion.
I really enjoy watching snooker and I spend way too much time looking at snooker videos on youtube.
I watched some as a child on TV and completely forgot about it afterwards and ended up rediscovering it recently completely randomly.

I would really love to play snooker myself, I would probably be terrible at it, but with time and effort I hope to end up being ok and even why not (dreaming is not forbidden) entering Q School in a couple of years for fun and maybe somehow get to play snooker for a living. (Yeah, that escalated quickly )

Well at least I would like to be able to start and begin to play a bit. The problem is that I live in France. There are very few billiards club around where I live, and not any of them have a snooker table. The closest club that has a proper snooker table is 60 km away. Closest clubs have 3-cuschion billiards tables with no pockets.

I do not think I can fit a proper full size snooker table at home and It is way too expensive anyway for now.

I can afford for couple of hundreds of £ of materials.

So here is my question : would you advise to go and play other cue games more accessible where I live and maybe get to snooker later or do you think I can play snooker on a smaller table ? A smaller table would probably still be challenging to play for me but in the end, is it a proper training for actual full size snooker ? If the average pot distance has to be on average multiply by 2, the change must be quite a chock.

There are 6 ft light folding tables for 300£ online it looks quite cheap and I'm afraid it would only be a quite expensive children's toy.
There are 7 ft actual heavy tables for 500£ that looks legit to play American billiards would you recommend starting playing pool / snooker on this ?

The last option would be to save my money to play in clubs with maybe better quality but it's less practical and limits the time to play.

In six months my studies are over so I could probably save then to buy better gear or even try to find a job in the UK to get easier access to snooker.

So yeah, the final question is what would you do if you were in my situation ?

Thanks for you help and have a nice holiday everyone

Find a good job, meet a nice girl and have some lovely children and a great life. In the meantime go and play some snooker as a hobby!!

[Neil Taperell]

That would be a nightmare for me having no table nearby ......hope you manage to find somewhere nearer .

[Hello, Mr Big Shot]

Hello everyone !

I'm new around here.
My name is Aloïs and I'm a french 22 years old computer science engineering student and future snooker world champion.
I really enjoy watching snooker and I spend way too much time looking at snooker videos on youtube.
I watched some as a child on TV and completely forgot about it afterwards and ended up rediscovering it recently completely randomly.

I would really love to play snooker myself, I would probably be terrible at it, but with time and effort I hope to end up being ok and even why not (dreaming is not forbidden) entering Q School in a couple of years for fun and maybe somehow get to play snooker for a living. (Yeah, that escalated quickly )

Well at least I would like to be able to start and begin to play a bit. The problem is that I live in France. There are very few billiards club around where I live, and not any of them have a snooker table. The closest club that has a proper snooker table is 60 km away. Closest clubs have 3-cuschion billiards tables with no pockets.

I do not think I can fit a proper full size snooker table at home and It is way too expensive anyway for now.

I can afford for couple of hundreds of £ of materials.

So here is my question : would you advise to go and play other cue games more accessible where I live and maybe get to snooker later or do you think I can play snooker on a smaller table ? A smaller table would probably still be challenging to play for me but in the end, is it a proper training for actual full size snooker ? If the average pot distance has to be on average multiply by 2, the change must be quite a chock.

There are 6 ft light folding tables for 300£ online it looks quite cheap and I'm afraid it would only be a quite expensive children's toy.
There are 7 ft actual heavy tables for 500£ that looks legit to play American billiards would you recommend starting playing pool / snooker on this ?

The last option would be to save my money to play in clubs with maybe better quality but it's less practical and limits the time to play.

In six months my studies are over so I could probably save then to buy better gear or even try to find a job in the UK to get easier access to snooker.

So yeah, the final question is what would you do if you were in my situation ?

Thanks for you help and have a nice holiday everyone

There are quite a few French blackball players around, so i would start there if i were you - with an English pool table.

[Norgannon]

Well I didn't know much about blackball but as I look at the specifications of table and balls it looks like an interesting starting point.

I'm starting to look at tables but it's hard to find something else than American 8-ball tables. On French version of amazon, there are literally only American tables.
On specialized billiard gear website there are some but it starts at 1400€ (1200+£) which is 3 times the price of the American tables of same size on amazon and others, but maybe they are cheaper because they are junk.

Maybe I'll have some luck by checking some private ad website (what you would know as gumtree in the uk according to google).

[Terry Davidson]

I find Europeans to be a bit odd when it comes to driving around. Here in Canada a 60km drive would take about 40minutes and that would be considered CLOSE. For my tournaments I regularly drive up to 2hrs to get into Toronto or Hamilton and think nothing of it.

So, since I'm biased as to distance, my recommendation would be to start going to that snooker club on a regular basis and suffer that awful 40minutes of driving back and forth.

[Welshbaizeboy]

I find Europeans to be a bit odd when it comes to driving around. Here in Canada a 60km drive would take about 40minutes and that would be considered CLOSE. For my tournaments I regularly drive up to 2hrs to get into Toronto or Hamilton and think nothing of it.

So, since I'm biased as to distance, my recommendation would be to start going to that snooker club on a regular basis and suffer that awful 40minutes of driving back and forth.

Bit different driving on long straight wide decent rds Terry to the winding narrow traffic laden dross us Brits have to put up with it. Not sure what it's like in his bit of France though . Think I even might enjoy driving in N America

[Norgannon]

I find Europeans to be a bit odd when it comes to driving around. Here in Canada a 60km drive would take about 40minutes and that would be considered CLOSE. For my tournaments I regularly drive up to 2hrs to get into Toronto or Hamilton and think nothing of it.

So, since I'm biased as to distance, my recommendation would be to start going to that snooker club on a regular basis and suffer that awful 40minutes of driving back and forth.

Well, in France (and western Europe I suppose), you don't need a car and a driving's license to do everything whereas in the US (and I suppose Canada as well ?), you cannot do anything without because all the distances and areas are wider apart.

Therefore, access to driving licences and cars is easier in the US whereas in France, not everyone has a driving's license and/or a car. To get a license in France, you have an actual exam for which you have to pay both to prepare and to pass (I believe in the UK it is quite similar in cost) and it is quite expensive and long.

Taking the train or the bus is not rare in France. Even a lot of people with car and licence actually commute through public transportation for various reasons (not longer, not exhausting, can read/work during commute, cheaper, healthier...).

Personally, I didn't bother with getting a driver's licence as I never needed it. With a car, the 60km journey would take about 47 minutes according to google map (using the paying highway). With the train/bus it would be probably a bit more than an hour and a half depending on the connections. The other problem would be the club is a private one open on evenings as it doubles as a bar & stuff. No trains during the night of course as I'm not in a big urban area.

So I guess this is the first time I would need a driver's licence, I'm probably soon going to trouble through getting one.

On the topic of the table I found in a French online shop a 600€ 7ft blackball table that seems quite good apart from the fact than bed is not slate but an mdf board. I guess for the price it is fine. I'm still looking for better but if I don't find anything else I might get this to start.

[Hello, Mr Big Shot]

Well, in France (and western Europe I suppose), you don't need a car and a driving's license to do everything whereas in the US (and I suppose Canada as well ?), you cannot do anything without because all the distances and areas are wider apart.

Therefore, access to driving licences and cars is easier in the US whereas in France, not everyone has a driving's license and/or a car. To get a license in France, you have an actual exam for which you have to pay both to prepare and to pass (I believe in the UK it is quite similar in cost) and it is quite expensive and long.

Taking the train or the bus is not rare in France. Even a lot of people with car and licence actually commute through public transportation for various reasons (not longer, not exhausting, can read/work during commute, cheaper, healthier...).

Personally, I didn't bother with getting a driver's licence as I never needed it. With a car, the 60km journey would take about 47 minutes according to google map (using the paying highway). With the train/bus it would be probably a bit more than an hour and a half depending on the connections. The other problem would be the club is a private one open on evenings as it doubles as a bar & stuff. No trains during the night of course as I'm not in a big urban area.

So I guess this is the first time I would need a driver's licence, I'm probably soon going to trouble through getting one.

On the topic of the table I found in a French online shop a 600€ 7ft blackball table that seems quite good apart from the fact than bed is not slate but an mdf board. I guess for the price it is fine. I'm still looking for better but if I don't find anything else I might get this to start.

Put a link up for that table mate. You should avoid anything without a slate bed if possible, and those 4-500 euro American tables are likely to be poor quality.

This link has a website for English pool in France.

http://www.euro8ball.com/home/

[vmax]

Something like this ?

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Snooker-Table-Converts-

[Hello, Mr Big Shot]

Something like this ?

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Snooker-Table-Converts-

Do any of those deliver to France mate?

[Norgannon]

Put a link up for that table mate. You should avoid anything without a slate bed if possible, and those 4-500 euro American tables are likely to be poor quality.

This link has a website for English pool in France.

http://www.euro8ball.com/home/

The table I found is this one :

https://www.defaistre.com/collection...-pool-club-pro

The specifications are in French so...

They say "black mdf finish", "feet height can be modified", "Table structure & one-piece game board in medium wood" (I have no idea if medium wood is mdf as well, as they are not using the word for mdf but write-in literally medium wood). The rest looks standard 7 ft table dimensions (or maybe slightly smaller).

The link to the French website for English pool is dead.

And about uk ebay after looking it up, some might deliver to France but it's not guaranteed. It's up to the seller to choose.

[Hello, Mr Big Shot]

The table I found is this one :

https://www.defaistre.com/collection...-pool-club-pro

The specifications are in French so...

They say "black mdf finish", "feet height can be modified", "Table structure & one-piece game board in medium wood" (I have no idea if medium wood is mdf as well, as they are not using the word for mdf but write-in literally medium wood). The rest looks standard 7 ft table dimensions (or maybe slightly smaller).

The link to the French website for English pool is dead.

And about uk ebay after looking it up, some might deliver to France but it's not guaranteed. It's up to the seller to choose.

Not sure why the link is dead but you can Google it - it has this link for French players.

http://www.fbep.fr

Anyway, it's difficult to tell how good the table is from those photos. It won't be great but might be good enough to get you started. The balls/cues etc that come with tables like these are generally pretty poor, but again, a learner isn't going to know the difference anyway.

This company exports tables to France but would think it's expensive.

https://www.hamiltonbilliards.com/ex...es/france.html