Snooker halls in London

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What are your favorite snooker halls in london? What do you value in a snooker hall? Do you ever go an pick up a game with a stranger or do you go with your friends and play together?

― teeny (teeny), Monday, 26 January 2004 20:32 (twenty-two years ago)

The GuyRitchie-riffic one in Archway is my favorite. All sorts of dodgy geezers and characters to be found there. My friends are members so when I'm in London I go and play with them.

― @d@ml (nordicskilla), Monday, 26 January 2004 20:41 (twenty-two years ago)

do you have to be a member to go in most halls?

― teeny (teeny), Monday, 26 January 2004 20:44 (twenty-two years ago)

Snooker intimidates me. The table is so long... it's like shooting across an interstate.

Hey, how come the British shoot 'slop' - accepting an lucky shot you didn't intend. That's cheating.

I have found that the British are far superior at fuseball, however.

― andy, Monday, 26 January 2004 20:45 (twenty-two years ago)

when i lived in Sheps Bush i always meant to join Rileys (nationwide chain of snooker and pool clubs) but never got round to it. i went to one at the back of a Chiswick industrial estate for a while which was okay apart from poor food coverage (important when you decide to spend your entire lunchbreak there) but mostly just played pool. went to one further out of London intermittently(sp.) over the years which was fine. By and large the snooker tables are accompanied by fruit machines but I never play them.

― stevem (blueski), Monday, 26 January 2004 20:47 (twenty-two years ago)

teeny in my experience usually you do have to be a member yes - why the interest may i ask??

― stevem (blueski), Monday, 26 January 2004 20:48 (twenty-two years ago)

Yes, this is all very curious, teeny.

― @d@ml (nordicskilla), Monday, 26 January 2004 20:51 (twenty-two years ago)

haha, that makes me feel like being mysterious!

― teeny (teeny), Monday, 26 January 2004 21:57 (twenty-two years ago)

answers on pool or billiard halls also gratefully accepted.

― teeny (teeny), Monday, 26 January 2004 21:58 (twenty-two years ago)

Best pool/billiards hall is in the ferry terminal in St Pertersburg, Russia

― Ed (dali), Monday, 26 January 2004 22:59 (twenty-two years ago)

argh, Russian bar billiards - so tricksy

― stevem (blueski), Monday, 26 January 2004 23:57 (twenty-two years ago)

London, please, or Cornwall.

― teeny (teeny), Tuesday, 27 January 2004 00:20 (twenty-two years ago)

not until you tell us why - for all we know you could be a snooker terrorist planning some kind of hare-brained scheme involving the taking-out of Tony Drago

― stevem (blueski), Tuesday, 27 January 2004 00:34 (twenty-two years ago)

haha, that makes me feel like being mysterious!

Oh c'mon, as if you didn't have a cleverly cultivated air of mystery as it is, Ms. Teeny Somewhere In The Midwest....

― @d@ml (nordicskilla), Tuesday, 27 January 2004 00:48 (twenty-two years ago)

i bet taking tony drago out would make a fun evening.

i'm considering joining the "PROFESSIONAL SNOOKER CLUB" in holloway but the little wooden door with a buzzer is quite intimidating. and that whole street is quite intimidating..

― ken c (ken c), Tuesday, 27 January 2004 00:51 (twenty-two years ago)

that sounds like a 'legitimate businessmen's club'

― Ed (dali), Tuesday, 27 January 2004 08:02 (twenty-two years ago)

The Pot Black Club in Portsmouth had the dim lighting, low filthy ceiling and wood panelling all present and correct. You felt certain that any moment, a sharp-suited geezer with an overcoat hanging on his shoulders was gonna barge through accompanied by a couple of heavies and disappear into the back room to 'discuss business' with the proprietor.

The premises now belong to these guys.

― robster (robster), Tuesday, 27 January 2004 09:33 (twenty-two years ago)

ok, here's the real answer...my mom is planning her first trip abroad, to Cornwall via London with my dad, to see the country where our ancestors came from. Really it's my dad's side that's from Cornwall, but my mom is German and she wants to tackle an english-speaking country first. Mom and I are excited about this, my dad less so (not sure why, but it's not hard to be less excited than my mom about travel). So I want to come up with some things that my dad can look forward to besides traipsing around Cornwall with his bum leg and dealing with driving on the other side of the road.

My dad likes gambling (oh yeah tell me about horse and dog tracks too) and playing pool/billards/snooker. He was very very good at pool when I was young, I suspect he hustled a little to put food on the table during the lean times. On the legit side, he could usually land in the top five of the state championships; we went to the national championships in vegas a couple of times but didn't get anywhere. Now he has a little workshop in the garage where he makes his own pool cues; back in Arizona he bought an old garage so he could refurbish tables in his spare time, and he acquired what I think might have been the only snooker table in that rural county!

So anyway, I suspect he would like hanging out in a nice hall, watching the games or maybe picking one up, and he's not too disturbed about shady characters and betting, although I suspect the protocol are different enough that he wouldn't be jumping right in on a money table. But it sounds like a stranger can't just wander into a snooker hall! What are the protocol?

― teeny (teeny), Tuesday, 27 January 2004 11:18 (twenty-two years ago)

some clubs will actually let you play but it costs more than if you were a member and they may try and cajole you into joining - it varies really, no specific protocol. It may all be a bit more relaxed down in Cornwall at least.

as for the dogs, we're (some ILX Londoners) going a week on Saturday! Walthamstow (NE) seems to be the best place for it but I hear there's a track in, inappropriately enough, Catford (SE). I'm supposed to be going to the horses soon as well (all work related, woohoo) so can report back on that when I do.

― stevem (blueski), Tuesday, 27 January 2004 11:28 (twenty-two years ago)

wow i wasn't sure if this would turn up anything - isn't the internet marvellous?

― stevem (blueski), Tuesday, 27 January 2004 11:30 (twenty-two years ago)

I think Catford may be no more Steve.

also there's a big snooker hall at the Bell crossroads in the Stow (on the bus route to the dogs)which looks great but I've never been in.

― chris (chris), Tuesday, 27 January 2004 11:32 (twenty-two years ago)

xpost
Ken, I'd be wary of the Holloway Rd one. My brother used to be a member. When someone comes to the door and buzzes, the bloke has a look who's there. If it's a woman, he'll turn off the porn movie and let her in. This was a few years ago. It might be a bit more upmarket now. The one in Kings X is ok. A few professionals practise there.

― Canada Briggs (Canada Briggs), Tuesday, 27 January 2004 13:14 (twenty-two years ago)

thinks of ken

thinks of what's being described

imagines ken beating the door down...

― CarsmileSteve (CarsmileSteve), Tuesday, 27 January 2004 13:46 (twenty-two years ago)

"beating the door down"...

well, if it's just porn, then i guess i can just about stomach it since it's 3 mins walk from my house.. I'm more wary of things like guns and shit. Although I'm surprised to hear that the Kings X one is actually better!

Anyone know if the one at Archway is any good? The entrance looks less shady than the Holloway one at least.

― ken c (ken c), Tuesday, 27 January 2004 14:30 (twenty-two years ago)

there's a big snooker/american pool place in the centre point building that i've been to a few times. it requires membership, but all you have to do is ask and fill out a card. i can't vouch for the quality of the games b/c i don't play, but it seemed decent enough if not atmospheric.

― lauren (laurenp), Tuesday, 27 January 2004 15:42 (twenty-two years ago)

Wow, teeny, my grandfather was a snooker champion back when he was a young man. He's got medals and stuff hanging in his house. It's so bad-ass.

― Jeanne Fury (Jeanne Fury), Tuesday, 27 January 2004 15:51 (twenty-two years ago)

haha jeanne, we're like sisters!

― teeny (teeny), Tuesday, 27 January 2004 17:45 (twenty-two years ago)

that perv on each other!

― teeny (teeny), Tuesday, 27 January 2004 17:45 (twenty-two years ago)

come on then

― stevem (blueski), Tuesday, 27 January 2004 17:46 (twenty-two years ago)

Okay, so I could think of about a hundred thighs to say about that, but being that I've got SOME class... wait. Oops. I meant "things." Nevermind...

― Jeanne Fury (Jeanne Fury), Tuesday, 27 January 2004 17:48 (twenty-two years ago)

oh god my mom is going to find this thread, isn't she?

― teeny (teeny), Tuesday, 27 January 2004 18:34 (twenty-two years ago)

Catford doggydrome is a thing of the past, Steve.

Are there any snooker halls in London that AREN'T full of menkoes? The last time I set foot in one was years ago, and it was opposite the Lewisham clock tower and it almost got a close friend of mine stabbed. Never again.

― Matt DC (Matt DC), Tuesday, 27 January 2004 18:37 (twenty-two years ago)

I have no plans to email this thread to Mother Teeny, though I'm sure she's well aware of what a pervy kid she's got for a daughter.

― Jeanne Fury (Jeanne Fury), Tuesday, 27 January 2004 18:53 (twenty-two years ago)

The one under Centrepoint is fine, but you do have to join it first. I went there fairly often and never got stabbed, for what it's worth.

― syntaxfree, Tuesday, 27 January 2004 18:59 (twenty-two years ago)

Mother Teeny

This is a beautiful phrase.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Tuesday, 27 January 2004 19:17 (twenty-two years ago)

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