Midland Band Social Club, Kettering, Northamptonshire

It's been a while since I last explored the post-COVID pub games scene. It's not for lack of interest though, more the increasing difficulty and expense of visiting far-flung places and finding the pubs I'm aiming for are actually open! Pubs of most shapes and sizes remain a passion though, and rarely a week goes by that I don't visit a few in the course of a good walk or social day out.

It's noticeable that behaviours continue to change around pub going. Queuing at the bar seems to have persisted in the wake of the pandemic, much to the chagrin of some, though of all the changes it's one of the least concerning to me. More notable is the substantially reduced trade and trading hours during weekdays, lunchtime and afternoons in particular which just happen to be my favourite pubbing times. Levels of trade and relentlessly spiralling costs are dictating pub opening times like no other, because there's no point a licensee opening up, paying staff, lighting and heating a building, maybe even running a kitchen when there's little chance of covering your costs. It's long been the case that outside of towns and cities it's rare to find a pub open on a Monday, but it's now often the same for Tuesdays and Wednesdays, even extending as far as Thursday in some cases. The sad fact is that for many of us, pub-going has become mainly a weekend only affair, often by choice but increasingly it's necessity.

The lockdowns that blighted the pub trade during the pandemic have inevitably left a legacy of further decline in pub games participation. Many games that were considered too risky to play under social distancing rules were effectively removed from the bar, more often than not merely put into storage, ready to return to the bar in better times, but sadly the disruption to many leagues has had the effect of accelerating the decline of formal competition. Many leagues have shrunk, some even folded, and the games themselves have sometimes gone from the bar for good. All this and more has made the task of documenting our precious pub games traditions ever more difficult, and I'd have to say that the ever increasing cost and unreliability of public transport hasn't helped in this regard, in many cases I've simply been priced out of the kind of travel needed to do our national pastimes the justice they deserve.

There are of course plenty enough exceptions where traditional games continue to be popular, and when one falls practically on my own doorstep it would be remiss of me not to get back on the horse, charge up the camera, and sing its praises with a blog post.

Kettering sits close to the northern limit of the Northamptonshire Table Skittles tradition, yet remains at its very heart as far as participation is concerned, although you'd be hard pressed to notice as much on a visit to the town centre these days. Skittles Tables have gone in recent years from the recently closed Harlequin and Three Cocks pubs, as well as the heavily refurbished Market Inn, leaving only the Alexandra near the town centre as a solid and reliable Table Skittles pub. It's also a firm favourite for beer locally and happily opens throughout the week from early afternoon, midday at the weekend. As with many towns and cities, to find the local pub games you have to travel out to pubs and clubs in the suburbs and housing estates.

Equally popular for its great beer, and also conveniently open all day every day, is the Midland Band Social Club. Located a little way out of the the centre, it's just a short walk through Kettering's old terraced housing, and much of the town's remaining Boot & Shoe manufacturing heritage to the north of the town. As the name suggests, the club was originally established as a home for one of the town's Silver Bands in 1896. Back then a small outdoor Beerhouse served Northampton brewed Phipps ales, today the much expanded club might almost be regarded as a local 'Tap' for the nearby Potbelly Brewery, and the bar is perhaps second only for choice of ales to the Alex'.

In common with almost every club I've been to recently, the Midland Band is a tidy and very well run club with a fully subscribed membership. The bar area leads through to a sizeable function room, and at the back is a similarly impressive Games Room. The early years of the club are notable for success in Billiards and Snooker, as evidenced by numerous old photographs of successful teams and players. The Billiards Tables appear to be long gone from the club though of course Kettering is still in the spotlight for cue sports with the recent success of local professional Snooker player Kyren Wilson.

Latterly the club is better known for it's Bowls Club which plays on the Recreation Ground Green just across the road, and with a current membership of around 1000! Perhaps not quite so popular but well catered for nevertheless are teams for Darts, Pool, and that most local of Northamptonshire games Table Skittles which includes teams for Mens, Ladies, and Mixed leagues. All these games command their own discreet space in the games room, though hopefully they're not all played together given the noise levels, although it's notable that the Skittles Table sits in it's own netted cage so at least other players will be safe enough from flying boxwood cheeses.

A Compendium of Pub Games Images - Pt.29

There really is no shortage of books, journals, blogs and other online writing about beer and brewing. It's a micro-genre with seemingly limitless potential for saying much the same thing, in slightly different ways, about a subject that's always attracted passionate interest, though perhaps none more so than in recent years with the arrival of so-called 'craft' beer. But then that's the very nature of the keen enthusiast, there's always another angle on your passion to write about, and rarely a shortage of fans to read about it. Quite why beer and brewing (and wine and spirits for that matter) generate such a demand for the written word, and yet the pub, the stage for so many of lifes dramas, trails so far behind, has puzzled me for many a year.

Pubs are certainly taken for granted, particularly by the 'locals' who use them more than most. Whilst enthusiasts like myself visit pubs just as often, if not more so than regular social drinkers, our 'passion' for the boozer is probably regarded as unusual, dare I say 'geeky' by the mass of regular pub-goers. So the pub, arguably as interesting a subject as the beer that passes over the bar, seems to be so deeply ingrained in normal day-to-day life that it's simply not regarded as being particularly newsworthy by most people, let alone worth taking the trouble to write about!

But if pubs are a neglected subject in print, it's perhaps ten-times so for traditional pub games which are rarely the subject of the written word. The current go-to book for the subject remains Played at the Pub by Arthur Taylor. This book was published over ten years ago now, and right now there seems little sign of a follow-up (although rumours persist that a book on skittles by Arthur is in the pipeline), which perhaps says something about the commercial viability of the subject. Slightly strange given that under normal circumstances, almost every day there are literally tens of thousands of men and women playing games at the pub, often competitively in long-established leagues. Yet this rarely warrants a mention, even in guides which feature the kind of pubs that rely heavily on league games play for their success. And it's not as if the field lacks personalities, just no one with the inclination to document them it would seem.

So we have to look to the past for information on these commonplace games. When the 'new' games of Darts, Billiards, and latterly Snooker took hold, there was a ready market for books on the subject. The cheap post-war booklet on Darts shown above even had a chapter on the humble game of Shove Ha'penny, presumably written for the benefit of wealthier folk venturing forth into a working class world of pubs and beerhouses they were probably unfamiliar with. The three-ball game of Billiards in particular spawned a whole library of books on technique and shots, often written by, or with the help of notable players of the day, and sponsored by the many cue sports manufactures at the time.

The booklet shown here is a War Office publication. This edition was produced in 1957, which was around the mid-point of the post-war conscription known as National Service. The many thousands of servicemen called-up at this time, when they weren't involved in peacetime duties at home or abroad, would have been pretty desperate for recreational diversion. This booklet covers the rules and practicalities of play for just about every team and competitive sport imaginable, but it's particularly interesting in the context of this blog for the inclusion of rules for Quoits and Skittles. The rules for Quoits were supplied by the English Quoiting Association, so pretty standard stuff that can be found easily enough elsewhere.

The Skittles section is a bit more interesting. The rules given are for the basic form of the game that'll be familiar to skittlers everywhere, but the equipment is for what's now known as Old English Skittles, heavy Hornbeam pins and discus-shaped Lignum Vitae 'cheeses'. A common enough game back then, but now played at just the one pub in Hampstead, London, to rules that are unique to the game (and the Cambridge Table Skittles League). Dimensions for the 'alley' and frame are included, as is a guide to felling the various broken skittle frames that is a major feature of this kind of skittles.

Another genre of books that really blossomed from the early 20th century onwards were guide books to the numerous 'Inns' of the country. Never 'pubs' mind! These were invariably produced for motorists, newly mobilised and eager to explore the more genteel highways and byways of Britain's countryside, possibly with a stopover in a traditional roadside Inn. Most are pretty dull affairs it must be said, focussing exclusively on 'famous old inns', market town hotels, and well-appointed roadhouses of the day. Not the back-street boozers and tumbledown village alehouses where drinking, Darts and Dominoes were the principal attraction.

This one from 1951 is better than most in that the focus is on Midlands Inns only, giving more detail than there would be in a national guide, and not merely a skim of the most upmarket or historic 'usual suspects'. The author was also keen to seek the assistance of the local brewers, which clearly put a different slant on things. There's a very good illustrated chapter on the breweries, as well as a rare acknowledgement that customers liked to play games, as shown in the terrific set of photographs shown below. I can't help thinking Norman Tiptaft really 'liked' pubs, even if the word Inns was probably more acceptable to the publishers.

This facsimile of an 18th century publication details the various games of Skittles once popular in rural areas of the country, presented with a moral zeal typical of 'educated' gentlemen of the time. It's a real eye-opener, and as clear an indication as your likely to find of what was regarded as the 'degeneration' of the game in Britain.

The author makes a strong argument for promotion of the 'manly exercise of skittle-playing' over the more 'effeminate' games lately introduced such as Cards and Dice. Games redolent of an '...over-fed age of people', their souls '...insipid with ease and sloth' leading to 'bog bellies, swelled legs, gouty feet, and other ailments of the loaded corpse'. Quite! Skittles is regarded as both good exercise, and in it's original form, a game of high skill and for recreation only, rather than an excuse to '...guzzle and drink'. Hmm!

The most basic version of the game of Skittles in this publication makes the current 3-ball, 9-pin standard played today seem like a childrens game in comparison (which is not to say that modern skittles is not a highly skilled game in experienced hands). The rules are, it must be said, quite bewildering to these eyes. There being different heights and scores for different pin positions in the frame, the highest scoring being the tall 'King Pin' at the centre, followed by the four corners or 'Nobles', then the 'Commons'. Even then, scoring depends on how the pins are actually toppled, the higher scores achieved by 'tipping' one pin onto another rather than being directly struck. It's fascinating if slightly impenetrable stuff, but perhaps the most interesting aspect of a book like this is that someone would take the trouble to travel the country and research the humble game of skittles at all!

That almost nothing on pub games ever makes it to print makes this hefty tome on a single West Country Skittles League all the more remarkable. Ron Holpin was heavily involved in the game in the Bristol area for much of the time this book covers, and as a local sports journalist, he obviously felt duty bound to record aspects of the Thornbury & District Skittles League that few others would even regard as noteworthy. It's a pretty dry affair for the most part it has to be said, details of every season, notable results, and the finishing league tables make up the bulk of the book (details that until recently would have featured in most local newspapers). But in amongst the dry detail are amusing anecdotes, and much social history around the game, those who play it, and of course the pubs and clubs where the game has been played in the immediate post-war years onwards. Whilst not exactly a bedtime thriller, it's a useful document, and would that all leagues produced something similar as a social document before the players who shaped the game are no longer with us.

Enthusiasm for the game of skittles, both competitively and as an important social pastime, is made clear throughout the book, even extending to a short chapter on 'other' skittles games. This includes the unique East Midlands game of Long Alley, illustrated with details of play and photographs of a game in progress (below). On a trip to the Midlands, Holpin visited notable Long Alley venue the Gate Inn at Loscoe in Nottinghamshire, arriving just as a game had commenced against Belpers Duke of Devonshire, a league match in the Belper & District Summer Skittles League. Outside of a handful of specialist pub games books, Arthur Taylors included of course, this may be the only time the humble, somewhat 'primitive' game of Long Alley Skittles has featured in print. The low-key nature of skittle alleys in Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire, often located outdoors and therefore easily missed by visitors, mean that this game is perhaps taken for granted more than most.

Pub Game Trophies & Medals - Pt.2

Alley skittles, as played in the West Country and much of Southern England and Wales, is perhaps the most popular of all regional and local pub games played today. In fact it's always been a popular game, such that skittles in all its myriad forms would have been ubiquitous in pubs and clubs throughout the country at one time. As such, winners medals and other silverware for the game are very common, perhaps second only in number to the '(inter)national' game of Darts. Common enough then, and for the most part the images used on these medals and trophies are quite similar in design, usually a man, delivering a ball down an alley at a set of skittle pins.

This slightly over-polished base-metal disc would have originally been mounted on a shield or trophy, so the lack of league and winners details (and possibly hallmark) that you'd expect to find on a medal makes it difficult to date. The main interest for me is that the image depicts a woman in the act of Skittles play, something I've rarely seen on a medal, trophy or shield for traditional pub games. Which is not to say that 'silverware' for women's teams and leagues doesn't exist, it's just that the images depicted are usually either standard depictions of men at play, or a genderless representation of the game itself such as a Dartboard, Cards, or Dominoes.

Now I'm certainly no expert on period dress, but the woman depicted here seems to come from another time altogether, perhaps a vintage representation of the game at the very least. The pins are slightly problematic for skittles, looking as they do more like a set for 10-pin bowling than our native 9 pin skittles. However, I've seen more than enough genuinely old skittle pins to know that they come in all shapes and sizes, indeed the Hereford Leagues have been using re-purposed bowling pins like these for many years. It is of course worth reiterating that the games depicted on these medals and trophies don't necessarily reflect the one that it was awarded for. But women have been participating in traditional games at the pub for many years, so it's nice to see their gender represented correctly on the silverware for a change.

There's perhaps no better indication of just how popular and widespread the game of Steel Quoits was in the late 19th and early 20th century than the existence of medals like this one. Silverware for Football and Cricket is perhaps the most common of all 'sporting' fob medals, but this one is slightly unusual in that it indicates the Dewsbury & Savile Cricket & Football Club had a Quoits Section alongside the more familiar national sports played at the club.

Around the time this Fattorini & Sons medal was made, Quoits was played throughout the country, and in some areas would have been the equal of Football for spectator interest, if not actual participation. Quoits Pitches and the larger Quoits Fields suitable for spectating the sport were numerous and often associated with pubs, but they were also an important aspect of multi-discipline sports clubs like this one. The Dewsbury & Savile Club eventually merged with Whitley Lower Cricket Club, later to become the Hopton Mills Cricket Club. The old ground was surrendered to the council, though it's doubtful whether the Quoits Pitch still existed at this time as the game went into rapid decline in the post-war years. There's a bit about the famous old Cricket Club online, not so much about the Football, and needless to say there's nothing much at all about the Quoits Section!

In 1935 when this medal by Thomas Fattorini Ltd of Birmingham was presented, it would have been standard practice for skittles leagues to seek, or be offered sponsorship from local brewers. It was a mutually beneficial arrangement given the thirsty custom a thriving skittles league would have brought to their pubs. Georges Brewery (latterly part of the Courage, Barclay and Simonds group) was a Bristol based brewing concern, and therefore the game on this medal is correctly represented as alley skittles, a game which is still popular throughout the West Country and beyond.

Small Bore or Miniature Rifle Shooting is one of those sports that flies well below the radar for most of us. Yet this too was very popular from around the war years as both a recreational pastime and a way of improving shooting proficiency in the civilian population at a time of conflict. That this branch of shooting should have found a natural home in the pub might seem odd, and yet entirely unsurprising given it was targeted at the working classes, and for many the pub, clubs, and the village hall were the only indoor venues available to shoot over a range of 15-25 yards. The sport is still practiced at the pub, often making use of the Skittle Alley.

This 'white-metal' medallion is slightly larger than a typical fob medal, and originally had a chain ring screwed into the top edge. So a true 'medal' to be worn around the neck if so desired. Made by Pinches of London, a highly regarded medallist established in 1840, now part of the Franklin Mint. From the position of the gentleman cueing at the table, there's the suggestion of three balls on the table in this image. Possibly deliberate given that the medal is probably for the earlier 3-ball game of Billards rather than Snooker.

The 'pushing' and 'shoving' games rarely seem to feature on fob medals or trophies. Perhaps for most players, these bar-room games were regarded as more of an afternoon pleasure than serious competition, though it's certainly true that there were numerous leagues for the games of Shove Ha'penny and Pushpenny throughout the 20th century, a handful of which survive to this day. This is the closest I've managed to acquire of this once very popular game, a slightly novel spinning medal that would have originally been mounted atop a trophy of some sort. We might cautiously conclude from the image that this was for the rarer 3-coin game of Pushpenny rather than the 5-coin game Shove Ha'penny.

A Compendium of Pub Games Images - Pt.23

Bonzoline is without a doubt better than Ivory, though it's unlikely the unpalatable nature of the Ivory trade was foremost in the minds of the Bonzoline Manufacturing Company when this advert appeared in the early 20th century book 'The Game of Billiards and How To Play It' (J.Roberts).

The fact is that Ivory, being a natural material, would have exhibited slight imperfections of density and uniformity throughout the ball, such that some balls may have even had significantly different weights. Composite Bonzoline balls, as developed by John Wesley Hyatt of New York, would have been more uniform and stable than the natural materials used previously, and of course would have been a much cheaper alternative to Ivory, which eventually found favour throughout all cue sports. Various manufacturers came up with their own composites, including these from Atlas Co of London Billiard Balls, which bear the label British Made Ronite.

Some recently acquired Cribbage Boards. The large dark Mahogany 'three-way' board underneath is for the slightly unusual occurrence of a three person game. Unusual in that most Card and Domino games scored on a crib board are either for two players, or four playing as doubles. This board is stamped HWR, almost certainly the initials of the person who lovingly crafted it in their shed from an off-cut or 'up-cycled' piece of timber.

The scorer at the top is in a common form for cribbage boards which would have been hung on the wall in a pub or club, and is stamped with the letters T*S, possibly the owner/maker or maybe the name of the pub. The board below that is also a homemade example, this one made from Bakelite or similar. Below that is a Mahogany crib board with brass feet, the wood extremely dark from the patina of many years of use.

The only board shown here that was manufactured is the one bearing the long closed (though recently revived) Truman's Brewery name. A simple moulded Bakelite or early plastic board, perfect for scoring with used matches. Breweries and Cigarette/Tobacco brands are the most common sponsors of these old cribbage boards, though not nowadays of course.

The beer and brewing world of the early to mid 20th century was a battleground of regional and national branding and advertising. You only have to search for Breweriana on eBay to get an idea of the sheer number of beers and breweries fighting for brand awareness in the pubs and clubs of Britain up until the widespread mergers and brewery closures of the 1970's and 80's. Practically every item used in the licensed trade was fair game to carry advertising for a beer brand, from mirrors and all manner of signage, to ashtrays, glasses, and of course the numerous accoutrement's and accessories of pub gaming.

These Shove Ha'penny tokens are quite rare examples of beer and brewery branding. Although I'm sure hundreds, if not thousands of these would have been produced at the time, their diminutive and frivolous nature means that most seem to have been lost or thrown away over time. Probably dating from the late 1970's when Tap Bitter was introduced by the London brewer on the back of the nascent real ale revival. They're a classic example of a simple everyday item being co-opted to keep a beer brand at the forefront of a drinkers mind, even when engaged in the serious business of shoving coins up the smooth surface of a slate such as this.

The slate shown here is one of the more common examples of its type. 'The Imp Shove-Ha'penny Slate', a relatively inexpensive and lightweight model compared to the hefty slabs still occasionally found in West Country pubs.

The Bar Billiards Table shown to the left is a real rarity, located as it is in the very heart of the city of Birmingham.

The Post Office Vaults is a subterranean cellar bar with a great reputation for beer and cider, and a welcome retreat from the hustle and bustle of the main shopping area of the city.

The Chandlers Arms at Shearsby in Leicestershire has been a firm favourite of mine since the 80's, a regular destination, particularly in the summer when the tidy garden comes into its own. Like the attractive village itself, the pub seems to have changed little over the years, though in truth it's been well maintained, and the beer range has improved greatly under the current licensee.

Pub games have never seemed to feature prominently at the Chandlers. Dominoes and Cards are available, but food has always been an important part of the pubs trade, and there's little room in the cosy bars for a Darts Board. Recently though, room has been found for the landlords favourite game of Bar Billiards, tucked into the less-used left-hand bar area.

A Compendium of Pub Games Images - Pt 22

A vintage Billiards medal by Pinches of London. A game and dress-code from another era, although Billiards has not yet been completely overtaken by Snooker.

The continued loss of traditional drinking pubs and community locals is creating a vacuum for pub enthusiasts like myself which no amount of off-the-peg chain bars and new-build family dining 'pubs' are likely to fill. The reasons for this decline are manifold, but certainly includes the serial neglect and sometimes deliberate running-down of otherwise viable pubs by some of the larger brewers and pub owning companies. But whatever the underlying reasons, the fact is that some of the older traditional boozers are now just too big to succeed in the current market without major investment from people who genuinely care about our pub tradition. Some of the smaller brewers have shown this commitment, the Project William partnership with Everards Brewery being an excellent example. Another example where people with a genuine enthusiasm for pubs are filling the gaps left by the larger cash-strapped operators, is the relatively new concept of the Micropub.

Micropubs have been around for a few years now, but it's within the last year or two that the concept has really taken off, probably a direct result of this spiralling decline of traditional wet-led pubs. Small, bespoke licensed premises specialising in quality beer and cider, and the very best traditions of social pub-going without the distractions of a busy kitchen or a multitude of televisions. It's proving to be a winning combination for many, though one which is always likely to be 'niche' given the diminutive nature of the premises, and the fact that not everyone seems to like the social side of pubs and drinking! Micropubs are springing up at an ever-increasing rate, and I hope to feature a few of them on here in the near future.

Traditional pub games fit nicely with the micropub concept, though given the space restrictions, some games such as Darts and Skittles are not really appropriate. Dominoes and Cards are of course perfect for such small and intimate spaces, as shown in the image above at the recently opened Abdication micropub at Daybrook in Nottingham.

This Bar Billiards table can be found at the Sandford Park Alehouse in Cheltenham, Gloucestershire. Owner Grant Cook obviously has a keen interest in the game, having previously installed what still remains the only such table in Leicester at the Swan & Rushes. The Sandford Park Alehouse is a bright and modern homage to the brewers arts, but it's nice to see that space for a traditional game has also been found in the bar.

The front bar of the multi-roomed Red Lion in Earl Shilton, Leicestershire. Wear and tear on this table is a clear sign of enthusiastic Domino play at this friendly and still relatively unspoilt boozer. A former Bass Brewery house which has always had a good reputation for its ales, Draught Bass in particular which was in excellent form when I visited. Sadly, current owners Punch Taverns have neglected the pub to the point where it's now desperately in need of refurbishment for the pub to realise its full potential. Unfortunately the chances of this happening seem slim given Punch's massive debts, and their track record of chronic underinvestment in their estate.

The White Lion is a classic 'Brewers Tudor' style pub on the edge of Alcester town centre. The interior is somewhat spoilt by the modern office-style false ceiling, but the wood panelling, stained windows, and original Bell Pushes in the lounge bar are still evident, as is this fabulous record of gaming and sporting success at the pub.

Another mystery scoring board, this pair spotted at an antiques fair in Cambridgeshire. The protruding knobs at the end are pegs safely stored in drilled holes. If anyone knows what they were designed to score I'd be delighted to know.

A Collection of Billiards & Snooker Images

Very many of the grand urban pubs built around the turn of the century would have included a dedicated Billiards Room in their layout. The game was enjoying a surge in popularity prior to the war years, and breweries were keen to include the game in their pub designs. Almost all of these have subsequently been converted to more profitable use, with Snooker and to a lesser degree Billiards, almost exclusively club games now. A full size Billiards Table is therefore a rare thing to find in a pub these days, and it's perhaps even more surprising to find a fully functioning vintage table in a 1930's estate pub.

Northfields in Stamford, Lincs, is quite a large pub, and like many similarly located estate pubs has struggled for trade in recent years. Sadly, being surrounded by housing is no guarantee of custom in the 21st century, but under new management the Northfield is making good progress in getting back to where it should be. The various pub game teams are being re-established, and there are even plans to reinstate the old Skittle Alley at the rear of the pub in time.

In common with other manufacturers, Burroughes & Watts ceased production of Billiards tables during the war years. Materials became increasingly hard to come by, and with so many men enlisted for the war effort, the game would presumably have been much less played anyway. They continued to refurbish tables until the closure of the company in 1967, making it hard to date Billiards tables like this even when bearing an original label. Old Billiards tables like the one at the Northfield are predominantly used for Snooker these days. The older game of Billiards has largely retreated from view, though it's still played at the amateur level.

The windows shown in the image above are located on the first floor of the currently closed Bush Inn, Worcester. This pub's closed status is all the more sad since it has been listed on CAMRA's Inventory of Heritage Pubs due to its largely unspoilt interior. The Billiards Room was functioning as a large dining area up until the pub closed in 2010.

E.J. Riley were one of the longest lasting of all the British Cue Sports manufacturers, which presumably explains why there are still so many Riley branded items such as this Billiards Scoreboard still to be found, including many still being used in Snooker halls and clubs.

Billiards as a game has been largely superseded by Snooker (and latterly Pool), but has never entirely disappeared at the amateur level. It's perhaps hard to fully appreciate how good a game of Billiards can be in skilled hands, given that only three balls are used on such a large table. For a good understanding of how the game is played I would recommend this 30 minute video of an exhibition match on the English Amateur Billiards Association website.

I'm not aware of any pubs in Leicester which still house a full size Billiards Table. This is hardly an unusual situation. In most parts of the country the games of Snooker and Billiards are firmly rooted in the club scene where the space and funds are more readily available to maintain what are often vintage tables.

Snooker in Leicester is played in two divisions of the Leicester & District Institute Snooker League, split between specialist Cue Sports clubs such as Rileys and Willie Thorns, and the larger trades, social and political clubs, including the tables shown below at the Nottingham Oddfellows Club on Belgrave Gate, Leicester.