The other feature of the USA pool table was the cloth, which in the early days was a napless speed cloth for a very fast game.Īlthough the American pool game was popular in pubs there were two things holding it back, firstly the tables were very big and could not physically fit into a lot of the smaller pubs and secondly the UK player having been brought up watching and playing snooker wanted more of a tactical game rather than pure potting.Ībout this time a French company by the name of Rene Pierre started selling a smaller ball pool that instead of having pockets as we know them today had holes in the playing surface with a ring surround, a bit like a bagatelle table. The pockets are also much bigger on American Pool tables and two balls can pass side by side into a pocket to make it a great potting game. Home UK slate bed pool tables, of course, have the cue ball the same size as the object ball as all the balls are always available. spots and stripes numbered 1 to 15) and with a slightly larger cue ball at 2 3/8,' although some tables have the same size cue ball with magnets inserted to separate the cue ball and return it to the player after a foul shot rather than it staying in the table like the object balls. The American coin operated game is played with 2 1/4' object balls (i.e. Famous names such as Brunswick, US Billiards and Ebonite burst onto the scene and captured the imagination of the pub players. In 1968 some enterprising coin machine operators saw an opportunity and started to import the American Coin Operated Tables and installed them in pubs that had enough space. At the same time was the big game in the UK for cue sports players. A lot of US forces were based in Germany and had pool tables in mess rooms and still today Germany has a great player base from grass roots players to professionals. Pool first found its way into Europe in the fifties through American military bases stationed overseas.

The game of pool was invented and has been established in the USA for decades but surprisingly it did not become a popular game in the UK until the late 1960's. We know because we were there as we have been involved in the selling and making of UK Slate Bed Pool Tables for both Home and Commercial use since 1969.

Pool table online