Good News & Bad News
Good News: One of the regulars at Rack ‘Em has a 9-foot Diamond Pro-Am with no where to set it up so lucky for us, we’ll be housing it for a while. (Thanks, Jimmy!)
Bad News: The 12-foot 100+ year old Brunswick snooker table had to come down to make room for it.
For as long as I’ve remembered, that 12-foot snooker table has been a staple in the back corner of Rack ‘Em.
I was originally told this table was built in 1891, but just tonight was informed that it was actually built in the 1870′s. Rich, Rack ‘Em’s original owner before Joe and before the current owner Sean, bought the table when he opened the place in 1993. This 5-piece state table even came with extra long pool cues and bridges.
It wasn’t until the 1870′s that the American billiard games as we know them today were played on a table with six pockets. Before then, it was American Four-Ball Billiards on a large four-pocket table with four balls, two white and two red. It was a direct extension of English Billiards.
As the story goes, the beautiful snooker table found itself in Colorado by way of Wyoming and somehow ended up in someone’s storage somewhere between Colorado and Wyoming. Rich bought the table for his poolroom and it was the only 12-foot snooker table in the state. Fifteen years later, the twelve feet of history was taken down. If anyone has any more (and accurate) accounts of the actual history of this table, I would love to know it.
And voila! Two guys and five hours later, the space which once occupied the historic 12-foot snooker table now sits two 9-foot Diamonds. I can’t wait until the lights go up on that Pro-Am!
What a shame — such a beautiful and historic table! I can understand that floor real estate is precious in these lackluster economic times, but I’m wondering if that snooker table was truly just catching dust (the clientele shunned it), or if it was just a victim of bad marketing. Personally, I’d have put a sign in the place advertising it was the only snooker table in the state, or some other way to attract clientele attention to that table. But alas, what’s done is done. I hope it wasn’t junked. I have family in Denver, and if I’d the space for it, I’d buy and U-haul that thing over here and restore it. Keeping fingers crossed that sacrilege wasn’t committed by junking that table…
“…it was the only 12-foot snooker table in the state.”
I’m compiling a list of U.S. pool halls and private clubs with snooker tables (both 5 x 10 and 6 x 12). Currently I have eight listings for Colorado. After I finish gathering info for the first draft of the list I’ll be placing phone calls to confirm info, including the size of the snooker table(s) at each location.
The list will be posted on the forums at AzBilliards.com and thesnookerforum.com. If you email me I can send you my current list of snooker tables in Colorado, and perhaps you can tell me if you know of any others.