Most snooker table owners use their tables for playing snooker. This is a perfectly acceptable thing to do. After looking at their conventional uses, I will share a few less usual suggestions for table use. After all, this is a large flat surface raised from floor level for easy accessibility. How many times have you wished you had just such a surface at your disposal? However, let us first check out the normal snooker table facts.

When Queen Victoria sent Colonel Chamberlain to the mess halls of India, she did not expect him to invent a game. But that is just what he did in eighteen seventy five. There were several pool-type games in current use, but the Colonel put together a basic set of guidelines which became the basis for today’s snooker game. The word, snooker, was a military word meaning, newbie. Then it became attached to the snooker game and stuck. The twelve by six foot table is now the standard sized snooker table.

When people decided to bring their popular outdoor games indoors, they had to adapt the rules of play for the new environment. It is unsafe and inconvenient to chase balls through the home with sticks. The use of a large table enclosed by a cushion was the response to this problem, opening the way for the numerous pool type games that followed.

The cushion surrounding early tables was a haphazard affair at best. Many different systems were tried before Englishman John Thurston made a hugely useful design leap. He seized upon the new developments in rubber processing to make the cushion more stable and durable. This innovation began the modern era of snooker table construction.

What surfaces are usually used for the surface of a the table used by snooker experts? Generally a green cloth made from wool is the material of choice. The green color harks back to snooker’s historical roots as an outdoor game. For non commercial use a thinner weave is used. Public tables have a slightly tougher cloth. On snooker tables a nap which lies in a specific direction is often used. This causes a different reaction in the ball, depending on whether it is rolling with or against the direction of the nap. When the snooker table is made of slate, this is not a factor.

I think that old, disused tables have a possible second career in the nursery. With multiple births on the rise, why not give the new Octo-mom an old billiard table as a changing station for many babies at a time? All diaper changing supplies could be stored in the centre. Then the squirming child would be safely contained there while the mom ran round the other seven babies. Also, when the little ones start to grow into busy toddlers, an old table with sheets hung from its sides would be the ideal castle, cave, tent or command center for the little tykes in their imaginative play. It could be their own little world. Finally, as more parents delay childbearing until later in life, an old table could give them a break. You won’t have to chase your offspring along outdoors, bent in two to support him as he masters the two wheeler. Do it on your sturdy snooker table! Give him a shove and send him off. Save your back! If you love your child, have another adult present at the other end of the table.

The sturdier your snooker table, the better. It will be worth every penny you spend on it for the hours of family entertainment it will give you. And remember–pass it down through the family so that it can be used later as a parent’s little helper.

Matthew Kerridge is a fan of snooker tables. If you want more information about varieties of snooker table or are searching for a reputable snooker table retailer please visit http://www.topofthecue.com