SAM Leisure’s FAQ…
1. What is the difference between English Pool and Snooker?
English Pool is usually played with one black 8 ball, 7 yellow balls, 7 red balls and a white cue ball. The coloured balls are all 2” (50mm) in size whereas the cue ball is only 1 7/8”, this is to help the tables differentiate between the playing balls and the cue ball within the ball return system. Pool is played on a table with napped cloth and 6 pockets, and the winner is the first player to pot all their coloured balls and then the black.
Snooker is played with 15 red balls, 6 coloured balls and 1 cue ball. All the balls in a Snooker ball set are 2 1/16th” (52mm) in size which is slightly larger than English Pool and each ball is worth points when potted. The aim is to score more points than your competitor by potting the red and coloured balls alternatively. Snooker is also played on a napped cloth table with 6 pockets.
2. What size pool and snooker tables do SAM Leisure sell?
SAM Leisure offer and stock a range of table sizes and what’s available tends to depend on the game you’d like to play. English Pool tables come in either 6ft or 7ft sizes, for Snooker it 9ft, 10ft and 12ft table sizes and lastly American Pool tables are available in 5ft, 6ft, 7ft, 8ft, and 9ft sizes. We try to keep a range of pool table sizes in our showroom to give you much more of an idea on how they look in the flesh.
3. Do SAM Leisure have a showroom?
Yes, we do. We have a showroom based in our UK hub in Coventry which is open to the public so anyone can come along and check out what we have available. Within this showroom we also have a huge number of cues, accessories, and cue cases which you’re able to view and try out.
4. Do SAM Leisure re-cloth tables?
Yes, SAM Leisure offers a range of maintenance services which include reclothing your table on site. If this is something you’d like us to quote for you, please give us a call or email sales@samleisure.co.uk
5. Do SAM Leisure re-tip cues?
Yes, we also offer this service in our Coventry showroom. For us to help you with re-tipping your cue, all you need to do is bring your cue into our showroom and tell us what brand of tip you want on your cue and leave it with us while we undertake the work. The prices for a re-tip range from £15 to £20 depending on the tip you choose, and the work normally takes a couple of days from drop off to completion.
6. Do SAM Leisure sell Taom chalk?
Yes, Taom chalk is one of SAM Leisure’s most popular and best-selling chalk brands and as one of their official stockists, we carry the full range.
7. Do SAM Leisure ship outside of the UK?
Yes, we do ship outside of the UK. Shipping and carriage prices differ depending on the shipment destination and the item size, so this is done on case-by-case basis. If you’re outside the UK and would like to purchase some of our products, please call us to find out more information and we can give you an exact price.
8. Do SAM Leisure sell accessories for a games room?
Need to redecorate your games room? We offer a large range of products such as cue racks, lighting canopies, ball sets, triangles and much more to add a bit of an extra touch. You’ll find these all listed on our website so why not start by checking out these great cue racks. Pool & Snooker – Games Room Accessories – Cue Racks – SAM Leisure.
9. So, we know SAM Leisure sell Pool Tables. What other games do SAM Leisure sell?
Though we specialise in pool tables, we also sell a wealth of other games tables as well. Those include our award-winning Air Hockey tables (single and double sizes), table football tables which are also known as foosball tables as well as full size Snooker tables.
10. What’s the best tip to use for my cue?
Choosing the right tip can be hard as it’s a personal preference and unfortunately we cannot give you the right answer for you. That said we would recommend trying Century Pro tips as with this brand you can choose from four available options soft, medium, medium/hard, hard. This allows you to fine tune your preference to see what firmness suits your style of play by switching between grades.
11. Do SAM Leisure sell American pool cues?
Yes, we stock a huge range of American Pool cues for you to choose from such as Universal, Buffalo, Predator, Adam and Balabushka to just name a few of the brands. If you’re able to pop down to our Coventry showroom, you’ll also have the ability to try before you buy on one of our set up American Pool tables.
12. What are the best budget/beginner cues to choose from?
If you’re looking for a reasonable price cue to play English pool or snooker with as a beginner, then there are three cues we would certainly recommend. These cues are the Britannia centre jointed Wolf, ¾ jointed Cobra and ¾ jointed Strike. Those three cues are great options because firstly they have a nice simple design which isn’t too flash, they’re all part of Britannia which are an extremely well established Snooker and English Pool cue maker and lastly both the Cobra and Wolf come with a mini butt included at no extra price.
13. What size balls do you need for English pool, Snooker and American pool?
For English Pool the ball size you would need would be 2” (50mm) with a 1 7/8” (48mm) cue ball which makes English Pool the smallest of the three games.
Snooker uses 2 1/16” (52mm) balls which are slightly bigger than the English Pool balls.
As most people already know, American Pool has far bigger pockets and tables than English Pool so the ball size you would need for American Pool is 2 1/4” (54mm).
The Ball size to pocket ratio is similar with all three of the above games however the pocket cues make a huge difference as well.
14. How do you keep a pool table in good condition?
If you’re spending a lot of money on your pool table, you want to make sure you are looking after it to make everything last longer.
A couple of things we suggest to our customers at purchase to take care of their table is a table cover to stop the cloth being sun bleached in rooms that receive a lot of sunlight. Covers also stop dust settling when the table isn’t in use meaning you won’t have to worry about brushing it down before playing. Having a heavy duty cover also helps to make sure no accidental spillage damages or stains the cloth when on.
We would also suggest a nice large table brush. Using table brushes is another important thing to do to maintain the life of your cloth and can help get rid of any dirt or dust. When brushing a Nylon speed cloth, you can brush in any direction however if your cloth is napped, you will need to brush with the nap and not against it.
The dirt tends to then sit under the rails so an under-rail brush is recommended so you can sweep all that debris into the pockets and if needed then vac the pockets out. Never Vacuum the bed cloth as this will bring slate dust up through the cloth and create even more mess.
To help maintain the vibrancy of your cloth we would also recommend using a cloth cleaner to help break down any chalk and dirt residue within it. Using some cloth cleaner when brushing down your table can make the table look almost brand new again and all you need to do is to spray the solution like a mist over the table, let it settle on the cloth and then brush/ wipe off. Cloth cleaning solutions also help to remove any miner stains or blemishes.
15. What is the standard length for pool and snooker cues?
Well, this depends on the game you’re playing. The majority of our English Pool and Snooker cues are around 57” long which is the traditional full-length size for these games however modern manufactures are beginning to class 58” as the new normal so Britannia for example make all their Traditional and Titanium range in 58” lengths.
American Pool cues are 58” in length as standard though you can increase this with oversize shafts with certain manufactures such as Predator.
We do sell some junior cues as well if you need shorter cue for a younger player or perhaps a tight corner. The shortest cues we do for English Pool and Snooker are in our Britannia club range. These are the 36”,48” and 52” Club Cue. The small sizes make these quite popular with our customers who like a range of sizes to play with.
