Thursday 18 May 2017

In the English pub


I have always enjoyed playing billiards and snooker right from my teen years, Oh so very long ago.
In fact my father had been the last but one billiards champion at the Men's Institute in the town where we lived while I still wore short trousers.
It was my young uncle who was only three years older than myself who introduced me to the game soon after I was old enough to frequent inns and hotels in England in the 1950's.
We would play on the tiny Bar Billiards table all evening with me drinking a light beer or shandy and making it last as long as possible.
We hogged the table by the traditional ruse of placing a coin on the tables edge that the table had been booked after we had finished whilst having the billiard cues in our hands all the time.
Of course we were pressured off the table if the newcomers looked angry and that was our cue to go and play darts in another corner of the bar as our long lasting drinks got warmer in those days before refrigeration!

Image found at www.mercuryleisure.co.uk



11 comments:

  1. Beautiful story! And wonderful use of "cue" in different dresses. Thanks for sharing the ever-fragrant memories.
    Best wishes,
    Moon
    https://aslifehappens60.wordpress.com

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  2. Good use of the cue, good post

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  3. Smart use of the cue to revive beautiful memories.

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  4. A double cue. A story, vividly told, of a memory that evokes, youth, fun and history. Thanks, Old Egg.

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  5. Love your tales of youthful days and events. A lovely memory of good times here. Reminds me of my own days of warm beer, darts, and billiards.

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  6. What a sweet memory of youth, Old Egg! I can remember going to retrieve my grandpa from the pool hall when we visited at his house. It was a very fascinating place to a little girl. :-)

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  7. excellent post! (I loved playing pool, back in the day, and I was thinking earlier this week about trying something to recreate the unique atmosphere of a pool hall. Though perhaps a little more self-contained that a table at a part or tavern, there is that thing with the low-hanging light and the green felt that is so distinctive.
    Enjoyable Six!

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  8. Who does not enjoy playing pool! Seems that for most of my contemporaries and perhaps yours, it is a pastime of younger years. I enjoyed your telling of the tale of a young Old Egg's discovery of billiards and snooker:)
    Bravo for your father!

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  9. We used to play, you've brought back some lovely memories.

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  10. Oh goodness, this took me back years. Whatever hapened to all those bar billiard tables after pool invaded our pubs and pushed them aside? I was in the Eight Bells Jevington team in the Sussex League in he 60s! I'd totally forgotten about the coin reserving the table until you mentioned it. Happy days.


    Click to read my latest tales!

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