Victoria Billiards Club

Does anybody remember the Victoria Snooker Club in town by the market, think it was in Victoria Buildings, it would have been opposite Ikea just down from Iceland

I certainly do remember the Victoria. I spent a lot of hours every week trying to master the art of playing snooker there and probably far too many hours in the bar after playing. It was owned by a lady called Amy Gutteridge and run by her son Bernard. He was a very nice quiet man unlike the big chap who took the money for the table hire, I think his name was Len, he didn't stand for any messing around in the club. He also made the worst tea and coffee I've ever tasted but we had a lot of happy times there and made some good friends. Very sad to witness its demise.

My father was a keen if pretty poor snooker player and was often to be found there trying to improve, he never did but it was a good place to escape from her indoors!

It was officially known as the Victoria Billiards Club. At one time it was a TV and radio repair workshop, possibly belonging to nearby GEC.

Me and a few mates were in there every weekend in the early seventies. The cashier was called Len and I remember Amy Gutteridge's name above the bar door (we had some late ones in there). We went in there mainly to play the pinball machines (pinnies), 6d a game, there were two of them, also there was a fruit machine, 6d a go, which was electronic, almost digital. We used to spend pounds in them, we got 40 tanners to the pound and used to put them on the top of the glass of the pinball machine. A lot of window cleaners from around town used to use the place. Right outside the cashiers was a snooker table, only the top players could use it. I remember to brothers called Jones were always on it. I think there was a private table in the bar where big money frames were played. They were great days, even when we had to walk home skint!

Ray was the barman when we used it, a short bloke with shoulder length wavy hair. He had a great sense of humour and wasn't too well up on the licensing hours either. We came out of there on quite a few occasions in daylight. And of course the famous table 15, there was a red haired kid who used to play on it, he was a very good player, so inevitably got the nickname Steve Davis. Happy days.

I remember the Victoria Billiards Club very well. Sadly, my youth was not mis-spent, well not on snooker anyway; I didn't pick up my first cue until at least 20. Later on, an old school pal and I used to frequent the place every Monday evening. We improved until our level was best described as mediocre, and there it stayed for about 12 years, when we thought time to give up. We usually played best of 5 frames, followed by 30 minutes of billiards. I remember big fat Len very well. When you went in, you handed in your membership card/s, and he turned am unoccupied table's lights on: "Table 8 pal". Two packets of scratchings cost "four-teen pal". When you clocked out, you had to pay the table fee, which was about "87 pence pal". Never a please or thank-you. Despite his dourness, he had a sense of humour. We were playing billiards one evening, and both of us kept missing the object ball - the cue ball seemed to just bend away slightly at the last minute, as it slowed down, and we were puzzled. Then we discovered him sniggering just behind us. He's given us a set of trick balls which were weighted slightly off-centre. He admitted "Them's trick balls!" I have paraphrased in italics the actual word he used, which I don't think woul be acceptable here. Edited by Midland Red, 5th Dec 2016 8:10 am (Thread title changed from "Victoria Snooker Club")

The club really was run on a shoestring budget. The balls were all worn, chipped, lacked resilience, and the cloths had been turned to save money, i.e. had no nap - no wonder we had trouble screwing backing or swerving. Table 15 was different of course - it was the competition table, and had a good set of balls. But ordinary mortals were not allowed near it. In later years, a chap called Ron Jones was the manager. He was the double of Len Murray, the TUC general secretary. He was one of the top players, having once knocked up a break of 125. He said.

It wasn't just Len. There was a nucleus of a few older blokes who were all huge, tall, big build, but several stones (kilograms to our younger readers) too heavy. They seemed to spend their whole lives either in the club or wandering round the city centre. Any hour of the day, they were always there. They all looked ridiculous, as they all wore baggy trousers which were a few sizes too big, even for their frames (no pun). They always seemed miserable. Never smiled. They had to tolerate the younger members - who no doubt kept the pace afloat financially - but quietly viewed them with disdain. The building was demolished some years ago. I believe it's now just an empty site (rarely go into Cov these days). I assumed the club had moved to new premises, but I was recently informed that it had just gone. Rather sad.

But it was cheap. When we progressed from pool to the full sized table, we enquired about membership and were told it cost 50p per annum, which was dirt cheap even back then. An old university pal of my mate came from a well-off family in London, and he had a rather refined accent. My mate told me he told him he was a member of a club in Coventry, and that it had certain facilities and yes, there was also a snooker table. When asked about annual fees, he replied "fifty a year", which got the response "erm, yarse, that's not bad I suppose", thinking he meant fifty pounds a year!