I am glad I do not smoke. If I did I would assuredly be very confused about where I could do so since the smoking ban came into force in the UK at the beginning of this month.
I have found no support for the views of the pub manager I mentioned last month who said the ban would extend to places like open air beer gardens if they were on the same premises as the pub itself. The majority view is that if such beer gardens are, like the “ships, towers, domes, theatres and temples” that the poet Wordsworth viewed from Westminster Bridge, “open unto the fields and to the sky, all bright and glittering in the smokeless air”, then customers using them could still be permitted to smoke unless, of course, the owners of public houses enforced their own bans.
It’s supposed to be an ill wind that blows nobody any good and the ill wind that looked like threatening pool tables by blowing away the smoke in public houses has brought some good to Excel Leisure and beer drinkers who enjoy days in the sun.
Although the company’s Rustic pool table appeared to be designed with open air pool play to defeat the ban in mind. Stan McKenna has assured me this was not so. He said: ”Our Rustic pool table and outdoor Garlando football table are not just available to accommodate the smoking ban. They are there for use in pub gardens for outdoor activities for smokers and non-smokers. Given the warmer summers more people are drinking outdoors in beer gardens and we have had a good response to the products which are being sited by a variety of operators.” Des Morley, a Brighton based cue sports enthusiast and a man with an inventive brain, has produced the Flexi-Rest, a rest that allows players to bend it around, in between or over balls that prevent a straightforward shot from being taken by players using the standard type of table rest.
Apparently it has received the nod of approval from Barry Hearn’s Matchroom Sport organisation and it will be used at both pool and snooker championships as this year progresses. Morley is happy with the exposure his Flexi-Rest will receive in various parts of the world. My only fear is that its use might take away from the sport one of the skills that make the great players greater than the lesser ones. Discussing it with a friend as we watched this year’s televised world championships from Sheffield he said: “If they are going to take the skill of the adroit use of the standard rest from the game they might just as well lift any obstructing balls out of the way for the player to make his shot.” Alan Border, of Border Automatics, who has been elected chairman of British Association of Pool Table Operators paid tribute to his predecessor Bob Blakeborough and to the late Tom Gilvarry for leaving the association in such “rude health” when he chaired his first general meeting. He confirmed BAPTO’s commitment to the UK pool industry and hoped it would be a real voice for single site operators as well as an indepemdent forum for discussion.Following the success of last year’s finals in Blackpool, it was agreed this year’s should be held there again.
Will you be visiting the InterGame Expo?
- 13 - 16 January, 2009
IMA - Germany - 27 - 29 January, 2009
International Gaming Expo - UK - 11 - 13 February, 2009
EAAPA - Russia - 17 - 19 February, 2009
Gaming Expo Belgrade - Serbia - 03 - 04 March, 2009
AmEx 2009 - Dublin - Ireland - 11 - 13 March, 2009
ASI - Las Vegas, USA
