Many people wishing to purchase a new Snooker table are tentative because they feel they know very little about the product. Indeed, most purchasers buy only one table in their lifetime. We therefore offer the following suggestions for guidance purposes only.

1. Snooker Table Cushions
The performance of the cushions on a table is crucial, particularly the speed and angle of response. As a means of minimizing costs, many new tables are available with cushions that perform poorly. This is due to these tables being manufactured with a cushion that has been constructed in a way which we regard as inadequate. The issue of cushions is important since replacement of cushions costs several thousand rupees.

2. The Cloth on the Table
The most highly regarded Snooker cloths are manufactured in England and the best of these in the west of England. A true English Snooker cloth is made from wool and has a directional nap on the surface. If you rub it lightly in one direction, it gives a smooth feeling to the hand. Rubbed in the opposite direction it has a rough resistant feel. The better qualities of Snooker cloth are very fine so that when the ball is in motion it rolls on – there is relatively little friction to arrest its travel. The quality of cloth is important, as; once again, replacement of inferior cloth with the high quality article costs several hundred dollars.

3. The Pockets
The brackets holding the pocket nets should be of metal. Some are made of plastic which tends to break; some of these have a "metalized" surface on the plastic so that they appear to be more durable than they actually are. We recommend that the pocket nets should be fastened to the table using a strong wire. Use of staples tends to be inadequate – if the nets are stapled to the underside of the table; the staples tend to come away under the pressure of heavily struck balls. In this event while the nets may remain perfectly good, the balls when potted will drop to the floor damaging them or the floor surface, or both. The metal brackets should be covered in strong leather which protects the balls as they strike the bracket before dropping into the net. We recommend that you check the fitting of the leathers to ensure that there is no position where the balls will actually strike the metal direct, allowing such damage to occur.