The games room, sometimes simply known as the snooker room, was an important part of many British social clubs. Although it was not strictly a room for every game as darts and dominoes were often played in the bar itself, it was here that the snooker, billiard and pool players gathered, and where many teenagers first learned the art of potting a ball.
For young players, the tables could be a place of fascination and quiet competition. A few minutes watching the older members play could teach you as much as any formal lesson. Before long, and providing you had 50p to insert into the table to release the balls, you might be given the chance to pick up a cue yourself, learning how to judge an angle, control the cue ball and, most importantly, sink that difficult pot. Skills were developed through countless games, friendly challenges and the occasional bit of advice from a more experienced player.
The room itself often had a character all of its own. Along one wall there might be a large wooden trophy cabinet, proudly displaying the cups, shields and trophies won by the club's teams and individual players. Many would be engraved with the name of the club, the competition and the winning player or team, year after year. They were more than just trophies; they were a record of the club's history and of the members who had represented it.
There might also be a champions' board, usually a substantial piece of polished wood, with the names of past winners engraved upon it. Seeing your own name added to such a board was a mark of achievement, and those names provided a visible link between the current generation of players and those who had gone before them.
The atmosphere in the games room was usually a mixture of concentration, conversation and good-natured rivalry. You could come in for a couple of frames of snooker or a few games of pool, perhaps meet up with friends, and spend an hour or two around the tables. For some it was serious competition; for others it was simply somewhere to spend time with friends.
And the games room was rarely the end of the evening. After a few games, players would often make their way back into the bar, where family and friends were gathered. The distinction between the snooker players, the darts players, the domino players and everyone else soon disappeared. Eventually, everyone ended up together, sharing a drink, talking about the evening and perhaps arguing over who had played the better game.
The games room was therefore more than simply a place with a few tables and cues. It was somewhere that generations of members learned to play, competed for their club, made friends and became part of the wider social life of the club. For many, the memories of those tables, the sound of the balls breaking, chalking the cue and the quiet concentration before a difficult shot, the laughter after a missed pot all remain an important part of what made the traditional British social club such a special place.