by elliott west
Although many snooker clubs have crashed and closed the news is not always that bleak. The smoking ban and higher rents may closed some of them but a few carry on burning that eternal flame. One is the Dunstable Club in Bedfordshire where owner Suny Singh has used his creative mind to attract the cream of the crop of the main tour to play at exhibitions and events.
However, this wasn’t always the case. Four years ago the Dunstable club was on its knees and was days from closing. If it hadn’t been for Suny’s team’s fast action, the building would have pulled down the shutters for the last time and morphed into a Sainsbury’s or flats as so many snooker clubs have become in recent years.
Like a phoenix rising from the ashes, the last four years have been productive and the Dunstable has been transformed from “a mess” to a snooker palace. Daily work has gone on to create a snooker club that is as close as you will get to a live tournament setup.They now have five Star tables, the same as used on the professional tour and nine supreme pool tables. The club has also reached out to the local community, providing help with local football and bowling.
The Dunstable also provides expertise coaching for snooker and pool with an aim to improve the skills of current players and attract the potential youth into cue sports to nurture and create future baize champions. One such method is to provide free tables for children who want to play pool. It has also attracted professional players to the club because so many want to play in a simulated snooker environment. By this I mean that the Dunstable has found the right balance where local and professional players from afar can use the club to practice in before and after any tournament. The tables are as near as dammit to a table played at Sheffield, York or Alexandra Palace. The players now don’t have to search for a club or revert to their snooker room if they have one. Here they can be disciplined and practice for a full eight hours or set up training programmes without the fear of lapsing out of form.
As time has gone on so the word of Dunstable’s new success has reached the top echelons of the snooker elite and so the club has been able to showcase top names such as Mark King and Stuart Bingham. One such event happens there this Friday, 07/06/19, when the likes of Kyren Wilson, Stuart Bingham, Jimmy Robertson, Mark Davis, Gerard Greene, Martin O’Donnell and Jamie O’Neil will compete in the DSC Pro Comp.
With only a few days to go and more players to be confirmed, this probably is the icing on the cake for any snooker fan and of course allows the event and players to open up the eyes of new fans and someone who wants to pick up a cue after seeing this snooker bonanza.
The Dunstable Club is clearly in a good place and I will always showcase aspects of our sport that are doing well. Snooker is a hard sport to play but is just as hard to organise so I must take my hat off to the Dunstable team for their arduous efforts and continuing to strive to be the best and maintain their exceptional standard.
It is in these moments that I shed a little tear because if it wasn’t for the efforts for such clubs as the Dunstable so many more snooker clubs would have folded and closed.
