Billiard Supply Co was started in 1946. It was the brainchild of Mr Victor Muff, himself a exceptional billiard player and Mr Frank Fisher. As well as supplying billiard and snooker equipment, we started maintaining and recovering tables throughout the West Riding of Yorkshire.

Victor Muff not only won the Huddersfield Billiards Championship 7 times out of the 9 he entered, he also went onto win the all English title in 1949 after previously finishing as runner up in the prestigious final, missing out on only 4 points.

His accomplishments included a record break of 237 in the Huddersfield Billiards final of 1946. In 1947 he made the record break of 192 in the all English Club and Institute Final, beating the previous record of 176 that had been set in 1928.

Whilst playing for Leeds Road Con Club and Dyers and Finishers Club, he went unbeaten, through the 1944-45 Huddersfield League Season. He Played in 18 matches which included 27 breaks over 50 and an impressive 9 Centuries.

Having previously lived in Dalton and running a corner shop in Robbertown, Victor settled in Almondbury before going onto establishing The Billiard Supply Co. This led to him turning professional in 1950.

He later went on to set up the company Sportsgear Huddersfield.
Also a talented footballer & golfer, Victor did many exhibition tours with John Pulman and Australian Champion Horace Lindrum, who became close personal friends, and with Fred Davis who won both the world professional snooker and billiards titles.

When Victor passed away Sportsgear was sold and later became Barkers in the Town centre. Billiard Supply Co was taken over by a friend of The Muffs family, Mrs Frost and their senior fitter at the firm, my Father, Mr Barry Herbert.
The Company prospered under the new ownership with my Father at the helm. Previously we would outsource cushions to Peradon & Fletcher to be re-rubbered and to Herbert Gough to be French polished.

When Mr Crowther, of Burroughs & Watts, taught Barry how to rubber we were able to do this in house and Barry quickly learned the skill and became one of the best of his generation, later he also learnt the art of French Polishing.

In an attempt to modernise the game, when snooker saw a decline in the late seventies, we, amongst others, developed a fibreglass table ours was called “The Victor” and one still in existence can be seen at Moldgreen Liberal Club.

In 1985 Barry went on to be the sole owner of The Billiard Supply Co and, with Barbara his wife running the office, went on to employ a workforce of 5 including myself.

I started my 5 year apprenticeship when I left school at the age of 16 in 1992, already being able to recover pool tables as I had worked at the company on Saturday mornings and during the school Holidays. I learnt the skills of a Billiard Fitter from the vast knowledge of all the fitters we employed at The Billiard Supply Co. Towards the end of my apprenticeship I was able to hone my skills and adapt them to a more modern approach and introducing my ideas to the rest of the team. It was at this time my father passed on his knowledge of rubbering down to me and I was posted at the workshop rubbering on a weekly basis. I also learnt the art of French Polishing, although today we now use more modern lacquer finishes.

I took over control of the company in 2000 and continued to adapt a more modern approach of working, introducing new techniques and products to stay competitive within the trade.

We strive to use UK products throughout where ever possible. During the manufacturing process we aim to do the majority of the work in house, if this is not possible we will always look to local companies to work along side us.

I have enjoyed playing both pool and snooker and have had the pleasure of meeting many professional player’s on exhibition nights at various venues, during which we install our own table, both designed and manufactured by ourselves.

This last 12 months have been a trying time for us as for so many but we hope to come out of this stronger and would like to take this time to thank our ever growing clients and customers list and thank you for you continued support in this our 75th anniversary year.