Apollo Tubular Cue
In early 2016 a question was received
concerning a tubular metal cue which prompt some research into
these cues which were marked in the U.K. In the 1950 to the
1970's.
The makers of the cues were a famous
Midlands based producers of tubular metal called Accles &
Pollock. Peter Ainsworth was able to confirm that they made several
other sports related items such as arrows for archery and javelins
for athletics.
It seems that they first became involved
with Billiards and Snooker in about 1954 signing up Joe Davis to
help prompt the cue. In the archives an advert from 1955 shows a
picture of Joe and the cue with his endorsement. They called the
cue the Joe Davis Apollo Tubular Cue
this advert appeared in the
February 1955 issue of The Billiard Player
One of the main selling points was
the fact that it had a 'Perfect balance, straightness and taper'
hinting that wooden cues were likely to be 'bent'.
It must have caused some
concern to the traditional wood cue makers because Weildings (now part of
Peradon) ran an article in 1955 extolling the virtues of wooden
cues.
The Apollo tubular cue was promoted
by adverts, enforcements and sponsorship of competitions as the
following pictures show.
Sponsorship of Junior
Championships 1967
( note a 'young' Clive Everton
editor of Snooker Scene)
To improve the tubular cue , which
had a problem with the way it sounded when playing a shot, a new
upgraded version was introduced in 1967. It had an 'impact
controller' insert fitted into the shaft. The picture above showing
the front page of The Billiard Player shows some of the stages of
production as well as the parts fitted into the shaft. The advert
in the same magazine had two of the professionals endorsing the
upgraded cue.
The Apollo Billiard and Snooker
range also included long cue, long rests, half butt cues and half
butt rests. These 'long tackle' items certainly had some advantages
over the wooden equivalents but once they were damaged ,for example
if the had a kink, they were not able to be repaired.
The upgraded Apollo had the
'plastic' ribbed butt
The cues did not prove to be
popular as they were cold to the touch especially in the bridge
hand. So perhaps the comments made in the Weilding advert proved to
be true!
© E.A. Clare & Son Ltd.
2018. © Peter N. Clare 2018
Reproduction of this article allowed only with the permission from
E.A. Clare & Son Ltd.
