Q World (From This is Hampshire)

Q World

9:37pm Saturday 4th July 2009

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IT WAS the club that never shut – until now.

Q World, in Below Bar, closed its doors a week ago last Friday.

Rumours spread on the region’s cue-sport grapevine on the Monday that the club had closed for three days. On Friday, manager Lee Betteridge and his staff were told to contact the administrator.

I first visited Q World in 2000 with my son, Alex – there were no tables available at The Castle Club. We spent many Saturday mornings, and sometimes well into the afternoons, surrounded by 24/7 blaring music, honing his skills and eating plates of chips before emigrating to Chandler’s Ford Snooker Club.

Now, Tim Swain’s bold decision to re-open the 147 club in Castle Way earlier this year as the latest in his Academy chain, looks to have been astute – it’s now the only snooker club in Southampton’s city centre.

Pot Black closed last summer because of Southampton City Council’s plans to redevelop the old C&A building. The Castle Club and 147 closed in June 2007. Further afield, Hythe Cue T’s shut earlier this year.

As well as The Academy, the region boasts another seven snooker clubs: Rileys, in Shirley; Chandler’s Ford Snooker Club; The Academy, in Eastleigh; Cue T’s, in Marchwood; Winchester Snooker Centre; Fareham Snooker Club and Stubbington Snooker Club.

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