Alistair Houghton meets PETER CLARE, director of snooker table manufacturer EA Clare & Son

THE threads of snooker’s rich history are woven together in the green baize of EA Clare.

The Everton company, today led by the founder’s grandson, Peter Clare, is such a repository of the history of cue sports that it boasts a suite of historic brands and its own museum.

But, as Peter is keen to show off to visitors, the laser engraving machines and computer-controlled lathes at its Everton home show EA Clare is not marooned in the past.

The company, which makes and sells snooker and billiard tables and bowling balls, now looks set to move into its fourth generation.

Peter hopes the new generation will help the company to continue to build on its rich heritage.

“Tradition has become more important the older I’ve got,” said Clare. “But there’s a danger, if you’re not too careful, that tradition becomes too dominant and you’re not able to move on.

“It’s important that the younger generation can make their mark.”

EA Clare makes tables and cues for snooker and billiards, and supplies all other equipment accessories for snooker, billiards and pool.

It also repairs and refurbishes snooker and billiards tables. Its tiled cellar, a legacy of the building’s former life as a wine merchant, holds rows of smoke-stained slates waiting for a new life.

But it’s not all about cue sports – EA Clare is one of only three companies in the world registered to make lawn bowls.

Edward Arthur Clare – known as Arthur – served his apprenticeship at J. Ashcroft & Co in Liverpool.

But he lost his job after a dispute with the boss and eventually moved to Ireland to work for Manchester billiard table builder Ormes.

In 1912 he returned to Liverpool and set up in business on his own, repairing and renovating billiard tables. The business grew quickly, even opening billiard halls under the name ERALC – Clare written backwards.

Arthur was a keen crown green bowler and decided the company should start making bowls to stay busy all year round.

Meanwhile his son Norman joined the business in 1930.

After serving in the Army during World War II, Norman took over the day-to-day running of the company.

Under Norman, EA Clare bought many other grand old names of the snooker and billiards world – such as Thurston, which was founded in 1799, and Padmore, founded in Birmingham in 1830.

Thurston was the first company to use slate and rubber cushioning on billiards tables, and a Thurston table became the sport’s standard model.

And in 1987, EA Clare bought Ashcrofts – the firm where Arthur Clare learned his trade.

Norman became an avid historian of cue sports, and developed the company’s museum. His sense of history meant that when he decided to unite the company’s tables under one trading name, he chose Thurston – though the parent company still bears the family name.

Peter started working at the family firm as a schoolboy, alongside his father and grandfather, but joined full-time in 1968.

It may have been a family firm, but he had to prove his worth.

He said: “The real proving ground for me was when we took over a firm in Hertfordshire – Fletcher –that made billiard cue tips and my father sent me to run it.

“He decided that if I could make a success of it, I’d be ok. But if it was a failure then it didn’t really threaten the business.”

Peter did make a success of it – so much so that Fletcher was later used as a vehicle to buy Peradon, the Victorian-era trade name under which EA Clare still manufactures cues.

After three years in Hertfordshire, Clare returned to Liverpool.

He worked in all the company’s departments, even spending time on the road working on service contracts in Ireland and Wales.

But his big test came when the company faced a sudden change in one of its key markets.

“Up to 30 years ago, crown green bowls were made from a wood called Lignum Vitae,” he said. “

“But that was getting difficult to find. So we made a decision in the late 70s that if we were going to stay in bowls, then we had to do something about it,

“So – and this was my baby – we did some research and we developed the manufacturing of bowls using the plastics that we use these days.

“We went overnight from working with hardwood to using computer-controlled lathes. We were the first to use that equipment.

“We now have three such lathes, and two lasers for doing engraving. “It’s gone from being a hand-working skill to being quite a technical job.”

EA Clare makes bowls under the Drakes Pride brand – named after Sir Francis Drake, who according to legend, played bowls on Plymouth Hoe before sailing out to meet the Spanish Armada in 1588.

It bought the name from another old Liverpool company ­– Darlingtons, founded in 1820.

“Bowls is still a strong market,” said Peter. “We export around the world to anywhere there’s been a British influence. We recently supplied a large quantity of bowls to India for the Commonwealth Games.”

In cue sports, snooker has become much more popular than billiards – driven by the launch of the BBC’s Pot Black in 1969 and the resulting boom in televised snooker.

Peter said: “Billiards has a problem in that while the people who play are great cue-ists, it is not something that would attract a mass audience.

“The game is still popular – particularly in India. But if it doesn’t get on television, its hard to attract an audience.”

Snooker, even though the days of its great characters such as Alex Higgins and Jimmy White are behind it, remains popular in the UK and overseas. But EA Clare faces a tough challenge – the decline in the number of snooker and social clubs.

“Everyone hears about pubs closing, but nobody hears about clubs closing,” said Peter. “But clubs are facing the same problems as pubs.

“In Lancashire and Yorkshire, there were miners’ welfare clubs. But there are no miners left.

“The big industries used to have big social clubs but, because of cost-cutting, those have closed.

“Working men’s clubs and British Legions are suffering for a lack of members.

“So our core market for tables is shrinking. But there’s still an awful lot of people playing snooker.”

While that trend is affecting EA Clare’s bottom line, the recession has left it largely unscathed.

“We’re relatively fortunate that because we spread ourselves across retail and wholesale divisions, it gives us good coverage,” said Peter.

He took over the family business on his father’s death in 1990.

His two children have decided the family business is not for them ­– and their father says he would never put any pressure on them to join.

But it remains a family firm, with Clare’s brother-in-law Peter Eggington and his son Mike Eggington now on board.

Peter said: “It’s a business going into the fourth generation.

“The ideal would be to ensure that it stayed in the control of the family.”

Outside the family business, Clare, who has two children and one granddaughter, enjoys walking in the Lake District and North Wales.

But, despite his family’s proud history in cue sports, Clare has a guilty secret – he is no snooker player.

“To be a snooker player you’ve got to have good hand-eye co-ordination,” he smiled. “Being 6ft 4in is ok on the rugby field but not at a snooker table. “