Melton's snooker club takes on first professional coach

Brian Slater, the first professional snooker coach to work out of Jackson's Lounge in Melton Mowbray

Jackson’s Lounge, based in King Street above the WH Smiths store, sponsored regular player Brian Slater to train for his World Professional Billiards and Snooker Association (WPBSA) qualification.

His training took place with 12 others at the Northern Snooker Centre in Leeds over two days with former world number five player, Nigel Bond.

Brian, whose love for the game came from watching legends like Steve Davis and Jimmy White on television in the mid-1980s, said: “I never thought that I could be a coach.

Professional snooker coach Brian Slater, who is based at Jackson's Lounge in Melton

"But when the club’s owner Ben Jackson approached me I jumped at the chance.”

He was given a child’s size table for Christmas when he was five and has been playing on full-sized snooker tables since the age of 12.

Coaching is in sharp contrast to his job as a van and lorry driver which involves delivering and assembling outdoor furniture, mostly to pubs and hotels, across the country.

Brian added: “Coaching is rewarding. Seeing players improve after some usually small but important changes is enjoyable for me. It may be a flaw in their cue action or lack of positional knowledge or just knowing the right things to practise."

Club owner Ben Jackson said : “It’s great that we can now offer coaching at the club. Brian is a very good player and has all the right qualities to teach people of all ages and abilities.”

To find out more and/or book a session, email [email protected] or send a text message to 07880 880 238.