Leaving aside the brisk thwack of willow on leather to consider the smart click of cheerful plastic balls: can some kind soul point me in the direction of a smoky bar in Basel where the music is full of smiles, the beer works and they actually have a pool table?

You might find a golf course more easily than a pool table

Isn't the correct expression "to grow some balls"?

Or a hurling match: http://www.zurichgaa.ch ;-)

Wow I didn't know there are so many Irish guys there. I don't think I know any around here. Last hurling game I saw was...a county Kerry game. They had balls.

ROFL, what a title. Hey OP, you've been missed. What have you been up to since you finished the roof-top bench?

Here you go https://www.billardsaloon.ch/

Thanks for the link. This place looks a little more polished than the pubs back in Blighty. Will make a nice change not having to remove an errant peanut before taking a shot. And I had no idea it was so close - can walk there!

Yeah, it's been a while; been busy growing hair then spent the last weeks blundering about.
Completing the circular journey of the rectangular roof-top bench, this weekend I used the last of the wood to make a triangular shelf for over-spilling cd's. Sure, full digital is the future but it's nice to embrace mixed media. Also mulling over the idea of a hammock for my record player as it keeps skipping whenever I do (damned copy-cat)

Polished? No, not really. Used to go there quite a bit when I was working in Basel, pleasant enough place. It's got proper snooker tables and serves beer, was pretty much the only criteria we required.

It's not obvious to find it, you need to go into a courtyard to find the entrance, which is an elevator up to the 2nd floor; there's a couple of signs but nothing much visible from the outside.

My OH plays snooker there with colleagues on Wednesdays, has done for the 5 years he's been in Basel. I went there with him a couple of times but it's not really my scene. Sometimes an old Swiss guy hooks up with them for a game. He's says the guy who owns it is really nice, think his name is Mario.

Lovely, thanks for the useful info. I might pop over tomorrow and see if they can lend me a bat so I can have a go.

There are plenty of cues, including a few proper snooker ones, not just bull-headed pool cues, and some of them are half decent. TBF I used to take my own, and mates I was playing with would often prefer it, but the supplied ones were mostly OK.

OP, if you want somewhere a little less polished, there's a sports bar in Gasstrasse near Voltaplatz and the Novartis campus—the Nordtangente. It has a couple of pool tables, darts, table football, etc. It gets pretty lively at times. Great atmosphere, beer, food, live music... all the ingredients for a good night out. They have plenty of cues in various states of batteredness.

From the picture, this is men only?

For some people, that's an ingredient for the best night out.

OH bought his own cue to take with him, claims it makes him play better

Lol. Looks that way, doesn't it! Alternatively, by the other pics, nobody is allowed there!

But no, well behaved, sufficiently attractive women are allowed there.*





*As attractive and well-behaved as the men in that pic. So the bar is low.

No, plenty of beer is what makes you play better!

You hang around the wrong woman.

LOL, that was gonna be my answer.

Wrong people are the best.

Ah, Ato, you're right.

I always think the area around Voltaplatz is a bit dodgy looking, went for a walk round there one evening when I lived in Kleinbasel and wasn't keen on it.