Gold Crown Billiards — Local services in New London

It may just be my biased impression, or my reminiscing over the days of dimly lit, smoky pool halls with money exchanging hands (which to be clear this is not), but no frills pool halls populated with quality players seem to be less and less prevalent nowadays. With that being said, Gold Crown gets my Roger Ebert 2 thumbs up. The regulation sized tables are kept in good working order; I've not had any experiences with warp or balance on the table that impacted my shot, and unlike many pool halls that over time seem to never upgrade or service their sticks, I have played here well over 10 times and only infrequently have I come across a stick with noticeable warp/curvature in the wood. Finally, and some might not have as much appreciation for this, but the chalk squares are updated prior to being run down to where it becomes harder to chalk your cue evenly. Fresh chalk, sticks I can look down and see my target accurately, and a surface that I can hit on with pace without worry that my ball will inexplicably curve prior to the pocket, are why Gold Crown gets 5 stars from me. Most other places I have played at don't seem to give this level of attention to quality. Thanks for the good experiences, and for giving me the opportunity to play one of a dwindling number of activities with my father that our ever increasing age has yet to restrict us from (and probably the only one i can...

I went on a Friday night with my girlfriend, we never been to a pool hall before. As we approached the building we weren't sure if it was open, but gave the door a tug and sure enough it was. Turned out to be two people there playing on one of the 15 or so tables he had set up inside. The gentleman emerged from the back of the room and walked up and greeted us, showed us to a table and he went back to his seat in the back. It was fun. The table we had was balanced and the cues provided were not too bad. It was pretty cheap being only 11 dollars...

This place does not inform you upon entering or have signage of their added cover charge or cleaning fee. (Is it even legal to charge for cleaning?) A $12 table is actually $20 for 1 hour. And when we spoke to the gentleman he said everyone just knows this is what it costs. So what about new patrons or people who do not come regularly? The only sign states the cost of how many people per table per hour. Smdh I will not be returning. You shouldn't be charging your patrons to clean so they can come spend their money at your...