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Founder Member Mr J. Baikie
His picture can be found at top of the stairs as you leave the club. Please note this is not a photograph but a replica of the original charcol drawing done in the 1920's.
Kindly Mrs Grant lent the picture to Premier Snooker Club which we copied to the exact same as the original. including the frame. We are very great full to her for this.
Story told by Mrs Grant in 2001 Age 89 (Daughter)
I asked her how and when it all started with her father all those years ago........
The Premier Suite
Back in those days snooker was not around, the popular game was billiards and there was usually only two tables to each club which was used for gambling because there was very little or no betting shops. Mr Baikie was one of the men in those days who played alot of billiards and liked to play for money.
He decided to try and open his own place. He located an ideal premises in Grahams Road, falkirk which is now the Premier Suite. It consisted of two flats at the time and the owner wanted £50 for both flats, not alot of money now a days but back then it was a fortune...........
At the time there was not any bank that would lend him such a large sum of money, so he decided to borowed the money from under ground betting people, the stipulation being ; he had to pay the money back within two weeks of borrowing it..
After receiving the money, he gambled it at billiards asking £5 per game until he had won enough money to pay back the lenders and buy the propertys, he done this in under two weeks. I think its safe to say he had a lot nerve..............
His vision was to knock down all the walls in the flats and fit four billiard tables in and a seating area for spectators.
Little did he no at the time, what a succesful buisness he was creating that would be around for over 100 years.
The original name for this club was the Brockville Billiards Saloon............
After a few years his club really started to take off and he was struggling to keep up with the demand for tables, this was within ten years of having opened. He had a new idea to buy a piece of land behind the club and expand the billiard saloon. There was one problem- he was two floors up and would have build a lower level as well.
He eventually found a partner who was willing to share in the costs of building and use the lower level for his buisness, which was printing.
By now he was well associated with his bank and went to them for a loan to extend his thriving buisness, they had all there estimates done and the final amount came to just under £5000, that was 98 years ago.
The bank agreed and building was constructed, now housing the Bed Shed and Premier Snookers main hall.
Altogether now he had 18 match tables at Brockville Billiard Saloon.
Mr J.Baikie
Lived in Edinburgh
From what i heard from older members of the club when they were just boys, there was no talking allowed at any time, if you were caught talking you were put out......... and not a word said just light off and out!
This must have went on for a number of years as he worked the club every day for
42 years with out a day off......
Mr Baikie had a daughter who took over when he retired, the now married Mrs Grant ran the club until 1978, keeping the club in there family for eighty years!
Did you know our club was the first in Falkirk to have a bar?????
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Mr Neil Rankin (Linlithgow)
The new owner of the club Mr Neil Rankin owned 9 snooker halls through out the central belt and changed the name to Starlite Snooker Club.
The pemises remained Mr Rankins from 1978 until 1991 when it was sold on to Mr J. Gibb
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Mr Jim Gibb (Glasgow)
The new owner of the club renamed it Brockville Snooker Hall, and owned the premises from 1991 until 1998 when it was then sold on to Mr P. Jelly.
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Mr P.Jelly (Falkirk)
The new owner refurbished the full premises from 1998 until 2001, keeping the business open during the renovation. The premises was then renamed Premier Snooker Club on the official opening night 17th November 2001, which was opened by Jimmy White.
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