After four years of reviewing billiard cloth deliveries before they reach our dealers — roughly 200 rolls a year — I'll give you the conclusion first: Simonis 860 Tournament Blue is the roll I approve when a customer needs tournament-grade pool table performance, and Simonis 760 is the roll I approve for tables that run long hours. The part I didn't expect? The cloth is rarely the first thing to fail. The table, the room, or the order form is. Five minutes of verification prevents five days of rework.
I say that from a specific seat. I'm the person who rejects incoming rolls before they reach customers, not the person who sells them. In Q1 2024 we audited 22 incoming lots and sent two back to the supplier — one for packaging creases, one for a color shift that would only show under tournament lighting. I've seen real mill defects under a magnifier. I've also seen an installation mistake blamed on a roll that passed every possible test. The second group is much larger.
Most callers ask for 'pool table felt simonis' and expect one simple sku. There isn't one. What works is a checklist — and if I were running a table shop, I'd make this checklist part of every quote.
What I check before any Simonis roll is approved
This isn't a waste of time. It's the difference between a clean installation and a callback that costs you twice the labour.
1. Table size comes before the product number
The most common issue in our returns pile isn't the fabric. It's a size mismatch. When a repair service orders a 'simonis cloth pool table' kit and guesses the table's dimensions, the result is usually a stretched installation that fails near the pockets. The snooker vs pool table size difference changes the roll you need, and treating every table as the same is how you end up with an avoidable callback.
Snooker tables are commonly 12-foot tables with a longer playing bed. A pool table is usually 7, 8, or 9 feet. The cloth piece is cut for each playing surface — it is not a single roll that magically fits every frame. When someone orders a 7-foot kit for an 8-foot bed and forces it, the failure shows as a pull or tear near a corner pocket. That isn't a defective roll; that's a defective order. I keep a tape measure in the warehouse for a reason.
2. Check the table structure before you cut anything
Simonis cloth is the most visible part of a table, but it doesn't fix what's underneath. It only makes the playing surface smoother — and if the table has a problem, cloth will not hide it.
We had a hotel installation in 2024 that looked perfect for two weeks. Then the customer reported a ball that always drifted to the same rail. They wanted a cloth warranty claim. Our tech arrived with a straightedge instead of a replacement roll: one of the slate seams had a half-millimetre step. The Simonis cloth was installed correctly; the slate wasn't flat. After re-leveling, the table played straight. The roll was never the problem.
3. Select the grade by hours on the table, not by habit
Is 860 'better' than 760? Not as a universal statement. In my approval notes, 860 is the right call for customers who want the same type of surface used in tournament conditions. 760 is the right call when a table runs all day and the buyer knows the cloth will be replaced on schedule. Both carry the Simonis quality. The difference is the job they are asked to do.
If a dealer asks me which single product to stock for a serious league room, I'd say 860 Tournament Blue. If the room is a commercial floor with heavy walk-in traffic and a stricter maintenance budget, I'd steer them to 760. Neither answer is an insult to the table. It's just an honest answer about the environment.
4. Test the light before you blame the cloth
A surprising share of visual complaints has nothing to do with the roll. Take the dealer who sends a photo of a brand-new installation that looks patchy. Nine times out of ten, the photo tells me more about the room than the table.
When a customer says the cloth looks uneven, ask about the pool table light fixture. A fixture with mismatched bulbs, or one hanging off-center, will throw shadows across a worsted wool surface and make a perfect installation look streaky. Run a simple test: move a bright lamp around the table and look at the suspect spot from different angles. If the 'defect' follows the light, it isn't a defect. This test has saved more than one unnecessary cloth order.
5. Listen to the cloth — even if the players can't
One of the quickest checks I use is free. Roll a ball from the head of the table to the foot and listen. Clean, correctly tensioned cloth has a steady sound end to end. When the sound changes, something has changed — dirt, tension, or a cushion issue. That audible clue usually appears before a visible mark does. And when brushing isn't enough, use a purpose-made cloth cleaner; Simonis X1 cleaner is what we keep on the shelf for stain checks.
The reason I mention this: many players now practice with wireless headphones, and they don't hear the table. It is not a criticism. It's an observation that affects maintenance. A player with music in both ears will not notice a cloth surface slowing down until it's visibly dirty or polished in the ball path. If your customers play with wireless headphones, you need a more regular brushing schedule, because their ears are no longer giving them an early warning.
There's a small upside for you: wireless headphones also removed one of our most common scratch complaints from the old days, when headphone cables dragged across the cloth and left marks that customers tried to return as defects. That category has basically disappeared from the log.
Where this checklist stops being useful
I won't sit here and call Simonis 'the best billiard cloth in the world.' A claim like that needs substantiation, and per FTC guidelines on advertising claims, I would rather point to what our records show: since January 2024, fewer than two percent of Simonis rolls returned as 'defective' had a confirmed mill fault. The rest were installation, sizing, lighting, or maintenance issues.
This checklist has limits, and a good inspector should admit them. The cloth won't fix a cracked or warped slate. It won't survive storage in a damp room for months, and no worsted wool product is truly colorfast under direct sunlight. If a table sits in front of a sunlit window, fading will happen over time — with any cloth, not just Simonis.
That's what I tell every dealer who asks for an opinion. Choose the right roll, verify the table, control the light, and listen to what the surface tells you. Do that, and the felt will be the least of your worries. Skip it, and you'll learn things about reinstallation that you didn't want to know.