When I arrived in Quail Creek six years ago I was immediately drawn to the Billiards Room.  I loved playing pool when I was in high school and college but dropped the game during my working years.  I soon discovered that I could buy my own pool cue and slowly improve my skills by playing with the groups in the billiards club.  No pressure, no intimidation, just fun.

How did this amenity happen? When did it start? Who helped make it happen? If you’re curious I recommend reading the following list of club milestones compiled by the QC Billiards Club founder, Dick Sussman.

Jim Hall, QCBC Communications Committee, October 2018

Apr-22The billiards room is closed in preparation for extensive remodeling and expansion. By removing walls the room will be enlarged by Robson. The new space will hold four new 9-foot Diamond slate tables.
Nov-20The billiards room reopens with strict guidelines for players during the continuing COVID-19 pandemic. QCBC board develops new guidelines and an online reservation system designed to limit the number of people in the room.
Aug-20Polo shirts with QCBC logo are made available. The remodeled billiards room features new overhead lights. An overhead projector installed over table #2 can be used to set up training drills.
Apr-20Remodel and renovation of the Madera Clubhouse and the billiards room begins.
Mar-20The Madera Clubhouse and the billiards room is closed due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Nov-19Women’s Committee Chairperson was added to the QCBC board of directors. Kay Mertes takes the initial appointment. QCBC garage sale proceeds provided funds for billiard room enhancements such as lights, ball washer and supplies.
Oct-18Reciprocal team competition begins with QCBC hosting  The Billiards Club of Green Valley. Our room’s  increased playing and seating capacity now makes such one-day competitions possible with up to 16 players involved. QCBC board member, Jim Hall, with extensive professional website expertise colorfully and thoroughly modernizes the QC billiards website into the highly efficient version you see today.
Sep-18Extensive instructional sessions for beginning and intermediate skills resume.
Aug-18Beautiful new Diamond tables are installed over a two-day period. Dick oversees table placements.  Five QCBC board members join in.  Four shelves crafted by John are installed. The QC Woodcrafters club installs chair rails throughout the room. All scheduled weekly sessions resume.
Jul-18Billiards Room is repainted prior to Diamond tables installation. New balls, bridge sticks, table covers, and other playing accessories are purchased, and others planned, preparing for Diamond tables installation.
Jun-18Both existing tables have been sold and removed. Peter and Dick join together to donate the QCBC’s share of one-half funding of four bar stools, and Mike Taylor agrees to provide POA funds for the other half. QC maintenance crew Jorge and Jose refinish the Billiards Room floor.
Apr-18Beloved QCBC member, Brian Hamilton passes on April 14. QCBC prepares for new table installations by removing some Billiards Room furniture.  John Andersen designs and fabricates a new cabinet and our room’s four wall-mounted shelves. Plans are made for selling and removing our two pool tables. Dick researches online the availability of bar stools to supplement the room’s seating capacity.
Mar-18QCBC is represented by club members at the day-long “Discover Quail Creek Clubs” event.
Jan-18GM, Mike Taylor submits pool table purchase documents to Robson headquarter’s legal and accounting departments for processing a down payment check to the Diamond corporation.
Nov-17POA board approves purchase of three new Diamond pool tables for installation in the QC Billiards Room.
Aug-17After his very favorable remarks in a good summary by GM, Mike Taylor the QC Finance Committee unanimously agrees on entering our 3-table request into the 2018 budget, for consideration and potential approval by the POA. During the meeting Peter, John, and Dick answered all questions posed by the FC who commented that our appearing there was very beneficial to the process.
Jul-17QCBC submits a capital equipment Budget Request package to General Manager, Mike Taylor for presentation to QC’s Finance Committee.
Jun-17Solicitation and registration of dues-paying members under the QCBC board-directed club re-organization proceeds well. Goal is to have sufficient treasury annually to enable the required commitment towards our share of co-funding the POA’s purchase of three new Diamond pool tables for QC’s billiards amenity.
Mar-17Peter and Dick meet with Finance Committee. They are informed that requests for POA funding of significant capital equipment acquisitions requires all QC Clubs to provide up to half of their equipment’s purchase price. FC chairman advises us to restructure the organization of the Billiards Club into a club led by a board of directors that includes bylaws, a president, vice-president, treasurer, secretary, and appropriate committee chairpersons. This would enable a treasury built from dues collected annually, and payment of our share of the 3-table acquisition price spread out over the subsequent four or five years. Our club is immediately reorganized with Peter Zeh as President and Sue and John Andersen agreeing to come on board as Secretary and Treasurer, respectively. Bob Trent, Brian Hamilton and Lenny Friedman also joined the newly-created board. Dick is appointed as non-voting board Advisor.
Feb-17The new scenario and very favorable terms in Diamond Billiards Products quote (earmarked for eventual presentation to QC’s newest General Mgr., QC’s Finance Committee and POA board) is unanimously approved by the votes of the 5-member Billiards Committee. Peter and Dick form an ad hoc Diamond Tables Acquisition and Installation sub-committee. Full-scale “Proof of Concept” mockups of three Diamond 8-footers are fabricated out of insulation foam board and precisely represent the rail top spaces of the desired Diamond tables. Briefly placed in the Billiards Room exactly where they’d exist in their scenario-defined positions, the demonstration shows assembled Billiards Committee members the viability of the project, with ample backstroking space around each table. Peter and Dick prepare an in-depth proposal with Diamond table photos, a 3-table Billiards Room graphic and Budget Request documents for presentation to the QC Finance Committee at their March meeting.
Jan-17Peter proposes asking POA to enlarge the Billiards Room by moving part of one wall to allow a third table to fit in the modified room which would answer the continually growing club’s need to accommodate large player turnouts for weekly sessions and all tournaments. His scenario involves keeping the two mechanically-failing original tables and buying one new table.  Dick, who had a top quality Diamond-brand table in his Vermont home recreation room for 14 years (and has known and played with Diamonds’ founding executives for 25 years) speculatively obtains a highly-discounted price for a projected purchase of three customized Diamond 8-footers. He designs and shows a 3-table scenario to Peter that would readily allow an installation within the room’s existing and unaltered floor space.
Oct-16The seven-member Billiards Tournament Committee serving for five years with an evolving group of former and new members is reorganized as a new joint-leadership QC Billiards Committee comprised of five co-equal voting member/players: Peter Zeh, Dick Sussman, Bob Trent, Brian Hamilton, and Lenny Friedman. Dues paying by club members is extensively discussed (along with other issues), but voted down.
Feb-13Daryl Laux and Dick transfer all contents of the original website to the more efficient WordPress.com servers.
Mar-11QC Billiards Tournament Committee is formed after club coordinator, Dick asks six of the regular, very skilled players if they’d be willing to assist him with the direction of the greatly increased number of our tournaments. Bill Peake, Tom O’Dierno, Jerry Hutcheson, Brian Hamilton, Peter Zeh, and Herb Pahoresky all quite willingly agree to help.
Jan-10The anti-glare Venetian blind installations throughout Madera Clubhouse are extended to include the Billiards Room by request of the QC Billiards Club.
Sep-09The Connelly tables’ black Brunswick Centennial cloth is replaced by Simonis green cloth.
Dec-06Newly appointed General Mgr., Ron Darrah, obtains the present ten very sturdy and comfortable chairs that thankfully replace the far-too-low card player chairs which were our ad hoc seating for the first six months.
Aug-06Club coordinator starts up a QC Billiards website to further publicize the billiards amenity and ensure its continual growth. It houses colorful pool-related photos and a steadily increasing number of instructional pages and information resource pages. At a POA board officer’s wise suggestion, the Home page deliberately features a small, running numerical tally of the amount of pool playing QC residents almost daily wanting their names added to the Billiards Club membership roster.
Jun-06The Madera Clubhouse’s entire Turquoise Room (formerly a meeting room) is dedicated as the QC Billiards Room and two Connelly 8-footers (of the GM’s choosing), with black cloth of his choosing, are installed along with appropriate playing accessories. Dick Sussman is appointed as the QC Billiards Club’s coordinator. Weekly club-coordinated 2-hour sessions of Express 8-ball (to turn the two tables over rapidly) along with 9-ball sessions are instituted for men and women players. Periodic tournaments featuring 8-ball, 9-ball, and Straight Pool are begun, along with free one-hour lessons for Beginners and Intermediates made available to all residents at their convenience.
Mar-06Dick presents copies of the 94-name signup sheet and copies of his news article to each of the POA Board members at their March meeting and is granted ten minutes for a presentation making the case for the need and guaranteed vitality of a billiards amenity here. After a few minutes of discussion among themselves, the POA board unanimously agrees and orders the GM to obtain two tables and a QC location for them.
Feb-06Dick immediately sends off to the QC Crossing newspaper a brief article for their February edition, describing the mission and functions of a proposed QC billiards club and continually promotes the club via frequent postings to the original HOA website, and hundreds of phone and email contacts with residents. He gathers 94 signatures on the lobby’s signup sheet.
Jan-06The Sussmans move into their newly-built QC home and three days later Dick calls the GM, asks about pool table plans and is told “I’ll see how the budget looks this summer.” To gauge and record residents’ interest in billiards, Dick requests permission to place a billiards club signup sheet in the lobby next to dozens of long-established QC clubs’ info sheets.
Aug-04QC Billiards Club founder, Dick Sussman and his wife Ellen are being shown around QC by a home sales representative. When the General Mgr. happens to walk by and is introduced, Dick, a lifelong pool player asks if pool tables are being considered here and is told “Might happen before long.”
2000 to 2004A handful of QC residents occasionally ask about the possibility of making a pool table available here. They’re continually told by the then-General Manager “It’s not in our plans now, but maybe someday.”