POLICE officers in Huddersfield have been snookered!
They will have to fold their successful snooker team after more than three decades - because their social club is going.
The snooker room and bar at Huddersfield Police headquarters is to be shut down early in 2005 as part of merger plans with Dewsbury.
The space will be used for policing duties.
But it means the end of an era for a team that has graced snooker competitions in the town since the early 1970s.
Now current players are planning to host a reunion of all their past playing colleagues for one final game.
John Lee, who has been a player for many years, said: "It will be a sad day.
"The bar and snooker room are going and we have to fold.
"It is sad for the current players like myself, Derek Hey, Malcolm Nutbrown, Mike Stocks, Richard Parr and Dave McSweeney, but also for all the others who have played over the years.
"The snooker table we have played hundreds of games on is a beauty. It used to be in the old Huddersfield Borough Police Station in Peel Street and was salvaged when that was demolished.
"Now we want all the old players to get in touch so that we can arrange a reunion, hopefully some time in January."
The police players, who played Deighton Working Men's Club in one of their final games, are hoping to continue as a team - possibly based at New Mill Working Men's Club.
A police spokesman said the social club facilities would vanish some time in the new year.
