Pot luck as Paul gets big break
PAUL Rinaldi admits he was at rock bottom in January after losing £50,000 and unable to work at the snooker halls which are in his blood.
Then, as if things could not get much worse, coronavirus struck.
“It got so bad I just wanted to wrap it all in,” admitted Burnley-born Paul.
He left there more than a decade ago to open the Whitley Bay Snooker Hall.
He closed the hall last December due to expanding on a much bigger site in North Shields – or so he hoped.
He said a business deal resulted in him losing a fortune while building delays – followed by the virus – meant the new hall could not reopen.
Paul added: “At one point I was going to go back to Lancashire as I had had enough of being here.
“I just felt I was going to have to start again from scratch.”
However, there was no need – thanks to the kindness of strangers.
Anthony Gibson from Sigma Electricals and Neil Watson from Watson Timber stepped in, completing the rest of the work on the Queen Alexander Road venue to get it ready for after lockdown.
A grateful Paul said: “They were absolutely smashing and did the work on the proviso we could pay what we could.
“They really came to our rescue. They are fantastic, fantastic people.”
Now, after the North East Snooker Centre finally opened its doors, business is booming with around 300 people walking through the doors during the first weekend alone.
It has state-of-the-art tables and dart boards and beer on tap.
Paul, who has invested around £300k into the new venture, is just pleased he can finally welcome the public back – and earn again.
He added: “It has been a horrendous time but we have got through it.
“For the past six months we have been unemployed with no business to open.
“The Government would not furlough us and we did not qualify for any grant.
“However, the customers love it and since we opened last Friday it has just been non-stop.
“We loved the last venue but it just was not big enough and we did not have enough tables so we felt boxed in – but this is great.”
The centre will officially open in September with a visit from former world champion Denis Taylor.
One of the first to play there was Wallsend professional Gary Wilson.
He said: “Whitley Bay Snooker Club has always been incredibly supportive of me and the new North East Snooker Centre offers a great opportunity to open up snooker to a whole new audience in North Tyneside.”