The best pool tables for kids

Six feet is the size that works for a mixed-age household. It is short enough that a child of eight or nine can reach the middle of the table without climbing onto it, and long enough that an adult game is not comical. Below 6ft the geometry changes — the pockets sit too close together and the game becomes a tap-in exercise that teaches nothing about angles.

Folding legs are the feature that keeps this kind of table in use. A table that lives permanently in the middle of a family room gets resented; one that folds flat against a wall after a session stays welcome. It also means the table can disappear for a party and come back out afterwards.

Expect the bundled cues to be the weak part. They almost always are, and on a children's table they matter more than usual, because a warped cue teaches a child that they cannot aim. One straight pair of shorter cues transforms the experience — our accessories guide covers what to replace first.

Height, not length, is what stops young children playing pool. A regulation table sits at about 31in to the rail, which puts the bed at roughly chest height on a seven-year-old — they cannot get a level cue across it, so they poke downwards and nothing goes where they aimed. A lower portable table fixes the cause rather than the symptom.

The Fairmont's other advantage is that it comes apart. Folding legs and a carryable cabinet mean the table can live in a cupboard and appear on a wet Saturday, which in a house without a dedicated game room is the difference between a table that gets played and a table that becomes a shelf.

Buy it knowing it is a stepping stone. A child who gets properly interested will want a 7ft slate table by their early teens, and this table will not satisfy them then. That is not a flaw — it will have done its job.

The gap between a child's table and a real table is where most families get stuck. A 6.5ft table with a slim cabinet is the honest middle: a nine-year-old can play it now, a fifteen-year-old will still want to, and it fits a room that cannot take a 7ft table with a full cue swing.

The space-saver cabinet is the specific reason it belongs on a kids' list. Narrower rails mean a child's reach covers more of the bed, and the table takes a smaller footprint in a room that doubles as a sitting room. The bed is engineered rather than slate, which on a family table is a reasonable trade — it is the component you would upgrade if the household got serious.

Set it up with a pair of 48in short cues alongside the standard ones. Children handle a short cue far better, and it is exactly what you want at whichever end of the room is tight anyway.

There is a sensible version of buying cheap: you do not know yet whether the interest will last, and a table costing a tenth of a slate table answers that question. At 6 feet it is a real playing field rather than the squashed geometry of a toy table, so a child learns genuine angles on it.

What you give up is build quality in every component — the bed, the cloth, the pockets and the cues. Balls will rattle in pockets a better table would drop, the cloth shows wear within a year of hard play, and the levelling adjustment is crude. None of that stops a family playing hundreds of games on it.

Treat the first year as the trial. If the table is still in use after twelve months you have learned something worth knowing and can buy slate with confidence. If it is not, you spent very little finding out.