Through the 1920’s the hall had power to draw in players, as evidenced by Sheffield Daily Telegraph’s own Willie Smith writing about his exploits in South Elmsall, in his column. This was against a backdrop in the nation of temperance, with the restricted hours for such games forcing new billiards halls to spring up all over the region. In September 1929 Miss M. Lennan, of Glasgow, visited the South Elmsall billiard hall, she was thought to be the woman champion billiards player of Great Britain. Miss Lennan gave the excited crowd an exhibition game of 300 up, taking on the challenge of South Elmsall’s own P. Simpson and won by 300 points to 226, with two breaks of 39. Simpson’s best was a break of 30. By the 1930’s the billiard hall even had it’s own cricket team!

In January 1948 the hall was purchased by a worsted spinners by the name of Harold Holdsworth (Wakefield) Ltd. to be converted into a mill. Initial plans were that 40 girls would be employed and there would be employment for 20 men who “will be selected from miners who have been disabled and are unable to work in the pits.” The estate agent who negotiated the sale was Mr J. Willey, of South Elmsall. By September the conversion to a spinning mill was complete, with 30 women initially employed and another 15 to start on another shift. The reason South Elmsall was chosen? A shortage of female labour in Wakefield. Plans to employ disabled men, however, were not so fruitful. Only 2 men were employed.

Following the closure of the mill the hall became, amongst other things, the ‘non-food’ Asda. Asda at that time occupied a building across from the Central Billiard Hall building, on the corner of Exchange Street and Barnsley Road. In 1965 Associated Dairies acquired a majority stake in Asquith’s, a family owned butchers chain led by Peter and Fred Asquith and shortly after this the purpose build Asda Queens store in Moorthorpe was opened. Asda non-foods offered the shoppers at that purpose built supermarket the opportunity to buy white goods, records, games, clothes and much more, not available within the main supermarket building. Today the Central Billiard Hall is something closer to it’s original intended use, a hall and café.