Our Story

Lineup Club: A Story of Legacy and New Beginnings

 

My name is Julian Cronje, and for as long as I can remember, my world has been measured in felt-covered rectangles, the soft *click of a perfect strike, and the satisfying rumble of a ball finding its home. For nearly twenty years, since I first lifted a cue at sixteen, pool has been more than a game to me. It’s a conversation without words, a geometry of possibility, a quiet battle of strategy and nerve. I am 35 now, and the green baize has been a constant through life’s twists and turns.

But this story isn’t just about pool. It’s about wood, and the man who shaped it.

My father was a carpenter. His passion wasn’t just his trade; it was the very grain and scent of oak, pine, and mahogany. His hands, always faintly smelling of sawdust and varnish, could coax furniture from timber that seemed to breathe with life. When he fell ill, his dream wasn’t for a grand inheritance, but for a foundation—a family woodworking shop. He envisioned a place where his sons could build a future, anchored in the tangible, honest craft he loved. He set the stage for us, hoping we would pick up his tools.

He passed away on July 21, 2021, and with him, a specific dream faded. My brother and I, try as we might, couldn’t become the craftsmen he was. The beautiful, well-equipped workshop he left behind stood in respectful silence, a monument to a legacy we feared we couldn’t fulfill. The silence in that space was deafening, echoing with the ghost of saws and the absence of his laughter.

For two years, that space weighed on my heart. It was a sacred challenge left unmet. Then, one evening, while cleaning, my pool cue leaned against one of my father’s old workbenches. The polished shaft of the cue rested against the sturdy, hand-planed oak. And in that simple image, a new connection sparked.

The wood. The game.

My father’s passion was creating spaces—tables, chairs, homes within a home. My passion existed within a space—the precise, social, strategic world of a billiards table. What if his workshop could become a different kind of home? Not a place to build furniture, but a place to build community. Not with saws and chisels, but with cues and camaraderie.

The **Lineup Club** was born from that fusion of two loves.

I looked at the spacious workshop with new eyes. The high ceilings that once echoed with machinery were perfect. The strong floors he built could easily support the weight of four pristine pool tables. The natural light was ideal. This wasn’t a abandonment of his dream; it was a translation. He built a space for creation, and now it would create moments—of friendship, of quiet concentration, of triumphant victory.

The name is a double homage. In pool, the “lineup” is the ideal arrangement of balls, setting the stage for a perfect run. For us, it represents aligning our past with our present, my father’s legacy with my passion. It’s about creating the perfect setup for new memories.

This is no noisy public bar. The Lineup Club is a private sanctuary—a warm, inviting space where the focus is the game and the company you keep. It’s where the scent of old wood blends with the new felt, where my father’s handiwork forms the walls that now witness laughter and friendly competition. We’ll have four tournament-quality tables, comfortable seating for stories and strategy, and perhaps a corner dedicated to his old tools and photos—a quiet nod to the man who built the very bones of this place.

The Lineup Club is my love letter to two things: to the strategic, beautiful game that has been my solace, and to my father, whose workshop now hums with a different, joyful kind of life. He built a foundation of wood and love. On that foundation, we’re building a clubhouse for the heart.

Come and be part of the lineup. Let’s play a game, share a story, and keep a legacy in motion, one frame at a time.