Gentlemen, Welcome to 1996 and the year that Amateur Billiards must move forward with vigour and enthusiasm. The last couple of decades has seen our game trundle along much as it always has done but with some notable high spots like the welcome resurgence of the professional game after years of decay, the establishment and continuing success of the Teesside conveyor belt, the setting up of ABC circuit, the formation of county leagues and record entries in recent years for the English Amateur Championship, all of which have taken place despite a prevailing backdrop of turmoil and uncertainty created by the recent power struggles and political in-fighting by the various groups, interested parties and associations competing for control of the game, each with their own motives. We now have a strong representative committee who are respected not only for their expertise at the game but equally for their enthusiasm for organisation.
So far so good you might say but there is one single inescapable fact that we all have to address if the game is not to drift into terminal decline and that is we must create initiatives which will encourage youngsters to take up the game across all the country not just in Middlesbrough. Important though this phenomenon has been, the fact that a regular and predictable supply of youngsters from that part of the country continues to dominate the game at both amateur and professional level ( Indian players and Roxton Chapman excepted) means very little if anything to the vast majority of grass roots players throughout the country, most of whom carry out their sport in semi moribund local leagues where the average age of players rises each year. Replicating the achievements on Teesside in other areas would not be an overnight affair and may not even be possible but even if a fraction of their success in encouraging the game at youth level could be achieved then that would represent a significant step forward. I don't know how many local leagues there are throughout the country ( please let us know), but if each took active steps to encourage youngsters to play then who knows what might be possible. I've already heard that Rex Williams and Mark Wildman have offered their services in the Midlands to give coaching to youngsters if a reasonable number of attendees can be guaranteed so why not look into this potential in other regions of the country?
The centre piece of present day billiards if of course the ABC tournaments which have been run so ably by Derick and Peg Townend(not to mention various international matches). These tournaments really do keep most of the billiards fraternity in touch with one another.
If as the new chairman I can leave you with one message it would be this, the game is as healthy if not healthier than it has been for many years but with known exceptions it has become a sport that is normally associated with middle age and beyond a fact which makes it unattractive to the younger element unless we can educate them. We know that this process works otherwise there would not be nearly 300 entries for this year's Teesside boy's championships so our prime collective objective must be to drive forward any initiative that changes the age profile of our game.