Malcolm Lax has tendered his resignation from the Committee of the Association because of his pressure of work. Unable to attend meetings for some time now he was conscious that he was not pulling his weight and another workhorse would better serve us. Being self-employed he must of course prioritise to his employment commitments and the Committee, with regret, must of course accept his decision.
Malcolm does himself down, I know better than anyone else involved the contribution he has made to the EABA and whilst he has not been present at recent meetings his work-rate in all other areas has been immense and often unseen by so many.
I would like to extend my personal thanks to both Malcolm and his long suffering and hard working wife Helena, who has also worked tirelessly for us, sometimes without a total comprehension of the issues associated with the task.We owe a great debt to them both. Many thanks!
Suffice to say, we've not seen the end of them, they willingly responded to my request for assistance in ensuring this edition of the magazine has got to you and I'll no doubt be back in touch for further favours—you don't get away that easily!
Another competition season completed, but as you will read on another page, not without it's problems of administration and justifiable complaint from certain quarters.
As I've said previously we welcome your comments on our operations and whilst we would much prefer some occasional praise (it's good for our morale) we will accept justifiable criticisms if it's warranted.
This edition I believe carries more information than previously presented thanks again to our many contributors, but we still need more of it.
When I talk to many of you about a contribution of information from your area, or an anecdote from your memory bank, I often get a negative response as you consider your ability to present it as being unworthy. Honestly it wont be the case. Write it, compute it (hopefully), and tape it if you have to, but please send it! We'll knock it onto shape if we have to on receipt. The more you send the greater variety of input we can produce, it's either that or you get more of my views—you've been warned!
Let me congratulate all of our worthy champions this season. Paul Bennett, Peter Shelley, Robin Wilson, Matthew Sutton and Hemlington Social. I also include Neal Rewhorn, the CIU winner. Well done to you all, but let me also thank all of the tournament competitors for their support and also the hardworking referees who assisted us throughout.
One black spot to report is the Association having to discipline two competitors that were involved in the Team event. The complaints against the pair were numerous and serious enough to be expelled from involvement or attendance at any future Association activity.
Their representative Club and other national bodies have been advised of our decision. We regret the need to have to take any form of action against anyone in our sport but if the need arises then take it we will!
It was nice to have Rex Williams present the awards at our Amateur finals and Peter Gilchrist at the Juniors finals. A closer relationship with the pro billiards fraternity is not a bad thing especially if they deem in future to act independently of the WPBSA (except in Financial terms obviously). An informal meeting has taken place between the pro billiard officers and us to consider whether a closer liaison could be mutually beneficial. As the talks were purely exploratory there's nothing we can report on at this stage, if anything worthwhile develops in future we'll consult with you.
Looking forward to the season to come, the programme is listed elsewhere in this edition, we shall see two visits by the Irish contingent, so if you get the opportunity to catch their appearances I hope you will make them welcome and give these representative matches your support.
One international event that has turned into something of a farce is the Walter Lindrum Centenary Celebration. Over 2 year's ago the various national bodies were talking about doing something both in this country and in Australia but with all the notional good intent nothing appeared to be happening until lo and behold in late June we learn that an event will take place in Australia in mid August. I sincerely hope all works out well over there but it seems to be a bit of a mish-mash with no one seeming to know what's going on at the time of writing.
Until next time good viewing and good cueing.