When we reported the appointment of Peter Middleton as the Chief Executive of the WPBSA in our last issue, we little realised the catalyst for change this would become. Middleton lasted only two months in the job before the majority of the Board decided he was not after all, the right choice, and refused to confirm his contract of employment.
This decision was seen to have been instigated by Chairman Rex Williams and Bob Close. The minority of the Board, lead by Steve Davis then called for Williams and Close to be sacked and an EGM involving all voting members of the Association was arranged for Monday 25th September to decide upon this issue. In response, Williams and Close tabled a motion, to be heard at the same meeting, that Steve Davis, Dennis Taylor and Jason Ferguson should be removed from the seven member Board. However, as the “proxy” votes started to arrive in advance of the EGM, it became clear that the vote would go against Williams and Close who resigned their positions three days before the meeting was held. When the EGM took place, members confirmed the removal of Williams and Close whilst rejecting the motion to remove the other three. Mark Wildman and Terry Griffiths were subsequently co-opted onto the Board to fill the vacancies and Wildman was voted in as Chairman. Both the co-opted members will have to stand for election at the AGM in December if they intend to continue on the Board beyond that date. Meanwhile, Peter Middleton has accepted an invitation to return as Chief Executive.
Following the World Professional Championships, the revised ranking positions are as follows :
| (1) | Mike Russell | 153 |
| (2) | Geet Sethi | 106 |
| (3) | Peter Gilchrist | 76 |
| (4) | David Causier | 69 |
| (5) | Chris Shutt | 68 |
| (6) | Robby Foldvari | 57 |
| (7) | Nalin Patel | 45 |
| (8) | Peter Sheehan | 37 |
| (9) | Ashok Shandilya | 35 |
| (10) | Arun Agrawal | 34 |
| (11) | Roxton Chapman | 31 |
| (12) | Devendra Joshi | 29 |
| (13) | Manoj Kothari | 21 |
| (14) | Ian Williamson | 16 |
| (15) | Subhash Agrawal | 15 |
| (16) | Bob Close | 14 |
| (17) | Rex Williams | 13 |
| (18) | Rupesh Shah | 12 |
| (19) | Balachandra Bhaskar | 9 |
| (20) | Mark Wildman | 9 |
| (21) | Michael Ferreira | 9 |
| (22) | Alok Kumar | 6 |
| (23) | Eugene Hughes | 6 |
| (24) | Mukesh Rehani | 5 |
| (25) | Aditya Goenka | 2 |
| (26) | Ishmit Malik | 2 |
| (27) | Andrew Sage | 2 |
| (28) | Chandresh Shah | 2 |
| (29) | Satish Amarnath | 1 |
| (30) | Mark Hirst | 1 |
| (31) | Ashok Potikyan | 1 |
| (32) | David Sneddon | 0 |
Steve Naisby, Stephen Hardcastle, Martin Spoormans and Dinkar Akolkar, who have not competed for some years now, have all been removed from the list although they remain members of the Association.
Geet Sethi took the Fred Davis Billiards trophy when he was voted “The Billiards Player of the Year” at the WPBSA Annual Awards Luncheon held at the Cafe Royal, London on Friday 8th October. The other nominations were Mike Russell and Chris Shutt.
The first tournament on the UK circuit will be held at The Harrogate Spa Hotel, Harrogate over four days from Tuesday 23rd November. This will be immediately followed by the Northern Open at North Ormesby Institute, Middlesbrough from Monday 29th November to 2nd December.