News from the editor's chair

Well, the new magazine has been on the streets for almost three months and deadlines loom large; was it all worth it I ask myself?

Initial reaction has been uniformly positive with not much in the way of dissent or disapproval. My sincere thanks to all those who have supported the venture by subscribing— please encourage a friend to do likewise! The first edition was, by its nature, somewhat thin on the ground in terms of content, the main objective being to keep the lines of communication open. I hope that you will find this edition rather more substantial in terms of grass roots billiards content and views, a trend that I intend to continue. As I said in my inaugural effort the aim of the Amateur Billiard Player is to be a broad church by appealing to the widest possible audience, so I make no apologies for re-emphasising my plea for contributions from anyone with an axe to grind, a point to make or a billiards war story to share. One encouraging fact to emerge from this venture is the number of subscriptions that have come in from totally unexpected sources such as billiard enthusiasts in local leagues who have probably never even heard of the A.B.C. circuit or Chris Shutt!!

I am pleased to report that I have received a letter from Tom Terry, printed in full in the next edition explaining his reasons for the demise of the Billiards Quarterly Review. I know that many of you were both puzzled and disappointed by his decision to end the publication so you can now read the reasons for yourself. Whether or not you agree with his conclusions, it is our intention to continue spreading the word and to build on the base that has been so well established.

Mark Wildman quite rightly takes me to task for my rather tongue-in-cheek comments about the viability of earning a decent living from professional billiards; I stand corrected and would be the first to rejoice if the top billiards players started earning the sort of money their talent deserves. We all know that the skills of Russell, Sethi, Chapman and Gilchrist are on a par with the very top snooker professionals, let alone the mass of lower echelon also-rans, but in the final analysis it is a question of pure market forces where potential earnings are subject to the harsh realities of supply and demand. I recently attended the U.K. professional final in Wigan between Russell and Causier (match report in this issue) at which there were less than twenty spectators for each session and I couldn't help wondering what the sponsors, who were also in attendance, thought of such a low turnout in terms of potential return on their investment given the total lack of any significant media coverage. Mark's letter makes interesting reading, so let's hope that the prize money trends he outlines will continue and that the levels of achievement now being reached by the top players strikes a chord with the wider sports media.

Still on the professional scene, I hear that Mike Russell has just gone through the 2000 barrier, the break taking over two hours to compile. This really does start to compare with the legendary performances during the Golden Age of billiards; our congratulations to Mike for this landmark achievement.

One of the really encouraging aspects of our efforts to stimulate grass roots participation in the Amateur Billiard Player has been the contributions from local and county leagues which you will find reported in the next edition. It is our aim to represent and report on as many of these local endeavours as space will permit, so please keep your contributions rolling in. If each of you can persuade a fellow enthusiast or two to subscribe, that will keep the momentum going and help towards ensuring the success of the magazine; after all, a yearly contribution of £12 is hardly going to break the bank!

At a recent get-together at one of the A.B.C. tournaments, a group of us were trying to guess the number of active billiards leagues in the U.K.; between us we managed to reel off a couple of dozen, but no-one really knows how many there are. We agreed that it would be a good idea to compile a list, so if anyone out there knows of a league that would like some coverage and whose members would enjoy reading the Amateur Billiard Player, please let me know.

You may recall from my comments in the last edition that the very survival of billiards depended to a large extent on efforts to encourage the game at youth level. Well, I am pleased to report that initiatives have already started to try and re-create the Teesside model in Leeds. I understand that the C.I.U. clubs in the area have already been canvassed with a view to starting a lads' league along the lines of Middlesbrough and that initial reaction from a good number of the clubs has been very positive; I will get an update on this encouraging situation for the next edition. If anyone has the time and inclination to consider a similar venture from any other area of the country, I gather that support from both the C.I.U. and a few professional players on the coaching side would be available; please contact Malcolm Lax for more details.

As many of you will know, the current English Amateur Billiards championship has just been completed and I have included a full report on the final. There is continuing uncertainty surrounding the relationship between the E.A.B.A. who are effectively running the amateur game at national level and the W.P.B.S.A./E.A.S.B. who own the original amateur trophy. Unhappy with having to go cap in hand to the E.A.S.B. for the right to present its trophy, the E.A.B.A. which this publication represents, has finally decided to declare U.D.I, and has acquired its own trophy for the National Amateur Championship. This may all sound very petty, but the reason I give it coverage is that the E.A.B.A. have approached the family of the late J. Herbert Beetham, who have agreed to lend his name to the new trophy which will be presented to this year's amateur champion. Those of us who knew Herbert will know how entirely appropriate it is that the trophy will be named after him. Herbert was a man who, perhaps more than any other, epitomised the amateur ideal. I was fortunate to have played against him in his latter years and although not as formidable as in his younger days, he was still a force to be reckoned with well into his seventies. What struck me more than anything was that he was always the perfect gentleman, while at the same time retaining the steely qualities of a great competitor who always displayed a genuine love for the game and all who played it. It is hard to think of a more fitting name to be associated with the trophy of the ENGLISH AMATEUR CHAMPIONSHIP.