ASSOCIATION NEWS
Chamberlain in charge
Alan Chamberlain has been appointed by the WPBSA to run the professional billiards circuit this year. The decision to make the appointment was left until the last possible minute, Chamberlain only being notified a few weeks before the start of the season. The first event will be the British Open at North Ormesby Institute, Middlesbrough, which will start on 28th November. This will be played under the traditional time-limit format and conclude on 1st December.
It will be immediately followed by the UK Billiards Championship, which was played as a 50-up competition last year with the final held over and played alongside the UK Snooker Championship. The formula will remain the same this year with the exception that the games have been extended to 100-up. The final is provisionally scheduled for 8th December at The Barbican in York.
Before deciding whether they should continue with their support of professional billiards beyond the current season, the WPBSA will consider the findings of a "feasibility study" which is expected to commence in the near future.
Billiards and the Olympics
In our previous issue we reported the optimism of the IBSF that cue sports, including billiards, would make an appearance in the 2006 Commonwealth Games in Melbourne. However, it appears that optimism was misplaced as The General Assembly of the Commonwealth Games Federation finalised the programme on 27th July 2001 without any reference to cue sports.
Not deterred by this set-back, the WPBSA recently announced plans to promote a "World Billiard Sports Championship" in conjunction with the World Confederation of Billiard Sports. This event to be played "next season" would incorporate events for Snooker, 9-ball Pool and Carom as part the continuing efforts to have cue sports accepted into the Olympics. WPBSA Chief Executive Jim McKenzie was quoted as saying "Hopes are high for inclusion in the Beijing Olympics in 2008". Despite the title of the event, English Billiards has evidently been dropped as part of this initiative.
IBSF postpone elections
Due to the situation in Afghanistan, the IBSF have decided to cancel their World Snooker Championship scheduled to be held in Egypt at the end of November. This gathering of IBSF delegates would also have staged the Federation´s AGM and the biennial election of officials which has also been postponed. It is understood that all officers currently in place will retain their positions until elections can be arranged.
Player of the Year
Peter Gilchrist was voted "billiards player of the year" at the WPBSA annual awards ceremony which was held at The Marriott Hotel in Preston on 11th October. The Awards luncheon which is usually held at the Café Royal in London in September was postponed as a mark of respect to the victims of the terrorist attack in the USA. The seven man voting committee was comprised of John Dee (Journalist), Jason Ferguson (WSA Vice-Chairman) Graham Fry, Rory Hopkins and Rick Waulmsley (all TV representatives), Sindu Pulsirivong (President, Thailand Snooker Association) and Steve Davis. They gave Peter his award on the basis of his victory over Mike Russell in the final of the World Professional Championship in Mumbai earlier this year.
EABA Entries
Despite a slight fall in entries for the Amateur Championship, the overall trend of entries for EABA competitions showed an encouraging increase in numbers.
The figures for the new season are as follows (figures for last year in brackets): Amateur Championship 70 (73); Grand Masters 45 (36); Junior Championship 35 (31); Boys Championship 38 (28). Entry forms have still to be distributed for the Inter-County Championship.
