9-Ball
Topic: The 2007 UK 9 Ball Championship

topless women, the table set on a time-bomb, castrating match losers, qualifying events to win entrance fees, info sent through the post about upcoming events, different formats for each event, buffets, side poker matches, more players in customized shirts like 'Hews the daddy' and less bitching on pro 9.

I have to go out now....just got to the end of all these replies!

Will have a good think and reply tomorrow.

Hopefully Ted will have replied by then!


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I think in this country, pool players are lucky they have some form of a pool tour. I can't comment on other parts of Europe but I'm guessing other countries in Europe have less of a choice or any tours at all.
In the Philippines which as you all know is a hotbed for pool have no such tours, the best players from the country only ever meet up once a year and thats for the National championships.
.........bottom line is, scrap the tours, everyone serious about their pool should all play money games, preferably in an environment where all the Big Guns hang out with quality equipment. Why spend all that money travelling up and down the country for a couple of hundred quid?
Tournaments should be limited to maybe 5 or 6 a year where you can attract top quality players, e.e you can name them The British Masters, The British Open, The UK Championships, Scottish Open, Welsh Open etc etc.............i'm not slating the BPPPA but to be honest with you only a dozen player can ever win......the rest are fighting for scraps.
If you want to spend 200 quid every weekend to play the best players, you may as well ask Dazzler or the Dynamite for a 4 start, race to 9, i'm sure they be happy to take your money

biggest problem we got nothing compared to america ,asia,and most european countries in uk we not got no local leagues or national leagues etc whereas countires above have national and local leagues..we are dominated by english 8ball and snooker!!

we are long road from growing into a big sport unfortunatley in uk and our bodies dont have a pot to go to the bathroom in basically and rileys are not that interested in sponsoring tournaments they are desighned for pub drinkers and people to hang out and have fun!

everything that as been run so far in uk as gone tits up and disapeared! we pay silly member fees and get nothing for it.. nothings moved forward imo

shame!

but i have something in pipe line what am thinking of doing but just a idea at moment!

Well, i have had chance to read through this thread properly now, and there are some big comments back there!

Firstly i thank the guys that have praised my work on the EPT, and supported the ept.....this means a lot to me and it is much appreciated.

I think the bottom line is that pool clubs are not the answer for bringing our game forward......even more so if nearly all of the events are in the same club too!

At the moment the bpppa have about 12 or so events on thier calender, 3 of which are the previously mentioned "British Open" style events......which to be honest have been on the calender for 3 years now!

When i started the EPT, Mark Segal and myself (with the massive help from Mark Mills) had a plan to start off resonably small, with 5/6 club events to get the players involved then move up a level....away from the clubs and to a more professional set up. Ok i know it was 8ball, but the support of the tour faded for no apparent reason.....we held an event in Liverpool at one of the best clubs in the UK with over £9,000 guaranteed prize money paying down to last32, and only managed to get 68 entries!

Even with a top notch set up, i am not sure if we have enough dedicated, serious players who are really willing to put thier money where thier mouth is to actually warrent setting up a top notch tour! I know these are harsh words but its what i have come to beleive......i have some massive and realistic ideas for a HUGE tour with 6 massive events per year. the cash outlays and work load would be substancial to set this up, and i dont think there is enough support to attempt it.

At the end of the day, as Ted, Mark, Doug, Ricardo, myself and all other people who have ran events know, its far more harder to organize than many players realise.
And also, players want the guaranteed money, so in effect, we (Mark Segal and myself) would have to put the money up first, then look for sponsors.....now i am not sure if i am ready to do this again to be honest.
Dont get me wrong, if the support was there, i would jump at it, there is no doubting that.....but as i have mentioned above, there doesnt seem to be enough players willing to commit to a tour to warrent the hard work and cash that i would have to put into it!

And dont forget either, that i am essentially a pool PLAYER and i travel around the world a lot to play in top events......this takes up a lot of my time, then add to this my other work in property, my new baby daughter, and you can see that my schedule is pretty busy!

My final word is this, i am not saying i wouldnt go for this, but with out the support of the players it is not worth it for me, and i dont mean financially as i wouldnt want to make loads of cash out of it.....i mean for the huge effort that it would take to do it PROPERLY!

I think that what we should do is just wait and see what happens with this "british open" and then decide which direction we need to take.


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well your up early dazzler

you have put a lot of effort in there daryl to that reply but we both know the improvement in the BPPPA is there for all to see yes we need to sort the venues yes there are other aspects which need looking at but i think we should be careful not to have a knee jerk reaction and end up starting all over again.

there are people posting in this forum who have no intention of paying decent money to play in a big money event so although you think there is a base of support there is not.

i promise you daryl you could have dancing girls and free beer but you will still struggle to ever get more than 80 entrants

stick to playing mate your on fire leave this to someone else

pooljedi, I think you need to read dazzlers post again.

I thought the EPT'S rumoured concept of a two tiered tour was a winner.

surely this would help bring back the support for the game

If we get a pro set up, then it'll bring players in from around europe. we need those players to take the UK game to the next level.......

I know events are struggling to get past 60 odd entrants but when I first started to play on the BPPPA there were over 100 entrants at each event!! Whats changed and whats improved if we can no longer get near that figure!

Having read most of the posts on this thread over the last couple of days I've come to the conclusion that the UK doesn't need a tour. I f players want to play on a tour then they can go over to the Eurotour.

I think the way forward is for individual clubs to hold annual tournaments. The successful ones will survive and become part of a regular calendar. The unpopular ones will fold and a space will then exist for somebody else to fill.

Most people no longer care about rankings they just want a chance to win a nice sum of money.

On 2007-06-05 10:09 , Pool-Ace Wrote:

WHY ??

On 2007-06-05 10:02 , pooljedi Wrote:

The only improvment was letting Shirley run the events that are now run much better than before and that is the only improvement, all players are simply asking for is more contact, more updates so they know whats happening, all players who pay a membership have a right to know where their fees are going and by law they are entitled to have a yearly sheet to tell you where all the money is going to, then no one can complain where this all goes to, when me and Boyzi did the Grand Masters we did not advertise it until it was 100% certain ON, and this should be the same with the BPPPA UK Championships, Another reason people enjoyed and praised the EPT was because they got answers and regular updates, they knew where all the money went and could also see the EPT was running at a loss and as Daryl said we were putting a lot of work into it for the players and we were just not getting the support to carry on, another point on some players who said the entry fees were a bit high on the EPT, well a reason for this was players were saying the BPPPA had to many events and we needed to have less events with a higher entry fee, well we did this and well you know the answer, we are always here and if the players want to get better tours then your support is needed, I will start another thread and give us ideas that you want for a future tour if it is to be another tour for you the player, lets do something now before it is too late.

I think the people who play pool for a federation that they are not happy with and those who care about ranking points are those that are hoping that those huge ranking points will give them entries to tournaments that only the elite ranked players can have entry to, and it is with that hope that one would cling to a federation they are not happy with.

Im with Pool Ace on this one. I think the UK needs to hold no frills, does what it says on the tin cash events.

Unfortunately, much as you all may gasp at this, pool is a minority sport & will never become fully mainstream IMO. However, by being honest and upfront, not dishing out meaningless ranking points and organising well run cash events that are marketed properly, there's no reason why the UK calendar cant be full up with decent tourneys.

People are getting promised things that are never delivered (Not the EPT by the way). Thats why they get disheartened and the numbers keep dropping.

If big tournaments are marketed well in advance, then you could easily get 100+ entrants like you used to.

I think people need to wake up & realise that there isnt actually a proper tour in place anyway.

Daryl I think pool players in general would like to play every tournament and forget about every thing, but like your self there is only finite time that people can spend playing or organising pool due to the amount of time off one can take from work unless they own the business.

There is a matter of financial obligations such as mortgage, rent e.t.c, also family commitment like your self, there are also a wide choice of pool tournaments one can enter, also most pool players are working class people.

I think the problem also lies in the fact that people cannot commit to a full EPT, BPPPA and Mickey Flynns and other independant tours, there is simply not enough cash, time or players to make all the tours successful in a year.

And that is why there are massive paek and troughs in tournaments unless an amalgamation takes place and then people have no choice but to commit to one tour.

On 2007-06-05 10:21 , Pool-Ace Wrote:

2 things i disagree with here

a) what about those who want to play on a tour but can't squeeze playing the eurotour into their life with a full time job and family??

b) the number of people with a serious chance of winning enough cash to make a profit is small, rankings offer the others a goal to keep playing and improving.

Lancaster Bomber - not really sure what you are getting at.....

Why do you specifically want to play on a "tour". How exactly do you define a tour? I dont think the BPPPA constitutes a tour any more.

If there is no prize/goal at the end of the tour why have the tour at all?

I dont see how meaningless rankings offer players a goal at all. It means that the rankings can be somewhat artificial as those who turn up to every event will be high up in the rankings anyway.

Surely people need to realise that unless a tour has an end goal, ie qualification for Worlds or something, why have it at all?

If everyone pulled together and each party tried to organise 1/2 decent cash events each year, you wouldnt need a tour. I dont see how this differs to the current situation except there'd be more events with better turnouts as people dont begrudge playing a membership fee for nothing.

On 2007-06-05 11:12 , Rocky404 Wrote:

ok, if we have 5 events over the course of a year, each with 128 entrants, how many of those entrants are seriously in with a chance of breaking even financially with fees and expenses?? Why would the 80 or so who don't have a hope in h3ll keep turning up?

This is one of the main reasons the BPPPA has died this year because the rankings mean nothing and people are needing to get to the last 4 to cover their costs. If the rankings meant something like the top 32 getting entry to an end of season comp or end of season bonuses etc then people will play. As for those players just starting out or improving, rankings over the course of a couple of seasons all them to see how they're improving and allow them to set goals for themselves.

Cash only comps only suit those with a serious chance of winning the top prize.

On 2007-06-05 11:12 , Rocky404 Wrote:

ok, if we have 5 events over the course of a year, each with 128 entrants, how many of those entrants are seriously in with a chance of breaking even financially with fees and expenses?? Why would the 80 or so who don't have a hope in h3ll keep turning up?

This is one of the main reasons the BPPPA has died this year because the rankings mean nothing and people are needing to get to the last 4 to cover their costs. If the rankings meant something like the top 32 getting entry to an end of season comp or end of season bonuses etc then people will play. As for those players just starting out or improving, rankings over the course of a couple of seasons all them to see how they're improving and allow them to set goals for themselves.

Cash only comps only suit those with a serious chance of winning the top prize.