9-Ball
Topic: Short Memories.

americas the shot! have held back on going to spend more time in states because of euro tour and start of year in uk things were looking up ept,bppa supposed to be getting better,boyzi 10ball tour,and uk 9ball champs..and all 4 have failed and didnt even get past first half of year! well one is struggling lets say,ept not sure whats happening

ive only played really 3 events in uk this year in 6 months ! others were not worth going to!

its a shame!

I'm beginning to think that it would be better to play 4 events a year in the US, at this rate, I like the idea of going to the US Open or the Glass City Open, or if the oppertunity is there, the DCC

I think that it's gonna take some serious very hard work and effort to get a main tour running, that everyone is happy with, but also a tour that everyone will travel to all events and not just those on their own door step.

I still have hope though, that something can be sorted out, not just for the players, but for the sport itself too

Willie

To follow on from the original title of this thread a lot of people definitely do have short memories!!!!

I can remember times when everyone posted on here about how great the last BPPPA event was & what a great job Ted had done, even though the actual events themselves were not especially different to how they are these days.

I was also at the meeting on Saturday with Ted, Shir & Riggers (all the other current members of the player's council were invited but for various reasons were unable to attend). I don't want to go into exact details of what was said there as that would not be constructive on a public forum. We did discuss a lot of the issues which have been mentioned on here though & also others that players have mentioned to me personally.

However, one thing I can say is that Ted really listened to a lot of the things that were said & is making a massive effort this week to try to work out the best way to move forward. I think the best thing we can have now for UK pool is continuity, rather than more or less starting from square one again like we did after Doug's tour finished. We need to really make a proper effort to work together rather than all the in-fighting that has been going on for way too long (not just in the UK but worldwide).

The BPPPA will be issuing a press release early in July so I would suggest to wait for that & see what you all think.

I think you all need to get your head out of the clouds and if you think you can set up a better 9 ball tour up with a better PRIZE fund than do and stop moaning.

i am sure the Farce of the A P N (NOW THATS A JOKE) THAT LASTED A WHOLE YEAR , Guarantead prize money (your bus ticket back home more like)

EMPIRE POOL TOUR LASTED ALL OF 3 OR 4 COMPS .
you all must relize how hard it is.

nobody forces you to play or sign up. you go coz you enjoy the sport.

A lot of you wouldn't be where you are now in the world of 9 ball if it wasn't for the tour I AM SURE IT HAS HELPED YOU.

WELL DONE TED AND SHIRLEY AND THE REST FOR STICKING WITH IT YOUR DOING A FAB JOB.

Is there something wrong with your caps lock cookie?

Personally if Ted does go and I hope he doesn't you might find yourself regretting it in a year or so when nothing gets better and might get a whole lot worse. I don't see someone else coming in and sponsors suddenly appear with loads of money to invest.
The worst thing I think you can do is have players running things because no matter how hard they try they are there for themselves and can't not be biased in their own favour no matter what they tell you. If we had a player run it would they put the effort Ted has into the junior and wheelchair player tours. I for one like the fact that Ted is fair and doesn't help certain players. I know from bitter experience what happens when you let a committee of players run things they just run things to suit themselves and don't care what happens to others.
If Ted does end up going then it will be interesting to see if things improve or we're just back to the same old comments in a short space of time.

I have been reluctant to join in the debate over the merits or otherwise of the BPPPA.

But it is my opinion that, given the circumstances, they are doing as good a job as it is possible for them to do.     What circumstances you may ask.
    
American Pool, although the favoured television sport, is still a minority sport in every country in the world. The only exceptions perhaps are Taiwan and the Philippines.

In the UK there is no interest shown by major sponsors. Even when the WPC, the Mosconi Cup and the World Masters were held here they could not attract significant
Long Term sponsorship. Any tour will have an uphill struggle. And it can only get worse. Lower and lower prize money is now the order of the day. £800 first prize and only the quarter finalists paid makes an event only viable for one player.

Players are clamouring for ‘what they want’. It is time to take a reality check boys. I have always believed that it is a bad thing for any sport to be run by the players. For them – OK but not by them. They cannot be objective about what is best for the survival of their sport. US players have been guilty of this for years and now there is evidence of it in the UK. That was why the Pro 9 Ball Tour was My Way or the Highway

I stopped the Pro 9 Ball Tour when it came down to players playing just for their own money. The cash is not the only issue. There is also nothing else to play for. No other incentive to succeed. Ranking mean nothing whatsoever. On this point I am critical of the BPPPA. Their emergence under the thumb of Europe meant that valuable spots in major events were no longer available to UK players.

We are now back to how things were in the 80s with players having to travel thousands of miles every year to grab some of this glory.

The other negative factor is that almost 70% of the clubs in the UK are operated by a company whose top management do not don't care about serious players or playing conditions. I once held a tournament in one of their clubs where only one of their their 13 tables could be considered playable. This hardly bodes well for the future of the game in the long term.

Many people have urged me to make a return to the scene and I would consider it if there was a major financial injection into the game. Otherwise I could not get motivated to get into my car on a Friday afternoon, drive several hundred miles and return home in the small hours of a Monday. This is what I used to do and pay for he privilege out of my own pocket.

I would be interested in a global development of the game and have already discussed this with a number of key people. There is a small band of World Players such as Petroni, Hundal, Chamat, Souquet, Hohmann, Immonen and now Darren Appleton and I can see that growing. I probably know three of the richest ten men in the world and it is my mission to funnel some of their assets into our sport.

Meantime, I have a small event in Chichester –The for Old Times Sake Open on 19th August. 500 guaranteed first prize and I would welcome any friends old and new to come and see me there. See how a Pro Tour atmosphere used to be. If you would like to play then call me on 07830 376429

i am so glad that some positive comments are starting to come along

i do get it that things are not all rosy but we are starting to go on and on about the 10% of the problems and not the 90% of what is good

eh no one else has said it so i will

well done tommy good win

It seems to me that there are 3 types of people on here. You've got the choppers who can't see the problems because just being in a room with the top players is good enough for them. Then there are the people who can play the game and have dreams about really making it, and then you've got the top players who are living the dream.

Until these different groups of people start to appreciate what things mean to the others, there will always be disagreement.

People are saying that they think the comps are ran well (and i agree that shir does do it very well), but its the things that are out of her hands that are letting us down. We still play on worn out old cloths, we still play in front of windows with the sun shining right at you, we still have to tap the balls at the wrong end of the table and lose the head string - i could go on forever.

Would it not be more appropriate to rename the BPPPA as the BAPPA - because it seems so amateur to me.

So, no more "stop moaning" no more "could you do better" no more "we are lucky to have what we have" - the truth is that something needs to happen quick. If i was connected to the bpppa i would be so embarrassed from the weekend, if ever you needed peoples feelings to be confirmed that was it.

How can any of us have faith when websites are never updated, big tournements are always cancelled, playing conditions are awful (i mean most of the tables at stretford are trash, and we still go to nottingham every year even thou half of the tables are obstructed by structural pillars.

Well anyway thats it for me. No more waitin round all day, no more stressing about when the rankings are updated, no more wasting £165 a year for a certificate and a shirt that you never get, no more no more, no more.

So to those of you who for some reason will still turn up to these events ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha. Next time I'll be staying in bed.

yeah 412 no ponit wasting your money on on an event your only going to play 2 games in.

On 2007-06-25 19:34 , 412-414 Wrote:

Nice to see an intelligent and constructive conclusion to 412's post. I believe this is what is symptomatic of what is wrong in British Pool, a constant wish by a minority to back stab those who try - whoever they are.

It is very easy to throw in quick one liners but much harder to try and provide a service to players year after year even when the going is tough.

EPT and APN on hold, BPPPA in crisis – some people won’t be happy until British pool has totally collapsed and I fear that day will not be far away.

The destructive ill conceived sound bites we see on this forum do nothing to help the sport.


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www.themole.me

We need someone like matchroom / Barry Hearn behind us, big name to move the game forward................

On 2007-06-25 20:58 , Deano Wrote:

That might be the best option in the long run but any tycoon worth their salt researching the background of the sport and reading the total rubbish spouted on this site by a minority would just stay clear.

A third party who is interested and want to invest in the sport may not be able to differentiate between the people who just what to shock and stir and those forum members who want to take the sport forward.

We need to see both sides of any issue fully discussed on this site, as free speech is a basic human right but we should all learn to use is wisely. The world is watching…


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www.themole.me

Always good to have words from Doug. But at the same time I think Ted has done a decent job. Can you honestly blame him for the fact that it's difficult to find sponsers? Can he help it, that Rileys won't support BPPPA events and don't maintain the tables? Is it his fault that there's a lack of decent venues in the UK? Updating the website and giving out what's promised to Members - that is something that should of been addressed.

But my point is that 9-ball is and always will be a sport for the few. You grow it on a local level, (like the APN started to do) and then you increase it on a national level. (which hopefully the county teams might do) Like most things in life you need a goal for people to aim for. Give the choppers something to dream about as well as the pro's.

1) local
2)county events
3)national events
4) international.

95% of players are at 1 or 2 level, the other 47 were in Manchester last weekend.

at the end of the day we need players and that will fix the problem

its all very well boycotting the tour you are just fulfilling you own profacy

if 100 players could gaurantee 10 events a year that would make paying to last 16 would be worthwhile and so would the standard

i promise you call people choppers if you like but there are 100 people in this country who can break and run a couple of racks and that person is always dangerous to play no matter how good you may think you are

are only real issues as i see it are membership fees (£15000) ish

venues and website

are these issues really big enough to ruin our longest standing tour

if not go to the next event and voice your concerns through the man himself but also play pool cause that is what we all are supposed to be doing

i think a solution right now would be to cancel the rankings as they are now, the remaing events in the year open up to everyone and make the entry the same for all. say £35

my club in cambridge which is mainly a student city have to promote our club every september when all the new students arrive, we give out tons of free memberships coz you have to get customers thru the door

this is wat ted should be doing, you dont need to charge member fees, let anyone play in the events for the same fee, i mean wat is that one-day pro liscense all about, i think this puts a few prospective players off.

its probably not that bad if you analize things, just need to use the remaining events of the year to get some real interest in the tour and say kick-off with a fresh start in january, also there is plenty of us that would help in anything that needs to be done.

if the bpppa want a tourney down south then give us a shout

that sounds perfectly acceptable i could put up an alternative plan but lets all get behind one we can mainly accept

one slight amendment instead of no rankings pick the best 8 or 10 events from the current 24 event sheet and that would not be a million miles off right i think

Pool Jedi - 'Choppers' are not to be confused with clowns. Choppers to me are those who can run a rack or two, solid players - who could make the last 32 or 16 of a BPPPA comp quite easily. ie 95% of us (me included) The other 5% are the Eurotour boys and hardcore who do every event - Dazzler and Disher etc.

It's like the premiership there's probably 500 players in total and a handful get the glory. Actually now I'm talking rubbish!!

well i promise you there are 100+ players solid and above

all i want is for them to turn up
this isnt for my benefit cause those who know me would say i would struggle to qualify for the last 32 if everyone was there but i would like to try

Just a warning in case anyone posting in this thread wasn't aware that doing so in a balanced and considered manner might not cause any offence whatsoever