Australian Billiards & Snooker Council

News

2008 President's Address
21 Jan 2008

I would like to start by wishing all Billiard & Snooker players, officials and supporters a healthy and prosperous New Year.

This will be the first year of my tenure as President of the Australian Billiards & Snooker Council and I wish to briefly outline what I hope we can achieve in 2008.

I am pleased to advise you all that CL&S have entered into a new agreement with the ABSC as the ‘Sponsor of Record’, and their continuing support of Billiards & Snooker in Australia is greatly appreciated.

The Billiards & Snooker Supporters Club (BSSC) will continue to operate and Mike Peachey, will for 2008, remain the contact for this initiative which has been so successful in raising funds to support our players at IBSF Championships in the past few years.

In addition there will be a new initiative in 2008 called the 200 Club, which is a Progressive Lottery. In this lottery there will be 6 draws of $1000 and 2 draws of $2000 made at various times and venues throughout the year. The six draws of $1000 will all be made just prior to the finals of nominated National Ranking Tournaments. The 2 draws of $2000 will be held just prior the final of the Australian National Championships at the RACV and at the ‘Bob Hawke AC’ Australian Open at the Mounties.

The numbers from 1-200 will be entered into the draw at each event thereby giving all holders of a number, 8 opportunities to win some of the prize money on offer. In fact even if you win a draw; you are not excluded from future draws as with some lotteries, but you are still entered into the remaining draws for 2008, giving you more chances at winning additional prize money.

The numbers will each cost $100, and you will be entered in all 8 individual draws throughout 2008 with total prize money of $10,000 on offer. There are no exclusions as to who can enter the lottery, as it is totally transparent with all draws made in public by different people at each draw.

An individual, Billiards or Snooker Team, Clubs or syndicates may purchase the numbers, and there is no limit on how many numbers they may purchase.

The owners of the numbers, which will last for the entire calendar year and all draws during that year, will be posted on the ABSC website so that when a number is drawn everyone will instantly know who the winner is. You do not have to be in attendance at the draw to be a winner, and the name of the winner will be posted on the front page of the ABSC website and in ‘The Australian’ on the Tuesday after the draw has been completed.

The main reason for this initiative is to raise the additional funds necessary to support the ever- increasing number of representatives going to the IBSF World Championships. In 2008 the ABSC will run an Under 21 Ladies Snooker Championships. Australia has up to 3 places for U21 female players to go to the World Championships in France to be contested at the same time as the Under 21 Mens Championships.

With the successful introduction of the Masters in the IBSF World Calendar in recent years we have an ever-increasing number of positions available for players to go to the World Championships.
The ABSC has a responsibility to support our best players to represent Australia at these Championships, and this means raising more funds. In 2007 we were fortunate that the IBSF World Billiards was in Singapore, with the Mens, Womens and Masters all in Thailand and the U21 in India. This meant that all the events were held in the southern hemisphere, and thereby the costs to send our players was far less than in 2008, where only the Billiards is in India and all other Championships in the northern hemisphere.

The increased cost to support our players will be considerable, so I appeal to all players, officials and supporters alike to get behind all the initiatives that the ABSC undertake to help us support our players to represent Australia.

If you are an existing member of the BSSC then please confirm your ongoing commitment to the sport and renew your membership for 2008.

If you are a pro-active person or just somebody who thinks they can help in the selling of the lottery numbers for the ‘200 Club’ please contact me direct and let me know how you can help. To try to sell the numbers to only people within our own fraternity is a further drain on our members. We need therefore to sell the numbers to people we work with, families, our friends outside the Billiards & Snooker scene, acquaintances from other sporting interests we may enjoy.

Details of the 200 Club and the purchase of the numbers will be released shortly, as with the new information for the BSSC members.

If you have any other suggestions for raising money to assist in supporting our players please contact me direct at btl@bigpond.net.au .

We have a new Coaching and Elite Junior Player program sponsored by CL&S called the Mitchell Billiards Junior Development Program. The basis of this initiative is to identify potential champions amongst our juniors across Australia. As part of our ‘Mitchell Billiards’ Junior Development Program the identified players will be offered elite coaching from the new National Directors of Coaching Robby Foldvari and Glen Wilkinson. This coaching will be conducted at nominated venues, and the nominated player will receive support to attend these coaching clinics. Hence we groom our talented juniors as potential Champions of the future, not just in Australia but also Internationally.

It is intended that the selected players to represent Australia at the IBSF World U21 Championships should attend a Coaching clinic prior to going to the Championships. Either a Coach or Manager will attend the Championships with the players to oversee their performance In addition the players receive valuable assistance of a Coach or Manager whilst away from home and missing their normal support structure.

The National Ranking Scheme continues to go from strength to strength with increased prize monies being offered by many of the tournaments. Our thanks go to the organisers of each of these tournaments, which are the lifeblood of our competition structure in Australia. These tournaments are the measuring stick by which we gauge all players around Australia. They give spectators the opportunity to see the skills of our top players; Australian based, returning pros from the UK Tour and visiting Internationals, all live in our own backyard!

In closing, I would like to sincerely thank all the people who have been supporters of our great sport in the past and look forward to working with you all in the future to the benefit of our great sport.

Barrie Jones
ABSC President