Hi Phil
When you hold billiard tournaments, how do you work the scoring to decide a winner of a match. I have heard
that you may have timed matches, but have no idea what that might represent. I also heard that you would have 150 point matches,
but again am not sure what that necessarily represents. Would that be 150 point matches, best of 5, 7 or 9 or something like
that? We are just trying to get an idea as to how you would normally run a tournament.
Most National and International tournaments
these days are played to the 'Timed' format, rather than the 'Up' format (250up/500up etc - first person to 250/500 points).
One of the main reasons for this is scheduling - you know exactly when an event is going to finish. A simple digital timer
with an audible alarm is used to time the matches. We use 'darkroom timers' as were used in photography developing labs until
everything went high tech! They are becoming hard to find these days so a cookery timer or similar is often used. You would
need at least two of them, in case one match had to be stopped for any reason. The winner of the match is the person
who is in front at the time of the 'bell'. In the event of a match being tied equal scores at the end of the allotted time
you have two scenarios. In a knockout tournament you would normally play an extra 10 minutes to decide the winner, whereas
in a round-robin group match you would record a 'half win' for each player - half a point each rather than 1 point for the
winner and 0 points for the loser. You still need to keep a record of the match scores as well because if you have a
tie for (say) 2nd place in a group, you would then go to the points aggregate to determine who is 2nd and who is 3rd.
As for the length of timed matches, it
varies largely depending on what tournament you are playing in. For a one day knockout tournament (such as National ranking
events - we play 6 per season in England) you would look to play 1 hour matches. This is about the minimum for a KO tournament,
but it allows it to be finished in one day. There is also a 'plate' competition for 1st round losers, giving everyone at least
2 hours of billiards in the course of the day. In the case of a National Championship such as the English Amateur,
we play 90 minutes round robin group matches, followed by 4 hour KO from the last 16 onwards. I think most National billiards
championships are done this way. I know the Australians are definitely done this way. The Australians run their championship
over a week all at once. The English Amateur is done over several sections lasting several months. We have the 'Regional Qualifying
Round' which is round robin groups of 4 players, 90 min matches on one day. Then we go to the 'Intermediate' stage (last 32)
where again we play 90 min round robin matches on one day. Then it goes to 4 hour KO matches at the last 16 stage. We play
last 16 on a Saturday, and last 8 on the Sunday of the same weekend, and finally we play semi final and final over another
Saturday and Sunday - again 4 hour matches!!! Now, the English Amateur attracts around 100 entries every year, so for the
matches to be of decent length it has to be run this way. The Australian National on the other hand usually has around 20
entries so they get it done all in one hit. Another good thing about the way the Aussies do their championships is that they
run their National and their Open alongside each other, minimising the time people have to travel to play, whilst maximising
the playing time they have whilst they are there. They usually run the Open on the timed format and the National on the 150up
format (although for internal political reasons they have swapped this around this year which is a negative step in my opinion
- no one is going to fly to Australia just to play 150up format!). The round robin group matches are 'Best of 3', whilst the
KO matches are Best of 5, 7 and 9 for the final. The World Championship in Singapore later this year is going to be similar
to this in that it is going to be both formats - one tournament 150up, and one on timed. The 150up format is ok (ish!)
but it is generally accepted that this is a warm up to the main event. Purist billiards players hate the 'short format' 150up
matches in general.
We are talking to the Canadian Billiards & Snooker Association, who is the so called governing body for
pool in Canada, to get more information from them as to what we would be working with, to have billiards recognized appropriately.
From talking to Manitoba's representative for the Canadian Billiards & Snooker Association, the Canadian Billiards &
Snooker Assocation may not be familiar with our game. There will probably have to be some additional information provided
to the assocation to try and get them to be onside, but only guessing on that for now. The province of Manitoba's Men's and
Senior Men's Snooker representatives will be going to the Nationals, and both play in our billiard league. The Canadian
Billiards & Snooker Association's annual general meeting will be taking place during the Nationals, and the Association
has suggested that a presentation be brought forward during the meeting, regarding our desire to have a Natonal
Championship as well as a possible Open Championship. It is also to try and be recognized by the Association, to make
available the spots which might be provided to them for the Worlds, and hopefully at some point in time, the Commonwealth
and Olympic Games.
The spots in the World Championship in
Singapore this September are already open to players from the Canadian Association by virtue of the fact that they are members
of the IBSF. All they have to do is nominate the players, sign the entry form and you're in! Whether these forms ever get
to the right person is the $64000 question though, especially as the Canadian Association probably don't think anyone
in Canada is playing billiards! I do know that these forms have been sent out to all National Governing Bodies about
2-3 weeks ago. According to the IBSF website the delegate for Canada is a Steve Cooper, so I suppose if correct procedure
was followed he should be the person in possession of said entry forms.
I suppose we could always run an event without the Association's recognition, but think it would be best to
have their recognition, to provide the so called credibility as a recognized event. This might be required as well, to have
the access to the invitations which may be sent to the Canadian Billiards & Snooker Association. We are currently
working on finding out what we are dealing with, with the Association, and deal with it from there. The
Association could also provide a possible mailing list to appropriately advertise.
If you are able to get official recognition
from the CBSA for what you are doing then fantastic - it will open doors more easily. If however you can't, then do it anyway!
In my experience some of these type of actions force the door open over a period of time, and then there is always the possibility
of your events being 'adopted' under the official umbrella at a later date. From small acorns...
If you wouldn't mind providing the information on the scoring system used at a tournament, and just
a brief (I don't do brief!!!) explanation
on how they work please. That would then give us an idea of how else a tournament could be run, for future reference. We
have had Manitoba Open Billiards Championships, and have run them on a first player to X number of points type
format, just so you know. Also, what is the normal entry fee charged at Open events for the players? What is the normal
prize money provided for these events, if any?
Prize money for billiards events is generally
quite low. People play billiards for the love of the game, not just for the money. Unfortunately prize money has become so
low in recent years it has become demeaning to the sport. I played in the IBSF World Championship in Malta 2 years ago and
there was ZERO prize money! Myself and a few others have recently set up the EBOS tour in Europe, where the long term aim
is to raise the bar again. I will send you some more info on this shortly.
Please let us know. Thanks Phil
I hope all of this helps - if you have
any more questions please don't hesitate to ask. In the meantime you may be able to glean some more info from the following
websites:
