GLOBAL SNOOKER NEWS

For the first time in over two years World Snooker and the IBSF (International Billiards and Snooker Federation) took their seats as fully integrated members of the WCBS (World Confederation of Billiard Sports), at a WCBS Board Meeting in Germany last weekend.

World Snooker were represented by Jim McMahon and Adrian Metcalfe, and McMahon was enthusiastic about the success of the talks.

“We were delighted with the meeting. It was very positive.

“The new WCBS Constitution has allowed both World Snooker and IBSF to take their places as equal partners to represent snooker and I was delighted to have talks with Pascal Guillaume, the new IBSF President, and to discuss his pro-active ideas for developing amateur snooker internationally.

“Adrian and I make a good team, with our differing backgrounds.”

The agenda was dominated by discussions of cue sports participation in the 2005 World Games, being staged in Duisburg, Germany in July 2005.

Snooker, pool and carom will be played at the multi-sport event, under the auspices of the WCBS, with full input from both World Snooker and IBSF.

Sixteen players compete in the snooker division, led by defending champion Bjorn Haneveer, from Belgium, and complemented by a blend of professional and amateur players from around the world, including newly crowned IBSF Champion, Mark Allen.

McMahon was excited about the event saying “This is a wonderful opportunity to present cue sports to a global audience, and to introduce snooker to new countries and viewers.

“Our ultimate ambition would be to stage a multi-cue sports event under the WCBS umbrella. That would be a great achievement.”

Pascal Guillaume, the IBSF President echoed McMahon’s views commenting “I was delighted with our talks. It was a very positive meeting and I think also that everyone is so pleased to be working together.

Guillaume, one of France’s leading lawyers, was recently elected as Vice President of the French Billiards Federation, the first time in the 102 history of the Federation that anyone from snooker has achieved such an honour.

World Snooker have also held meetings with the EBSA (European Billiards and Snooker Association) further reinforcing their close working relationship.

World Snooker intend to work with EBSA to further develop their scheduled Pontin’s International Open Series, to potentially include a further four European open events to commence in the 2006-7 season. Close attention will also be paid to ensuring that the 2005-6 Pontin’s International Open Series will be viable and attractive to European and international competitors.

Tony Murphy of World Snooker explained “We want to ensure that as many players as wish to enter, are able to. It is World Snooker’s intended aim to continue to work closely with Pontin’s to provide professional playing conditions for a whole raft of events.

“We will also work closely with EBSA and the national associations to ensure that players are fully aware of the events on the calendar and to further develop playing opportunities in Europe. One of the ideas on the table is to develop a truly International Open Series played around Europe, enabling all players to compete in as few or many events as they wish.”

EBSA Secretary Maxime Cassis stressed “Europe is a very exciting snooker market now. The Eurosport television coverage of major events has had a huge impact. The whole of Europe has been energised by this and we are seeing tangible evidence that there is a big uplift with more players and more countries are participating in growing numbers.”

The EBSA’s calendar of events for 2005 takes the players to Malta for the European Team Championship in March, to Ekaterinburg in Russia for the European Under 19 Championship and to Poland for the European Championships. Switzerland, host of the hugely successful Swiss Open Pro-Am, have already won the bid to host the European Championships in 2006.

Paul Collier, one of the world’s leading referees, took time out from his busy schedule at Newport to address the EBSRA Seminar (European Billiards and Snooker Referee’s Association) and proved to be so popular that the referees kept him talking for more than half an hour over his allotted time.

“I really enjoyed the Seminar”, commented Collier. “It was very positive and a lot of very constructive topics and ideas were discussed.”

World Snooker have recently granted the EBSRA a licence to publish the full rules on their website, and EBSRA have already made the rules available in a range of languages from French to Russian.