News from the editor’s chair

As the first year since the Amateur Billiards Player launch draws to a close I thought that it would be
an appropriate time idea to ask myself, and, more importantly, you the readers, a couple of pertinent
questions…what, if anything, has been achieved over the past twelve months and was it worth all the
effort?

Well if I were to look honestly at the balance sheet (and I’m not talking in financial terms here!) I
would say that our prime objectives of keeping the lines of billiards related communication open and
providing a forum for the exchange of ideas have been well and truly met. On the debit side, the
subscription numbers are modest and I personally had hoped that the word would have spread to a
wider audience given the known numbers of active participants in events such as the English
Amateur, the ABC tournaments and the CIU, not to mention the numbers of players at grass roots
level playing local league billiards.

One sure sign of the vitality of any publication is the level of correspondence it receives and publishes
and I am delighted to say that the Amateur Billiards Player now feels like a grown-up magazine in
this respect and I will personally try to ensure that, within reason, all letters are published, even the
critical ones! We are delighted with the efforts of our regular expert contributors. Jack Karnehm and
Mark Wildman and I am pleased to announce that Derick Townend has agreed to cover the ABC
tournaments in future editions from a first hand perspective, however 1 would still like your
suggestions on other subjects that we could cover m this way.

I am delighted to report that Jack Karnehm has generously donated 25 videos to the magazine which
we will be offering for sale, with the proceeds going towards our general funding. The subject
covered is top of the table play and although I have not yet had a preview I understand that Jack has
provided an extensive study of this intricate facet of the game and several sizeable breaks are included
in the footage. Demand is likely to be high so please contact Malcolm Lax directly on 01788 541080
if you are interested in obtaining a copy.

We all know that billiards is a minority sport, please don’t read this as negativity, and as a result the
potential marketplace for this magazine and by definition the wider billiards audience is limited. This
means that we need to be an active and at times more vociferous minority if we want to keep the
Amateur Billiards Player a lively and stimulating mouthpiece for the game. So let me issue a
challenge, if you can think of a billiards angle, a particular player profile or interview that you would
like to read, some bit of billiards history from old reports or whatever relevant subject captures your
imagination please let me know and I will try to incorporate it.

OK, soapbox session over. I hope that you find this latest edition the most comprehensive yet and you
should also find enclosed entry forms for the Amateur championship which should be the most open
and unpredictable for years with the distinct possibility of a new name on the trophy, so let’s have a
record entry! Talking of records, I gather that numbers in the active pro ranks have just reached the
60 mark and if this current rate of growth is maintained we will reach a situation where numbers of
entries in the English Amateur and Professional championships will be on a par, something that
would have been unimaginable several years ago. I also hear that the Widnes player Peter Sheehan
has recently joined the pro ranks and I wish him every success in the future, he is a fine top end player
and a most fluent cueist. Let’s not forget that the strength of the professional game in most sports is a
direct barometer of the health of the amateur ranks which supply the raw material, so judged on this
criterion alone we must be in good shape.

If one digs a little deeper however the current dynamics of amateur billiards do lead us to a cautionary
conclusion which we must try to redress.if the game is to thrive. My perspective is that we have a four
tier environment in terms of active players; firstly at grass roots level there are the local league players
who are quite happy in their environment and have no wish or desire to take their interest beyond this
stage either as players or spectators; at national level we have the Amateur Billiard Circuit, the CIU
and the English Amateur Championship events populated mainly by the hard core of die-hard
enthusiasts mostly at the upper local league level and beyond in terms of ability who enter with no real
expectation of winning events but enjoy their billiards, the day out and the company immensely; then
we have the hard core of higher ranking amateurs who’ve been knocking around the circuit for years
and still aspire to being there or thereabouts when the latter stages of competitions are reached.

Finally there are the youngsters, mostly from Teesside, but encouragingly from other areas of the
country too. who comprise a section covering the entire ability range from serious contenders with
professional aspirations to avid and enthusiastic learners. The first two categories still comprise the
backbone of the amateur game, certainly numerically, but they are typically middle aged and beyond,
and their ranks will only diminish over time. I know that this is a somewhat simplistic description
but I would argue that it is a profile that most of us would recognise. A pessimistic outlook might be
that the majority of the third category i.e. the youngsters will thrive for a time, a small minority will
make it to the pro ranks and of the rest some will stay with the game and others will migrate to
snooker or drop out completely. Our challenge as players and enthusiasts must be to widen the
geographic base from which new talent is derived and to keep the conveyor belt to the pro ranks open
because, paradoxically,, the regular transition from amateur to professional which temporarily
weakens the pool of amateur talent actually works in its favour by raising the profile of the game on
the wider stage which in turn ensures the regeneration at youth level that is so essential.

All of which is very easy to say and much, much harder to achieve, but it’s a challenge we have to
face; my gut feeling is that the game in general is in better shape than for many years so I’ll close on
that optimistic note and wish all our readers happy reading and a prosperous New Year.