The 2013 Australian Open will take place at the Yarraville Club, Victoria between the 18th – 22nd June and will follow directly on from the Australian National Championship.

The playing format is 150up and the entry pack is available here. 
This event is now underway. Follow the results here. For the event program click here.

Matthew Bolton just won his 11th Australian National Championship, defeating Michael Pearson 2039-755 in the final. He also made the highest break, narrowly missing out on beating his mentor Bob Marshall’s 60 year old record break of 702 when he miscued a pot red, top of the table on 693. For full results see here. Matthew will be hoping to make it a double in the Open event which has just begun.

This event has now been upgraded due to extra prize money being obtained by the promoters, and as such becomes the first Level 4 Premier event on the WBL calendar.

This event will now be a Level 4 (x1.5) Premier ranking event with £3000 (equivalent) prize money, paid in Australian dollars.

The revised prize money breakdown is;

Total prize money is now $5000 (£3000+).

 Aramith Pro-Cup balls will be used for this tournament.

Our thanks must go to the Barrie Jones at the Australian Billiards & Snooker Council and the dedicated tournament committee of Matthew Bolton, Jason Colebrook, Adam Wyard and Grant Meadley for their continued work in promoting this event and billiards in Australia.

World Billiards Ltd is delighted to confirm that the 2013 World Billiards Championship will take place at the Northern Snooker Centre in Leeds during October.

There will be two formats played; Short Up and Long Up. There will also be a Qualification Competition similar to last year, and the Jim Williamson Memorial will act as a curtain raiser for the main World Championship.
Entry for the Jim Williamson Memorial is now open – click here to register for it.

The dates are now confirmed as 18th – 29th October.

The provisional timetable is as follows:
Fri 18th – Qualification Competition
Sat 19th – Jim Williamson Memorial World Open
Sun 20th – Jim Williamson Memorial World Open
Mon 21st – Tue 29th – World Championship

The event will again be a joint venture between WBL and IBSF and entry packs will be distributed to all NGB’s and eligible players in due course.

A hotel deal has been negotiated with the Holiday Inn Express next to the venue. Details will be posted here as soon as this is set up on the booking system at the hotel.

 Aramith Pro-Cup balls will be used for all events during the World Championship.

For details of the qualification criteria and seeding for the 2013 World Championship please see here.

Below is the 2012/13 WBL calendar of events. More details will be published as they are confirmed.

! = Updated details.

World Ranking Event
Level 1

The Bradford Open occurred at Cue Gardens in Bradford, with Dave Causier defeating Matt Sutton 818-225 in the final. Earlier in the tournament Dave rattled in a break of 540..

This was a Level 1 EBOS event and carried half world ranking points with £1000 prize money. As with all Level 1 events this season, this ran exactly as the original EBOS events, including random KO stage draw.

The full results are available here, and Plate here.

Emma Bonney claimed her 7th World Ladies Billiards title today at Cambridge Snooker Centre with a 329-207 victory over Swedish expat Eva Palmius in the final.

As a result Emma Bonney now receives a direct nomination in to the 2013 World Billiards Championship, provisionally scheduled to take place in October.

For a list of previous World Ladies Billiards Champions click here.

Current 150up World Champion Rupesh Shah defeated Indian National Champion Alok Kumar 6-4 in the final of the Asian Billiards Championship at the Indore Tennis Club, India. For full results see here. 

Rupesh Shah is already qualified for the 2013 World Championship as defending champion, so the Asian spot will be awarded to Alok Kumar as runner up. 

For the qualification criteria for the 2013 World Championship see here.

World Billiards Ltd is delighted to announce a brand new Major event on the billiards calendar; The Americas’ Cup will take place in Winnipeg, Canada, between 24th & 29th August 2013.

PLAYING FORMAT
There will be two events, the first of which will be a two day weekend EBOS event played under the standard format, with Timed matches and a Plate competition. This will serve as a warm up to the main event, The Americas’ Cup which will use the single game Long Up format and be played over the remaining four days.

PRIZE MONEY
Prize money for the EBOS event is still to be confirmed.
Prize money for The Americas’ Cup will be £8000.

ENTRY
The entry fee for the EBOS event is still to be confirmed.
The entry fee for The Americas’ Cup is £80.
You can enter here.

VENUE
The venue is the Manitoba Club, Winnipeg, Manitoba – www.manitobaclub.mb.ca. The tables are all antique Burroughs & Watts with steel block cushions and Strachan 6811 Tournament 30oz cloth.

TRAVEL & ACCOMMODATION
The nearest airport is the James Armstrong Richardson International Airport (YWG) in Winnipeg – www.waa.ca.
The promoters in Canada are negotiating with hotels in Winnipeg for an official hotel partner and a special rate. We will post details here once this is confirmed.
Please see here for details of the official World Billiards travel partner, TD Travel.

VISAS
Visas may be required for travel to Canada from some countries. Players are advised to check with the relevant Embassy in their country. More information can also be found on www.cic.gc.ca.

WEATHER
Weather in August in Winnipeg is generally very warm and sunny.

SOCIAL
The promoters are looking to organise a number of social events, which may include an opening reception, golf day, exhibitions and coaching. Further details will be published when available.

EXHIBITIONS & COACHING
There will be a limited number of opportunities for players and coaches to help subsidise their trip with exhibitions and coaching, either before, during or after the event. If this interests you please let Phil know via the Contact Us page.

HISTORY
The seeds for an event in Canada were sowed as far back as 2006 when we first made contact with the Winnipeg Veterans English Billiards League – www.wvebl.com. This league was established in 1921 and currently consists of around 90 players playing in teams of 8 players. For various reasons it has taken the intervening 7 years to turn the original idea in to a reality. Our thanks must go to the team of enthusiasts in Winnipeg for their hard work in bringing this event to fruition.

WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP
The winner of this event will be granted a direct nomination in to the 2013 World Championship.

RULES
The Baulkline Crossing rule will be in effect during the Americas’ Cup, but not in the EBOS event which precedes it.

BALLS
We will be using the new Pro-Cup billiard balls for both tournaments. 

 

 

 

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This is the first confirmed event of our proposed series of 4 Majors, comprising 4 events played on 4 continents. These events will all be played over different playing formats thereby creating a Grand Slam. All will have double ranking points and substantial (minimum £4000) prize money.

It is envisaged that each Major will follow a similar model to the one set out above, and negotiations for these events are ongoing.

Read the rest of this entry »

Matthew Bolton defeated Steve Mifsud 1205 – 801 in the 4 hour final of the 2013 Oceania Billiards Championship.

The highest break was 453 by Matthew Bolton and there were 25 centuries, all of which were made by the two finalists.

Full results are available on the Oceania Billiards & Snooker Federation website.

Matthew Bolton will now receive a direct nomination in to the 2013 World Billiards Championship.

For more details on the qualification criteria for the World Championship see here.

Full Level 3 World Ranking Event

Congratulations to Peter Gilchrist on winning the 2013 Irish Open, defeating Rob Hall 588 – 479 in the 90 minute final. Peter also scored the highest break of the weekend with a 401.

Peter Gilchrist

The Plate competition was won by Sushrut Pandia who beat Jim Burke 185 – 141 in the final.

For full results and stats, click here.

Click here for the updated Rankings and here for the updated Order of Merit.

Our thanks must go to the Republic of Ireland Billiards & Snooker Association and the Ivy Rooms Snooker Club for their hospitality and support for this event.

Irish Open Billiards 2013

From left, Brendan Devlin, Clive Scott, Rob Hall, Peter Gilchrist, Dave Smith and Jim Leacy.

Apologies for not having live streaming at the event. There were a couple of unexpected spanners in the works – the cameraman got a bye through to the semis of the plate which he unexpectedly won, therefore having to play in the final ! [Well done Sushrut BTW]