ABSC

Details are now available for the 2012 Australian Open which takes place at the Yarraville Club near Melbourne, Victoria, Australia between 25th – 30th June.

This is a long standing event in the Australian cue sports calendar, but this is the first time it has become a World Billiards ranking event.

A full entry pack is available here.

Online entry is available via the Australian Billiards & Snooker Council website.

Our thanks must go to Adam Wyard from the ABSC for his hard work over the last few months to bring this collaboration together.

Ranking Event 6

Pot Black Sports Bar
Auto Park, Eastgate Street
Bury St Edmunds,
Suffolk IP33 1YQ,
England

Sat and Sun 19/20 May 2012

STOP PRESS: Check out the Media Section for live webcam schedule.

For latest results check here.

The playing schedule is available here.

The draw is :-

Please take a moment to familiarise yourself with our rearranged Menu Bar above.

Note that we have a new page dedicated to our Focus Group. You will need to be logged in to access it however. Once logged in you will see it under Members.

UK members: The ‘country selection’ in the members profile has been updated. ‘United Kingdom’ has now been subdivided into:- Scotland, England, Wales, Rep. of Ireland and Northern Ireland.
Please update your details appropriately – log in and then go to Edit My Details.
I would advise ALL members to check that the correct country is showing. I am planning to introduce national flags before next season.

Checkout the program broadcast by Austrian Sports TV on our recent Austrian Open !!!

The Austrian Sports channel ORTF did a short Sports News broadcast a day or so after the tournament. However they found it so exciting that they edited a longer program (a full 11 minutes)  and broadcast this a few weeks later. See our Media Section for this.

The content is understandably oriented towards our Austrian players, especially Werner Rieschl’s exciting victory over Phil Davis by a single point in the last 16. There’s plenty on our Dave however.

Many congratulations to Robert Parik and his team for pulling this off. If only we could generate the same TV interest at all our events.

Things are happening at World Billiards and we want to keep you up-to-date :-

• If you’re not aware of the fantastic tournament we had in Vienna at the 2012 Austrian Open, read it here.
  Also check out the improved video quality in the highlights of the Final in our Media Section.
• In our Announcements section, read about our plans for a Players Forum here.
• Also in the Announcements section, a statement re several important items.
• Lastly, we are trialling our new Results System on our sister site. Please bear with us as it is still under development, however it has detailed results of all events this season, including ranking points earned, breaks, etc.
  To use it, you should first select a tournament, then you can view all details about it.

The Board

Ranking Event 5

Köö 5 Billardcafe
Siebenbrunnengasse 21, Obj.B
Vienna, A-1050
Austria

Dave Causier wins again, defeating Rob Hall 847-267.

Note that we are trialling our new ONLINE RESULTS.  Just go here and click under the View menu for final details of all games. Please bear in mind however that it is still under development.
For the Plate tournament, go here.

TV Interview

Here is Dave, keeping cool, being interviewed for Austrian TV. Click here for their first report, but your German better be sehr guht, at least as good as Dave’s !
They were so impressed with the event that they are doing an 11-minute coverage next weekend.

Previous visitors to this tournament know of the Austrians’ exceptional hospitality, and this was no exception. They organised events before and during the main event, providing excellent food and the excellent media promotion, including Austrian TV.
WBL wish to thank all the hosts, players and sponsors of this excellent tournament – a real showpiece.

Presentation

This picture shows Rob Hall, the runner-up, being presented with the cheque by Robert Parik (HSEBC president), accompanied by Clive Scott (TD), Maxim Cassis (EBSA) and Alan Chamberlain (WBL Chairman).

Austrian Open 2012

Sponsors

Please note that our kind sponsors for this event – Kirsch - are offering 100 Euros for the first 10-shot of the season !  It didn’t occur at this event, so it is still open.

Prizes

£1000 – Winner (Dave Causier)
£450 – Runner Up (Rob Hall)
£225 – Semi-Finalists (Billy Bousfield, John Hartley)
£100 – Quarter-Finalists (Phil Mumford, Werner Rieschl, Guy Heys, Chris Taylor)
£50 - Last 16 (Martin van Rhee, Phil Davis, Patrick Stegmeier, Manfred Raidl, Christian Pleschko, Ron Agnew, Brian Harvey, Felix Knoll)
£50 – High Break (Dave Causier – 706)
£150 – Plate Winner (Roy Bacon)
£75 – Plate Runner Up (Tina Owen-Sevilton)
£25 – Plate High Break (Roy Bacon)
Total £3000
Note that a 2.5% levy is deducted from all prize money for WPBSA governance.

There was a special prize of €50 for the best performing local entrant, sponsored by HSEBC. This was won by Werner Rieschl who beat Phil Davis by ONE POINT in the last 16 in a thrilling game to enter the quarter final, unfortunately pitted against eventual winner Dave Causier.

….and don’t forget that there is £1000 for our first 1000 break. The sponsor of this, Jimmy Rimml, took a few of us to a demonstration of his training/remote system, currently implemented for Carom. Very impressive, and has us wondering if we can promote an English Billiards version of it. For more info see here.

Accommodation

The hotel partner for this event was the Ibis hotel.

Ranking Event 4

Congratulations to Billy Bousfield on winning the 2012 European Open title, defeating Phil Mumford 427 – 411 in another very close and exciting final.

Presentation

This was another successful WBL event, with a few surprises along the way. For example, Phil Mumford defeating Mike Russell in the semis, shortly after Mike knocking in a 598 unfinished in his quarter final tie !! And then Billy Bousfield coming from behind late in the game to clinch the Final.
The Plate competition was won by John McIntyre, who beat Phil Davis in the final.

See here for detailed results.

Webcam recording is available – see our Media section. Also, we recorded most of this exciting in final in HD and plan to have this available in the next few days – this will be much better quality than the webcam recording.

European Cup

Many thanks to Marian and Jim Leacy at the Ivy Rooms in Carlow for their efforts in hosting this tournament, and to the EBSA for their support and sponsorship of the event.

Here is the prize money distribution:-

Winner                 £877.50           Billy Bousfield
Runner                 £390.00           Phil Mumford
Semis                    £195.00            Wayne Doyle / Mike Russell
Quarters              £97.50              Aidan Murray / Phil Martin / Dave Sneddon / Rodney Goggins
Last 16                 £43.88               Norman Whaley / Joe Doheny / Larry Drennan / John Hartley
Aonghus McAnally / Jim Burke / Eddie Fielding / Mark Nolan
High Break         £43.88                Mike Russell – 598
Plate Winner     £126.75             John McIntyre
Plate R/Up         £63.38                Phil Davis
Plate H/B            £19.50                John McIntyre/Phil Davis – 48

These amounts are slightly reduced from the advertised amounts. This is to take account of the 2.5% levy imposed upon us by the WPBSA. This is paid back to them for governance of the game.

Ranking Event 3

Recorded – Semi Final onwards – click here. Do NOT miss the last 15 minutes of this exciting final. No more said – go check it out !

See the main post for further details.

Also, one of our sponsors - Kirsch – is offering 100 Euros for the first 10-shot of the season ! This still applies to subsequent tournaments.

To view the contents of this post you must have the required access level.

Ranking Event 2

The 2nd EBOS World Billiards Ranking Event of the season took place in Falkirk.

We recorded the final – see the Media Section or just click here. It’s not the best quality but we’re working on it – we were experimenting to some degree and will improve for the next tournament.

Dave Causier  849 – 290 Billy Bousfield

For further information about this event, including the draw/playing schedule, see here or for the results click here.