It's simply pool's business - Euroslot - the independent voice of the amusement and gambling industry

It's simply pool's business

Published: 20 October, 2008

Dudley Ulyett's resignation as secretary of the European Blackball Association, Ross McInnes election as vice-chairman of the association, Simply Pool being asked to provide the tables for next year's EBA event in Bridlington, Alan Marshall's intention to continue as promoter of the Bridlington events but not to organise them and one or two other grumbles led to a summer of discontent which does not bode well for the return to the refurbished Spa of next year's championships. The EBA did, however, issue a statement to the effect that rumours connecting Dudley Ulyett with any financial irregularities were completely without foundation.

In one way the proverbial wheel has turned the full circle. Simply Pool provided the tables at the first E&UKPF (the forerunner of the EBA) event in the Spa in the year 2000. No doubt Bob Underhill will be pleased because his tables are highly regarded by Ross and his fellow professionals.

As for everything else it is just simply pool's business.

The effects on pubs of the smoking ban introduced in July last year have been well documented in newspapers and trade magazines including Euroslot.

A secondary effect of the ban as far as I have been concerned as a non-smoker has been upon the game of pool, the table operators and equipment manufacturers who form the industry and the sport.

Pool's popularity in itself has not waned but the number of sites at which it can be played has decreased and will almost certainly continue to do so as more and more pubs are closed. Pool, of course, is not the reason for their closure. It is the victim.

Now pub closures have come rather too near to home for my liking. On a sunny afternoon in mid-July I noticed the public bar door of my local was closed in the early evening. The number of cars in the large car park was negligible. I remarked to the lady next to me on the bus that publicans had no cause to grumble when a popular pub like the Seabirds could close during the middle of the holiday season in a seaside resort. She replied she had heard it was for financial reasons.

Casting my mind back to 1969 when I first visited the pub I recalled a place with a packed singing room, as the present restaurant was then known. Holidaymakers in nearby accommodation sought early evening meals where they were staying in order to be at the pub early enough to get a seat. I do not remember it having a pool table although more recently it sported a number of pool players.

Then for some reson I never fathomed it was refurbished and food tables replaced the rather ordinary tables at which the customers listened to and joined in the singing. Now, as the wartime song about a bombed church recorded "no organ plays at twilight where once a choir was singing." Not that I used the pub much since its refurbishment but I regret its closure and the probable reasons for it.

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