This year's championships included teams from France, Gibraltar, Northern Ireland, the Republic of Ireland, the Isle of Man, Shetland, England, Scotland and Wales. On April 5 the opening event was the Men's A Team Championship followed until April 8 by team championships for Ladies A, Men's B, Ladies' B, Juniors, Youths, Under21s and other events which included that popular feature of EBA championships, the events for those with special learning needs.

From April 8-10 the various final events were played which were broadcast live for the first time by Cue Sport TV, an internet pool and snooker channel, on www.CueSportTV. This TV and EBA decision is the result of an agreement between Cue SportTV and the EBA which made the former the official media streaming partner to the latter for its masters' championships.

 Ross McInnes, who is widely regarded by many pool players as Britain's leading professional player and who is currently the vice-chairman of the EBA, said of the Cue Sport TV arrangements that for the first time people would be able to watch the championship finals live. "In the past," he said, "we have had cameras at the finals previously but several weeks have elapsed before edited programmes have been shown. Now viewers can watch them live."

 All games will be played upon 40 Simply Pool tables which have been sold by the company to the EBA at special low prices. Bob Underhill, sales director of Simply Pool Ltd., explained: "We regard this as sponsorship because it still costs us money to do it. But we feel this method of sponsorship helps the organisers. They can sell the tables on if they wish or they can keep them for other tournaments if they want to. We are quite happy with the arrangement."

Editor's note: Our copy date for our May issue was too early for us to include any results in this issue.''

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