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The French Men's A team were runners-up to the Welsh Men's A team after an exciting final at the European Blackball Association's annual Masters Championships held at the recently refurbished Bridlington Spa Royal Hall during April. Wales, widely regarded as the champion pool country among UK entries, beat the Frenchmen by 17 frames to 16. Which speaks for itself on how close the the contest was.
Yet it is not many years ago that a leading French player was dismissed as a "lobster" by an English commentator when he represented his country at the World Championships run by the former European & UK Pool Federation. And to show that "les femmes" could also play they beat their strong Welsh team counterparts in the Ladies' tournament in Bridlington by 11 frames to 10 to prove that the "lobsters" have come out of their shells.
The event this year saw for the first time live coverage of the final events by Cue Sport TV. The coverage was good; but those games watched by your columnist, who was unable to attend the event for medical reasons, showed nothing other than the play at the table. Hence the lack of any audience reaction rather spoiled the spectacle for TV viewers. But it was a first EBA event for the producers and at least it provided live coverage instead of being recorded coverage replayed some weeks later as had happened at former Masters tournaments in Bridlington.
The general feeling was that the championships had been a success. Unfortunately the EBA had announced shortly beforehand that it was seeking a Press Officer. The lack of any Press coverage in even the local weekly newspaper, Bridlington Free Press, would indicate the EBA's search was unsuccessful. The only reference that respected paper had in its column was a report that a team of local councillors was to play a match against a team from the special learning needs competitors and Alan Marshall claimed the credit for that piece of information being passed to the paper.
Admittedly the EBA website and that of Cue Sport TV had plenty of information but little to catch the eyes of any member of the public who had little or no interest in the sport. If this type of tournament run solely by players rather than by the pool industry and players is to be of any real use to the furtherance of pool's popularity then problems of the lack of publicity must be faced if sponsorship for such tournaments is to be found.
Ross McInnes has won each of pool's UK and Irish championships during a career that started in the 1990s and has made appearances at such events that run into four figures.. Ryan Giggs, Manchester United's worthy Welsh international soccer player, made his 800th appearance for the club just after the pool tournament. Every daily newspaper carried the news but Ross's many achievements as a pool professional go unnoticed at such levels.
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