The First Pool Table In The Uk..

[Wity]

First one I ever saw was in a pub in Wolverhampton around '71 OR '72 anyone remember one before that?

[ADR147]

mary queen of scots?

[GreenBaize]

First one I ever saw was in a pub in Wolverhampton around '71 OR '72 anyone remember one before that?

I found this in my Pool junkies archives !!!
You might find it interesting wity.

York8Ball writes "When you are playing in your local or for your league team have you ever wondered how 8ball pool ever came to be?

There has never been an officially documented account of how the sport came to these shores but I have researched through old magazines and from speaking to people who have been involved over the years and written an account based on the evidence presented to me.

I hope you find it informative and that it goes some way to dispelling many of the myths about how pool in the UK aand in particular in England got to where it is today.

8ball pool as we know it came to Britain in the early 1970’s with tables appearing in a few pubs, youth clubs, amusement arcades, bowling alleys and the like. There was no organisational structure of any note at this point and not very much in the way of competitive pool being played. The only publicity was on a TV programme called “Indoor League” hosted by Yorkshire Cricket legend Fred Trueman which was basically an array of pub sports. The pool competition was won by a Lancastrian named Dean Emmott. After this series pool once again faded into relative obscurity and out of the public eye.

This started to change from circa 1972 onwards when local leagues began popping up in various parts of the country. One of the first leagues was the North Staffs league formed in 1974 which soon fell into a familiar pattern of internal disputes and splinter leagues, a trend all too well known throughout the country to this day.

Things started to change for the better in Staffordshire in 1978 when the first Superleague (Interleague as it is known today) was formed with 12 teams representing leagues in Staffordshire and South Cheshire. The teams were Crewe and Nantwich A, B and C, Macclesfield A, B and C, North Staffs A and B, Stoke, Longton, Congleton and Hanley PC. Stafford PL became the 13th team the following year and the Superleague ran very successfully for 4 years.

An organisation called the National Pool Council had been formed in 1977 only to fall on the rocks through alleged misdeeds by the treasurer and to be re-born again in 1979. The chairman was a Welshman called Gareth Jones, the secretary and treasurer were Dave Batty and Ronnie Forster assisted by Tom Kelly, Alan Haig and Jack Curran (Scotland), John Dixon and Grantley Davies (Wales) and Stan Bent, Jim Clarke and Pete Wright (England).

By the time the NPC was re-born the Welsh had set up the WPA, the Scots had set up the SNPC (Scottish National Pool Council) and a meeting was to take place in Stafford in 1980 to form the English Pool Association (EPA). The consultant body was still the NPC.

The EPA was duly formed and Pete Wright was elected as the first chairman with Dave Batty as secretary. 29 leagues made up the new EPA but unfortunately London, Birmingham, Manchester, Liverpool, Sheffield, Leeds, Norwich and Newcastle weren’t interested in this new body as these areas were heavily BAPTO influenced.

BAPTO (British Association of Pool Table Operators) was not a governing body as we now recognise but an organisation where its members could indeed feel as though they were part of something that was growing. BAPTO were indeed in the late 1970’s and early 1980’s organising league pool, had a national competition which still thrives today and had formed their own recognised set of rules. The EPA had been formed to create a national structure to the sport but unfortunately a “them and us” attitude between the EPA and BAPTO was to last for the next three to four years.

In its first year the EPA grew from 29 leagues to 80, had qualified referees and an established England team. It was clear to see that the EPA was the way forward for the sport in England at least.

In 1982 the EPA withdrew from the NPC as splinter and unrecognised bodies began to form including the English Pool Federation, the Welsh Pool Federation and talk was going on about another rebel faction being set up in Scotland. At a crisis meeting at Gretna Green the EPF agreed to join the EPA in return for two places on the EPA committee. However the EPA did not rejoin the NPC.

The EPA continued to build the structure in England as county pool and many Superleagues came into existence.

The PPPO had been formed years earlier to look after the interests of the professionals but it was very much seen as a closed shop with new faces being unwelcome for fear of established members possibly having their incomes threatened. Sue Thompson, at the time a 19 year old girl who regularly beat the male PPPO members had a very difficult struggle before she was finally accepted into the fold. The EPA had its own professionals and in 1983 banned PPPO members from EPA events and refused to recognise them as professional pool players.

The EPA continued to run pool successfully throughout the 1980’s and 90’s with more and more players becoming members and playing County and Superleague with all of them trying to reach the holy grail of winning an England team place.

The UKPF was formed in the 1980’s but the EPA saw little benefit in being involved in an organisation that could offer EPA members very little and refused to be involved. The UKPF became the EUKPF and though its membership is strong in countries like Scotland where the structure is excellent and superbly organised through the SPA, in England the EUKPF representative is the EPCF (English Pool Counties Federation) which is a splinter group purporting to offer an alternative to the EPA playing BAPTO (Fed) rules and in effect is a passport to International pool for weaker players who would struggle to qualify for England under the EPA structure. The EPCF is very much the maligned offspring of the EPA and is disregarded as a serious governing body by the majority of English pool players.

In 1990 England International Alan Bartlett created the UK tour which has grown from 36 players in its first event at Ilford Pool Club in September 1991 to what we have today with almost 300 members including all the top exponents of our sport.

The top 64 ranked players on the tour qualify to be professional members of the IPA (International Professional Pool Players Association) and are widely regarded as the top of the tree in this country. The PPPO still exists but has a small membership and no recognised qualification criteria. Nor does it hold any regular events for its membership.

The EPA are members of the World Eightball Pool Federation (WEPF) and send out a strong team every year at the World Championships which are universally recognised as the pinnacle of the sport.

There has been talk of Blackball pool being introduced into England. This may well happen but in reality it will only replace Federation pool and will have no effect on the EPA who still enjoy a huge membership and well run events that are ever popular.

Despite what some people claim the EPA are not and never have been a “splinter group”. That dubious honour falls firmly into the lap of the EPCF and to some degree the PPPO.

[Wity]

Interesting yes, thanks for posting it.
That one I first saw was imported unfortunately no one had bothered to import any rules with it which usually led to a 1/2 hour debate on how to score with all manor of ideas before every game. It's a pity the game is equally splintered today.