England v Scotland

[MattWilson]

Anybody know if this is still going ahead this weekend? Due to be played in Leeds according to last year's EASB calendar...

MW

[jhr145]

Anybody know if this is still going ahead this weekend? Due to be played in Leeds according to last year's EASB calendar...

MW

Matt it,s been cancelled

[Souwester]

As far as I understand the situation, Scotland cancelled the event, as originally scheduled, only this morning. Alec Cameron still seemed to think that maybe 8 Scottish players would make the trip to Leeds, and therefore, some kind of event WILL go ahead.

I'm told that on Friday afternoon there will be a knockout tournament for all players scheduled to play, whilst Saturday will see a trial run of the format for EASB's 'turn pro for a tenner' event next season, to see how it works in practice, before the real thing.

The traditional Saturday evening 9-ball pool knockout will go ahead, and on Sunday there will be a pairs competition with the international players drawn randomly with invited guests.

The EASB is apparently putting up some prize money, but not sure how that will be allocated.

The Scotland vs England billiards tournament will go ahead as scheduled, as all players will apparently be attending.

I'm led to believe that all English players will have been contacted by phone today and letters have been despatched as well.

[Souwester]

EASB website now contains the following statement:

AULD ENEMY CLASH
It is with great regret that at 10.30am on Tuesday 27th July, the SSL Chairman Alec Cameron informed John Hartley that Scotland would not be able to field a full team this weekend at the Auld Enemy Clash, and had to withdraw their side.
Discussions had been taking place for most of the day Monday regarding the amount of players and possible changes to format, but SSL felt that to only send a squad of 7 or 8 players would not do the event justice.

EASB are obviously very disappointed by this decision, and efforts have been ongoing all day to ensure that some sort of event takes place this weekend as planned.

The Billiards side of the International has been completely unaffected, as the Scottish billiard players are still intending to travel, so this will go ahead as planned, and we have also extended the invite to the 7 or 8 Scottish snooker players who had already made arrangements to travel, and we hopeful that they will still attend as planned.

Letters have been sent to all English players and Kelvin Jones has been trying to reach all players by telephone today to inform them of the situation.

What EASB will be doing instead this weekend, is the following:

FRIDAY - 1pm as planned, all players who were taking part in the International will take part in a Knockout competition.
SATURDAY - A warm up event for the forthcoming "Turn pro for a tenner" series. This is open to all amateur players - so why not come along and join in
SUNDAY - The annual random pairs doubles event will take place - again open to players from outside those who were due to take part in the International.

We are still intending to run the 9 ball pool knockout on Saturday evening as planned, and if enough Scottish players do attend, we will run a mini-international during the course of the weekend.

Hopefully, although the English players are going to be disappointed, we can turn this into a great weekend of free snooker for everyone, with prize money for all the events.

http://www.englishsnooker.com/index.php

[jb134]

A shame to see such a fine event cancelled, condolences to John who has worked so hard.

[Frying Scotsman]

Yes John,a real pity and I know John Hartely is pretty broken by it all.Still,it should be a good weekend for the billiards guys!

[Souwester]

Sounds like John's come up with a pretty good alternative weekend's activities!

[GER147]

Scotland Will Be Back!

Never mind, Scotland will be back stronger than EVER next year!

[Souwester]

Yes, but England will still win!

;-)

[GER147]

Maybe so... If there are Russian Refs!

But seriously, it will be a closer contest as Scottish Snooker will be UNDER NEW MANAGEMENT!

[Souwester]

But seriously, it will be a closer contest

Time will tell!

[jb134]

Well, well, I see there is a completely nuetral parent on the Scottish Snooker site making the point that the event should never have been arranged as SSL never had the numbers to fulfill the fixture.

What a shame to lead another nation up the garden path in this way.

Still now that the game in this country is under proper stewardship, I hope the event will go from strength to strength as now that the actual snooker players in Scotland can get involved, as a nation hopefully we will be able to compete for the trophy.

[GER147]

Not 'hopefully' JB, Scotland WILL be a force next year!

[bigbreak]

The statement made by Alec Cameron & Stevie Baillie on the first post of that thread on SSL website is a shocking, defamatory rant. They have lost the plot.

[Mr P]

I never actually knew anything about how this event was ran etc.

Can someone explain exactly what it was and what players were supposed to be taking part?