More Help Required - Our History

[The Chubbster™]

So I've cobbled this together, and just this small amount of information was tough to find and make sense of. Feedback would be very welcome, any contributions would be a massive bonus. Feel free to add, re-write anything you like. I would love to expand this as much as we can. It coud be used for Wikipedia, The AEBBA site, anywhere really and since there is so little info about our history, I think a community project is the only way to get something more definitive than the few scraps of info that are our there. Either way it would be nice to fill this up as much as possible and present it in a nice clear way (pictures would also be a missive plus). At the very least it will preserve our history as best we can.

So think of this as a community project. We can edit as we go along. Here is the start.....

Update: Revised as of 28th December...

A brief history of the game

Its origins

Very little is known about the earlier origins of Bar Billiards, but it’s widely believed that the modern day game descended from a Russian game called Billiard Russe. An English gentleman named David Gill reportedly observed this game being played in Belgium, and on his return to England he convinced an English table manufacturer Jelks to create a version of the game, which then became the modern day game of Bar Billiards that is played today.

First Leagues and following years

The first known Bar Billiards pub league was formed in Oxfordshire in 1936, and shortly thereafter leagues began appearing in other locations such as Reading, Canterbury and High Wycombe. In 1933 the game was first introduced in Jersey by a gentleman named George Jeune, a landlord, who important 4 tables over to the channel island. By 1964 this had grown to over 50 tables with competitions being organised by two organisations, the National Bar Billiards League and the Jersey License Victuallers League. By 1980 the two leagues had amalgamated and consisted of 21 teams and over 200 registered players.

Back on the UK mainland, before the Second World War there was an organisation called the National Bar Billiards Association (maybe the same organisation mentioned above), and a team from Canterbury are recorded as winning the NBBA challenge cup (beating a team from Oxford). Other tables manufactures had started to produces Bar Billiards tables, two of which were Sam’s and Riley’s.

Into the modern Era

Around 1973, the All England Bar Billiards Association was formed and started to organise competitions nationally which are still going strong today. Some of these competitions include the National Pub Team Championship, The British Isle Open Pairs, The Inter-Counties Championship and the All England Grand Prix. Today the AEBBA still governs the game in the UK mainland.
Bar Billiards received its first regular television exposure during the 70’s with a show called “Indoor League” hosted by former England fast bowler Fred Trueman. The show was produced by Yorkshire Television and ran on ITV from 1972-1977.

In 1981, the first ever British Isle Open was held in Jersey (organised by the Jersey Bar Billiards Association.) This tournament was won by a gentleman from Jersey named Harry Siddal. In the year 2000, this tournament officially became the World Bar Billiards Championship. An Englishman named Bernie McCluskey won the tournament that year and has the distinction of being crowed the first ever ‘official’ World Bar Billiards Champion. The rules of the game in Jersey are slightly different, as the tables are a little wider than standard mainland tables, and all shots must be played “off the spot”.

Around the early to mid 90’s, many country organisations started to run a ‘County Open’. These are tournaments that invite players from all over the country to compete against each other, and many are still in existence today.

Bar Billiards today

The All England Bar Billiards Association is the official governing body of the game on UK mainland. As of 2013, there are still around 30 known leagues in the United Kingdom covering a dozen or so counties. Just about all of these leagues run separate singles, doubles and various other competitions for their players. In addition there are county level competitions and also National Competitions in the form of County Opens and AEBBA competitions for any aspiring players who wish to dedicate more than the standard one night a week required in local leagues.

You're not the first to ask for help on the game's history, and I believe you have asked before and we gave you this same answer before !

All the history we have on the game is on the Forum somewhere, and we shouldn't be asked to go over the same ground and research it all over again: Life's Too Short.

So here's the link again, all the filling you should need can be found on this thread:

barbilliards.proboards.com/index.cgi?action=display&board=general&thread=11855&page=1

Feel free to quote any of my submissions ad verbatim.

[The Chubbster™]

My apologises, I had completely forgotten. Thank you for this Tommo.

Rest assured, I shall not be asking for anyone's help again.

The thread also contains an interesting article from Sav with a good insight into the game's problems and likely future, and there's some interesting stats from Barbelman where he has given a breakdown between hotels/pubs and clubs where the tables are held.

There seems to be a definite trend away from pubs which are closing by the week - and into clubs (check out the percentage in league column.) Which will not help the cause of making our game more visible to youngsters.

[The Chubbster™]

barbilliards.jimdo.com/history/

Dec 28, 2013 13:41:06 GMT The Chubbster™ said:

Regarding our games history, well I’ve done a little research in this area, but I can find so little. I’m fed up with the most in depth history of our game being this……
www.tradgames.org.uk/games/Bar-Billiards.htm
That’s un-acceptable if we want to be taken seriously in the eyes of the public and expand our reach. I personally would like to see a nice, well presented, in depth history of our game with all the major milestones in our history presented on a lovely looking webpage, with pictures etc. In that vein, I attempted to ‘crowd-source’ this project somewhat on the forum and invite contributions from all of those who have been around long enough to know about the game. Unfortunately, a forum member who I respect told me in no uncertain terms that all this information had been researched and people shouldn’t be expected to do anymore because life’s too short, Im happy to respect that (although I’m struggling to find all this wonderful information that has already been researched), but because of it the project got killed before anyone had a chance to contribute. Now it’s just me searching around in the dark trying to extrapolate the odd sentence here and there about our history in a vein attempt to tell the world about the history of our game.

Whilst Jimdo is already building up nicely, and is good visually (well the small snapshot you've given so far), anyone ignorant of the game might be forgiven for thinking that there has been a steady progression in the game since the 1930s and it's all been positives right up to the current standard of excellence in national tournaments etc. To give the true historical picture, you have to mention the journey that the game has taken, which involves mentioning the bad times as well as the good !

In your statement above you admit you are struggling to find all the info on the game's history (which is dotted about the Forum and held on various threads, so allow me to help you further by quoting from "the future of BBs" thread:

Jan 21, 2013 14:56:22 GMT tommo III said:

We all seem to recognise a steady decline in our noble art, and unfortunately time can't stand still and none of us are getting any younger. Things happen and people change.

Every once in a while there seems to be a momentous happening which affects the game's fortunes in one way or another, and sometimes a potential negative can be turned into a positive.

These I think are the quantum leaps....

• Introduction of the game in the 1930s/ Table Operators / Leagues springing up.
  
• Second World War - no apparent lasting effect on the game's progress.
  
• 1950's - tables abound in the UK in their thousands.
  
• 1960's - some table manufacturers subject to takeovers or mergers / some go out of business.
  
• 1970's - some leagues go into decline, some vanish / vast export of Jelkes tables to the US.
  
• 1980's - advent of 8-Ball Pool, many pubs choose to have this over bar billiards (Pool shorter time, greater revenue)
  
• 1990's - Brewing industry changes - big conglomerates take over/ many pubs have facelift to concentrate on food.
  
• 2000-onwards - wholesale pub closures, many traditional venues lost. Biggest bar billiards rental outfit B-B Ltd ceases trading. Majority of their tables go into private ownership.
  

After the above-listed series of body blows, the tail wagged and the last one was turned into a huge positive: Syndicates were set up within the affected counties to buy the hitherto-rented-from-B-B Ltd tables. Thus the game's future was secured in Kent, Surrey, Hants, Berks, Bucks, Oxon and Northants. Some of the tables were bought by the venues themselves and in some cases (Surrey, Oxon, Kent) the County Associations themselves purchased the tables and act as Operators.
On top of this, the AEBBA were able to borrow the funds needed to purchase the Championship set of ten tables to assure the future of the National tournaments.

There is one future cloud looming on the horizon, which is what will happen if the last remaining table operator, Tarratts, cease their current operation in the county of Sussex. Hopefully the ten leagues that will be affected will be able to draw on the experience of what has gone before and will be able to cope with the situation accordingly.

So really it's a question of putting effort into this and reacting in a positive way when the time comes. Maybe even setting the foundations in advance.

Trying to be proactive elsewhere where the fruit has already withered on the vine does to me seem to be rather a pointless exercise.

One further, recent, quantum leap of course is the resurgence in fortunes of the 4-Pin version of our game, with a strong league springing up this century in Norwich. As I've said before, they should be offered every encouragement, as should the pub in East Yorks which now hosts three tables (the Minerva in Hull). Everything should be done to reach out to such people. And if necessary also to those who appear to be in danger of going out of existence altogether.

[The Chubbster™]

Thanks Tommo,

Yes I read this post with great interest. I think we have to decide whether or not we WANT people knowing about the struggles in our game. It would not paint a pretty picture for the outsider looking in who reads between he lines and says "So this used to be a popular game, now it's in decline". That might put people off playing...

That said, I think it's better to be honest about the state of the game not only to encourage people to help it survive, but to also be true picture about what our real history is. Therefor I shall be incorporating these facts and notes into the history at some point soon in the future.

[The Chubbster™]

Please understand I'm just trying out some ideas and doing what I can with what little time I have to help the plight of the game. I've not been asked to do this and Im not acting in any official capacity with what I do.

The Jimdo sight will probably not survive as it's just to test some ideas and try and show people what CAN be done, especially those that think you have to be a master IT geek to create such things.... but if I could give this kind of info over to the AEBBA for the new site that Sav mooted (the history page that is), with some nice pictures etc... well every little helps!

Glenn - your enthusiasm is commendable and my apologies if in the past I've seemed to be attempting to dampen it for you.

We have too few around with the technical know-how to be innovators: we lost poor old KP who was influential in the early days of the Forum, and Sav had to function more or less as a one-man-band when you yourself handed over the reins and did a vanishing act for several years !

Response to your recent appeals will however I expect be few, as we still have a limited membership, and many just visit the Forum for a quick catch-up on what's occurring, or simply to post a match result.

Warrior - me - Gandalf - Barbelman - that's about it. Would be happy to be proved wrong !

Yet more of the game's history for you, Glenn (tommo remaining staunchly on the case) :

www.bbc.co.uk/berkshire/content/articles/2007/02/06/bar_billiards_feature.shtml

Here you will find a link to a 17-page tutorial on how the game is played. It's a bit static, and would be better translated into a YouTube demonstration which is where you come in - but at least this counts as a point of reference and is all the novice has available to go on at the moment.

The old guy in the pictures is Charlie Wheeler, who has been influential to bar billiards - he was the one who took the game up to Yorkshire, so you could say that without him our game would have never got the coverage on Indoor League.

The article for the BBC was penned by Linda Serck, who has been a member of this Forum (I seem to recall some posts about the PAck Saddle Inn.)

tommo

More ancient history on the game can be found on this All-England thread:

barbilliards.proboards.com/thread/8147/old-records-aebba-competitions

Also, I've found this:

www.elham.co.uk/Elham/Business/Rose_Crown/Rose_Crown.htm