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Post by michaelshallcross on Jun 17, 2015 10:43:25 GMT
We're holding a charity challenge event at the Golden Ball in York on 26 September 2015, in aid of St Leonard's Hospice. I'm thrilled to say that Dave Ingram and Curt Driver have agreed to come along and take on all challengers. We'll have a cash prize for anyone who can do the seemingly impossible and beat the masters, with a £2 entry fee to have a game against either the world champ or the England captain.
More details will follow about our specific plans for the day. We're hoping to have an all-day barbecue, weather permitting, and maybe hire some other traditional pub games to put in the beer garden and round about for the kids (and grown ups!). We've also got lots of brilliant micro-breweries around these parts, so I'm thinking about trying to commission a bar billiards themed beer for the day!
We're hoping that this event will attract bar billiards enthusiasts from across Yorkshire and even further afield, and will get lots of local publicity that will help promote the game in York and the north more generally. As well as making money for charity, the event will also go a little way to helping the Golden Ball continue thriving as a community-owned pub. So please do shout about this from the rooftops, and we hope to maybe see you there!
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Post by Deleted on Jun 17, 2015 12:28:21 GMT
What a great idea ! This, and events like the York/Sheffield/Northants 3-way challenge can only be good for the furtherance of the game. Best of luck with the venture.
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Post by michaelshallcross on Sept 2, 2015 10:13:43 GMT
Just a reminder to everyone that this event is coming up at the end of the month, on Saturday 26 September. We'd be really grateful if everyone in the bar billiards community could let people know the details through any channels available to them - social media, word of mouth, etc - so that we can get as big a turn-out as possible. Thanks!
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Post by BB Warrior on Sept 2, 2015 10:58:56 GMT
I am really looking forward to my first visit to York later this month and to meeting all of the players up there. I think this event was a great idea and hope that it will be well supported by the local players, it would be brilliant if some of them decide to enter some of the national tournaments in the future and for Yorkshire to join AEBBA again at some time.
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Post by gandalf the untidy on Sept 2, 2015 12:02:15 GMT
I am really looking forward to my first visit to York later this month and to meeting all of the players up there. I think this event was a great idea and hope that it will be well supported by the local players, it would be brilliant if some of them decide to enter some of the national tournaments in the future and for Yorkshire to join AEBBA again at some time. Well done to Curt and Dave for taking the little jaunt up north, i wonder wether they have pegs or mushrooms? PS just checked on the Tables map looks like they are pegs.... phew!
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Post by bobhall on Sept 2, 2015 19:22:47 GMT
Might have to drive up and try and take out the world champ and England captain
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Post by milko on Sept 3, 2015 13:35:10 GMT
I like the sign on the outside of the pub.
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Post by iang on Sept 10, 2015 13:33:02 GMT
A great Idea good luck and hope you raise lots of money.
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Post by BB Warrior on Sept 23, 2015 10:52:17 GMT
Well, I have just enjoyed my 5 minutes of fame recording an interview that will go out on Minster FM Radio about this event in the next couple of days. I think it is great the amount of publicity and media support that the organiser (Michael Shallcross) has managed to arrange with articles also running in the local press in Yorkshire, including this one.... www.yorkpress.co.uk/news/13772248.York_residents_invited_to_take_on_world_champion_at_classic_English_pub_game/Hopefully this event will help to raise the profile of our game in Yorkshire as well as raising money for an excellent cause as proceeds from the day will be given to St Leonards Hospice for cancer. I am really looking forward to the whole weekend and meeting some new friends.
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Post by "Silent" on Sept 23, 2015 11:22:14 GMT
Good luck to everyone taking part, hope you raise plenty of money. Excellent article too look forward to hearing that 'Mr' Ingram and 'Mr' Driver get plenty of points scored against them
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Post by barbelman on Sept 23, 2015 16:22:45 GMT
Hope you all have a good day and well done to Curt and Dave for putting their heads on the block....
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Post by michaelshallcross on Sept 25, 2015 10:51:56 GMT
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curtd
Distinguished Member
Posts: 613
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Post by curtd on Sept 25, 2015 16:08:49 GMT
The day started at 5.30am for me. I was helping Mrs Driver muck out her horses. Left home at 7.45 to make my trip to Reading to pick up a table from Dave Alder. 1 hr 45 mins later I got to Dave's and was invited in for a coffee. Mrs Alder was in a state of shock as apparently Dave doesn't normally offer to make drinks Left Dave's at 10am to make the 4hr journey to York. An hour into my journey I started to get the uneasy feeling that something wasn't right. Van running ok......... Check Suitcase.............check Money ...........check Cue........... Oh dam it ( or words to that effect) Cue or no cue, really looking forward to the weekend . Curt
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Post by Deleted on Sept 25, 2015 21:47:35 GMT
Good luck to all with the event, the matchplay, the fundraising, the local publicity. I'm sure Dave and Curt will be able to pass on some encouragement and some useful tips......most of us have learned by watching others. Something like this can only be good for the game: everyone's a winner.
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Post by Deleted on Sept 26, 2015 21:01:49 GMT
Have picked this up from Twitter: All set and ready to go ! No other details so far........
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Post by BB Warrior on Sept 28, 2015 9:16:14 GMT
Well, what can I say about the weekend....Unlike Curt I did remember to take my cue but sadly I had to leave Colleen behind as she had to work. So, I set off at around 11am with the SatNav telling me that it would be a 5 hour journey.... 5 hours later I was less than half way there with the SatNav telling me that I was still 2 hours 45 minutes away from York! Accidents on both the M25 and M1 had meant that lanes were closed and the roadworks on the M1 are simply a joke.... miles and miles of 50mph speed limits, narrow lanes and traffic cones but not a workman in sight anywhere. Eventually arrived at the Waggon & Horses where we were staying around 8pm, it's one of the venues in the York League and the landlord (Tom) and staff immediately made me feel very welcome. I had a lovely room with ensuite bathroom and a great view out of the front of the pub. Curt and I headed over to the Golden Ball to meet Michael who had organised the event. Arrived at the pub and the first thing you see is the Bar Billiard table in the window of the front room.... full of people playing and watching. Their enthusiasm for the game hits you like a tidal wave and both Curt and I received an amazing welcome from Michael, Ben and all of the others. The pub was too busy to put the table up that night so we had a couple of doubles games on the home table with Curt and I narrowly winning against Michael and Chris. Chris is the landlord of the Fulford Arms, one of the other venues in the League and they now have 2 teams in the League and THREE tables!! It would be fair to say that he is very, very enthusiastic about the game! We arranged to meet up at 9am on Saturday morning and Michael and Chris were there to help us unload and set up the AEBBA table that Curt had bought up in the van. The original idea for the weekend was that Curt and I would take on challengers alternately during the course of the afternoon but Michael asked if we would be willing to also use the home table as well to play more games as there were so many people wanted to play, we happily agreed and moved that table slightly away from the window so that we didn't have to use the small cue that you normally had to use to play some shots. With both tables ready to go by about 11am, we took a walk down into the city for a couple of hours and found a food festival going on, Curt proved that the American Cop films are totally true by not wanting to share any of the donuts that he bought.... so I had to buy some myself! We returned to the Golden Ball to find that a number of the York players were already there and Michael & Ben were setting up the BBQ in the garden area, the sun was shining and it looked as if we were going to have a great day for it. We started promptly at 2pm and the challengers came thick and fast, Curt suffered an early defeat (to Chris from the Fulford Arms who played superbly to score nearly 6k which won him the high score award for the day) and we both had some very close games with players that ranged from complete beginners to people that played in the League regularly up there. The games were all played in a friendly spirit with both Curt and I offering a few tips here and there as we went to help the players to keep their scores and learn some new shots. A lot of the players were quick to learn with one of my opponents (Ian) stunning me by starting off with a perfect 3 times, one up and 100 split shot combination and nearly following it up with another one.... when I asked him after the game where he had played before he said that he had only started playing earlier this year in York and he had learned that from simply watching me play for the previous hour.... WOW!! The afternoon soon became evening and more people were arriving and keen to play, some came back for a second game while Chris came back for a third game.... I think that I said he was enthusiastic! The BBQ looked great and was well supported although sadly I never got round to trying the food as there was always somebody else to play. Eventually, just after 10pm it was agreed that Curt and I would play an exhibition game to finish the day. I won the toss, put Curt in and watched him play the table out for a superb 18,200. Having been playing the other table for the previous 2 hours myself, that was a tough ask to try to catch a break like that and I duly came off early in my reply and Curt put me to the sword again. Time to pack up then.... oh.... not quite. Even as we were about to dismantle the table one of the local players pulled the handle again and wanted Curt to help her learn the split shot! 15 minutes later she was still practising it! A few pictures taken around the table and eventually we got it loaded into the van (we nearly lost it to the lady who wanted to take it home and put it in her garage!) said our farewells and headed back to the Waggon & Horses. Fair to say that we were both pretty tired by then, I think we had probably both played around 25-30 games during the course of the day. So, what is next for the York League. I know that it only started a couple of years ago as a challenge between 2 of the local pubs and that Michael Shallcross was one of the people that first started it as, at one stage, it looked likely that the table would be taken out of the Golden Ball. Since then it has grown to be a thriving League and will have 9 teams playing this season from 8 different venues and more pubs in the area have shown an interest in getting a table and having a team. At a time when we know that other areas areas around the country are losing venues, teams and players it was simply amazing to find the opposite here in York. How has this happened.... in a word - enthusiasm! They have managed to get a lot of publicity from local media, both in the newspapers and on local radio. Chris told me that he was amazed that the local press had run lots of articles about the league first starting up but they had hardly mentioned the very large music festival that had taken place in York at around the same time. I think that may explain part of the reason that he has become so enthusiastic about the game as he knows that people want to support their local pubs and the Golden Ball (which is owned by shareholders from the local community) is a wonderful example of how much the people in York want to retain traditional pubs and pub games. I know that it has been discussed that York will join the AEBBA in the future and, hopefully, that will happen this year. They hope to run other events in the future, maybe (given time) even an Open Competition although they want to walk before the start to run. Their League is played on a very friendly basis with all games played as doubles matches, inevitably some players are better than others and some of them are keen to improve further. Playing in AEBBA Competitions would help that in the long term. I would certainly go back up to York for another similar event to this in the future and I know that they really enjoyed the recent challenge matches they had against Sheffield and Northants so hopefully things like this will be arranged again in the future as a way to bridge the long journey between Yorkshire and the rest of the counties that are members of AEBBA. On a final note I would like to thank Michael and the others involved with organising and running the event for all of their hard work in arranging everything.... I was totally amazed at the welcome and the sheer enthusiasm you all have up there and I truly hope that continues for many years to come. Certainly a weekend that I will remember for a very long time for all of the right reasons.
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Post by barbelman on Sept 28, 2015 11:15:01 GMT
Nice report Dave...well done to you both and to the York league.
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Post by michaelshallcross on Sept 28, 2015 20:52:59 GMT
First chance to take a look on the forum since the big day, and overwhelmed by David's brilliant account!
It was a great day, and we have David and Curt to thank for that. You couldn't ask for two better ambassadors for the game. Incredibly generous with their time and know-how, endlessly enthusiastic and committed despite a punishing schedule after a massive journey up the day before. It was basically an eight hour + shift that they each put in at the table on Saturday, and everyone who challenged them was given an inspiring hand up as well as a masterclass. Talking to other league players afterwards they were all saying how much they had learned, and what a boost it had given their game. It was great to see people grinning like little kids because they had racked up a respectable score against a top player!
Curt's 18,000+ tally in the penultimate exhibition match is something I won't forget in a hurry - absolutely amazing to watch. He certainly showed everyone who's boss after his surprise defeat to our Chris earlier in the day. Chris will be dining out on that story for a fair while!
I'm not yet sure how much we raised for the charity - I'll hopefully be taking back the sealed collection boxes tomorrow, so will post again when I have a total. I'm also trying to get some more photos collected up, and will hopefully get some up on our website and twitter before too long.
We'll definitely get our act together on joining the AEBBA soon, as we have a good half-dozen or so players who are keen to link up for more competitive events.
So finally a big thank you again to David and Curt for a proud and long-to-be-remembered day in the history of our league. It's a long trek up here from the South East, but you both have lots of friends here ready for another game whenever you fancy making another trip up to York.
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Post by gandalf the untidy on Sept 28, 2015 23:19:07 GMT
First chance to take a look on the forum since the big day, and overwhelmed by David's brilliant account! It was a great day, and we have David and Curt to thank for that. You couldn't ask for two better ambassadors for the game. Incredibly generous with their time and know-how, endlessly enthusiastic and committed despite a punishing schedule after a massive journey up the day before. It was basically an eight hour + shift that they each put in at the table on Saturday, and everyone who challenged them was given an inspiring hand up as well as a masterclass. Talking to other league players afterwards they were all saying how much they had learned, and what a boost it had given their game. It was great to see people grinning like little kids because they had racked up a respectable score against a top player! Curt's 18,000+ tally in the penultimate exhibition match is something I won't forget in a hurry - absolutely amazing to watch. He certainly showed everyone who's boss after his surprise defeat to our Chris earlier in the day. Chris will be dining out on that story for a fair while! I'm not yet sure how much we raised for the charity - I'll hopefully be taking back the sealed collection boxes tomorrow, so will post again when I have a total. I'm also trying to get some more photos collected up, and will hopefully get some up on our website and twitter before too long. We'll definitely get our act together on joining the AEBBA soon, as we have a good half-dozen or so players who are keen to link up for more competitive events. So finally a big thank you again to David and Curt for a proud and long-to-be-remembered day in the history of our league. It's a long trek up here from the South East, but you both have lots of friends here ready for another game whenever you fancy making another trip up to York. Nice to see some energy and enthusiasm for the game up north, looking forward to see some match reports coming through regs cs
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curtd
Distinguished Member
Posts: 613
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Post by curtd on Oct 2, 2015 7:37:21 GMT
All I can do is agree with what Dave and Michael have already said. A great day of billiards with a bunch of very enthusiastic players. A great way to raise some money for charity . I would like to thank Michael for inviting us up to take part in the day and congratulate Chris(3 tables) for getting the highest score of the day and beating me. The grin on Chris's face for the next 8 hrs said it all. Curt
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