AGM

[JerseyLugs]

I'm sure that Sean will be posting full details either here or on Nick's website but this is just a quick note to inform all as to what happened at last night's AGM.

After much HEATED discussion, it has been agreed that the JBBL will now be split into two divisions (hopefully of six teams) where each division will now play independently of each other.

The upshot of this is each team will play the teams from it's own division home and away twice.

The reason for this is that many players from the lower divisions felt it was unfair that they had to play against "Big" players and at times, because the "Big" players were chasing ranking points to enable them to get into the team to represent their Island, were not being given a fair chance. i.e. the better players would play the table out. Funny this considering I thought the wole idea is to play the best game of Bar Billiards that you can and to play the table, not the opponent.
Even though the lower division teams were given all the breaks on their own tables it was felt that this was still unfair and it was even suggested at one stage that the top division players were only allowed to make a maximum break of 5000.
As I alluded to above, the majority of blame for this was put down to having a ranking system to pick the Island team. Obviously this is in no way a better system than having certain people just pick their friends for the team. Please note this is a comment that was also made last night. Also stated was that if you choose the captain based on the rankings he should be allowed to pick the Island team him or herself, thus alleviating the need for rankings points as the captain will know the best players !!!
Funny that but if there's no need for ranking points how do you know who is going to be captain....... and still no guarantee that you will get an unbiased Pick.

All of this was brought about from the comment that a couple of youngsters were no longer going to play because their first experiences of playing the game in the league resulted in them hardly getting a shot.
Again It was mentioned that all players had this at some stage and it still happens no matter how good you are.

Personally I feel that this is just a case of "I want to go out on a Wednesday for a few drinks and a natter and if there's a Bar Billiard table there I might just have a game"

I'm pretty sure that the majority of the "Big" players haven't ever practised and the only reason that they're "Big" players is down to some genetic malformity.

To sum this comment up.....(about time I hear you all say)..... two divisions...... No mixing..... Same pubs......

Slightly peeved signing off!!!!!

[NigelS]

I hear you JerseyLugs, we will be having the same discussion at our Brighton AGM next week!

We have a slightly different system in Brighton where 15 teams are separated into Premier (4 teams), 1st Division (6 teams) and 2nd Division (5 teams). 2nd Division teams receive all the breaks against 1st Div and Premier, 1st Division teams receive all the breaks against Premier. Each team plays each other home and away.

This format seems to have suited teams in the first division but probably the top 2 teams and bottom 2 teams have been unhappy as the bottom sides have been on the receiving end of a couple of beatings and the top 2 teams have had to take it easy times and are not always getting a competitive match.

You seem to have gone the way of splitting the league in two in Jersey, but I can’t see that as being the best solution. Firstly the weak players will still get beat, but more importantly they won’t learn anything from playing better opposition. Also do teams really want to play the same opposition four times a season, and the same tables? I would rather play a greater variety of opposition and see some different faces. And what if one or two team drops out? Suddenly you lose four fixtures and the league can be thrown into disarray. Yes losing a team can happen if you don’t split the league but the effect of losing 1 team is far less. This happened in Worthing this year in div 2 where 2 teams dropped out making the lower div season a bit farcical.

I think a lot depends on team’s and player’s attitudes, if you go into every match thinking you are going to get thrashed, more than likely you will. If you go in thinking you are going to do as well as you can, you might surprise yourself. We have had a couple of 2nd division teams really improve this year because they have gone into every match with the right attitude and I think they have surprised themselves with how many matches they have won. Other teams who have visited us have gone in beaten before a ball has been struck, and just seem to want to get the evening over as soon as possible. They don’t bother watching the games and therefore don’t learn anything and don’t improve.

What is the answer? Well you are not going to find a solution to suit everybody. My suggestion that I will put forward at the Brighton AGM next week will be to eliminate Premier v Div 2 matches. Premier will play Premier four times and Div twice, 2nd Div will play 2nd Div four times and Div 1 twice, Div 1 will play everyone just twice (hope you can follow that). A complicated fixture list to form for the league organizer (me!), but hopefully we will solve some of the problems. Perhaps in Jersey if you made the top teams Premier you could have tried the same thing, at least then you would all play at a few more venues. We shall see what happens at the Brighton AGM next week (if anyone shows!)

It is just a question really of what suits each League.

In Redhill the A league and B league are split, and never the twain shall meet, which is how the B league players like it.

But they do get a chance to pit their wits against the A league players in the out-of-season competitions where they get generous handicaps.

In Mid Sussex, we had an incredibly strange situation, whereby there were two divisions (Premier and First) but all teams played all with the same set of fixtures. The strange bit was that the top two teams in the Lower Division both got more points and won more matches than the team that won the Premier - having played the same programme ! But of course it's the Premier League winners who get their name engraved on the main trophy. (Next year will be interesting).

It really is just a case of what suits your own League's setup.

[Chris_Sav]

Dover and Deal have long since learned the lesson that you cannot expect division 2 players to stand there and enjoy getting slaughtered by top division 1 players and then have to buy them a drink for the privilege!! Good way to lose the weaker players and then your top dogs will have no one to slaughter.

We keep division 1 and 2 teams separated, apart from our League Cup which is open draw into groups and then main and plate.

Only way to do it nowadays and keep the new and weaker players. That's why Dover and Deal have gone from being the weakest link out of six leagues in Kent to be as strong as any of the four remaining.

Sav.

[JerseyLugs]

Thanx for the comments.

Firstly Nigel.
I must admit I hope you have better luck than I did re the league structure. I did make a counter proposition that if that's the way they want to go, and for the reasons that they suggested, there should be no promotion or relegation at the end of the season therefore forever keepng the status quo.
I ended up rescinding this as we had three different ideas as to how the league should be sorted and I felt that mine might have just been a bit awkward.
Further comments were made when I suggested this to the tune of "If the players from the lower divisions feel that they want stronger opposition then they can leave their team and sign on for one of the top teams".
Lovely in theory, but why should you have to leave your local team and perhaps sign on for a team that you might not get a game for ?
We've got to remember that everone is still playing for trophies as a team so why should perhaps the better or more ambitius players have to move.
I was very lucky in that where I learned to play it was a "top" team and I had the benefit of playing with some of the best players in the Island, but at the end of the day I still had to prove myself to the other players in the team and do remember taking quite a few hidings from opposition teams in my first couple of seasons! that's assuming I wasn't playing the Gallon. (I lost a good few of those also, hang at 3000 my arse!)

Tommo.
Unfortunately we don't have the benefit of a multitude of competitions in off season. In fact, I doubt whether the vast majority of players even pick up a Q in between the last and first games of following seasons.
Maybe this tells us something ?

Sav!!!!!!!!
WHEN WAS THE LAST TIME ANYBODY HAD TO BUY YOU A DRINK ????
We have an island 9x5 where you can get to any table within a short bus ride (obviously allowing for drinks on the way)
I'm sure that you occasionally try your steel against the better players just to improve your game.

Sorry Chris. Only Joking.
We all would love to keep any new players in the game but if you understand the game and the rudiments of how to play it you must realise that your opponent is not the other person with a cue but yourself and the table.
Fair enough.
If you don't have the break and the opponent plays the table out or makes a winning score (at this point please note that a black peg is always there on the table) Fair Enough, but you've got to remember that, as I stated in my original post, the lower divisions will always have the break against the higher divisions whether it be home or away!
If they want to play in their own separate division then so be it but as Nigel said it's not going to improve their game. The only things that can do that are practise and experience !!
Unfortunately this may mean losing occasionally.
IS THAT SO BAD :-/

[Chris_Sav]

ROFLMAO!!! ;D no offence taken.

In my long and VERY considerable experience, most division 2 players want to go out on match nights, have a social evening and a game against people of similar ability. Yes they would like to improve their game, but if they were ever likely to be competitive against the top players they would have long since done it.

Giving them the break against division1 players is pretty irrelevent as they are hardly likely to do much with it anyway.

Without the core essential division 2 players you will not have a breeding ground for those players who will migrate to the top echelon. Division 2 teams / players also quietly go about their business and are not often seen on the organising committees of their leagues, thus their views get neglected by the keen players who tend to run leagues, in my view, for the benefit of the better players.

We can sit and discuss this at length over many ales in November ;D ;D


Chris.

[Secretary J.B.B.L.]

Afternoon All,

Having read Micks comments he has basically summed up the A.G.M. in a few paragraphs. I won't be posting the official minutes as it is basically people arguing (or should I say, putting their point across very competitively).

The actual league split hasn't been decided yet, it shall be at the Captains meeting in a couple of weeks but it will more then likely be 6 and 6 (possibly could by 7 & 5) and as Mick said, two seperate divisions.

We do appear to be satisfiying the lesser players by returning to this old league format and taking the easy way out but unfortunately the proposition was voted in. My point being that if more people turn up at these meetings then things may go different ways as when only 25 people turn up out of 130 potential players it sums up the state of the league future.

Once I have any further news regarding the official voted in split by the Captains I shall report back.

Too everyone - all the best in the upcoming league seasons.

Sean

[Secretary J.B.B.L.]

Evening All,

The Captains meeting took place tonight (July 23rd) and it was confirmed that we shall have 12 teams playing this year. Of those, 7 were represented in the meeting and the following was decided at the meeting:

There shall be two seperate divisions this year with 6 teams in each league. Each league shall consist of playing each other 4 times, 2 home and 2 away, making a total of 20 matches.
The rule of the away team having the breaks shall also come back into play.


League Split

Division One (Premiership)
Dog & Sausage, Union Inn, Trinity Arms 'A', Royal St Martin, Shipwright 'A', Landmark Inn

Division Two (Championship)
Devonshire 'A', Devonshire 'B', Shipwright 'B', Trinity 'B', Seymour Inn, Airport Social Club

The KO tournaments shall remain the same as last year but with the re-introduction of the Division One Team KO and the Champion of Champions.

The key dates for the year are:

Charity night: September 17th
First league game: September 24th
World Championships: November 7th, 8th & 9th
Last game before Christmas: December 17th
First new year game: January 7th.

As mentioned before on previous posts, good luck to one and all this coming season.

Sean