W.C. 2011 Feedback

[Sir Chancelot]

Wonderful Bar Billiards weekend.
Some truly memorable performances.
Especially Adam Bateup on the Karaoke ;D ;D ;D

[Chris]

A superbly run competition. Thank you sincerely!!!

Sean and Graeme were on the ball at all times which must have been very hard work. A huge thank you to you both. No question was ever too much trouble for them to answer at any time.

Huge congratulations to Kev and Steven a superb final and to Bernie and Sue a superb plate.

For me personally the new format worked. Good players went through and deserved their place. I am sure that there may have been a few teething issues but personally I have none whatsoever.

Our best wishes
Chris and Chris

[Q]

Nov 7, 2011 19:06:44 GMT Sir Chancelot said:

Especially Adam Bateup on the Karaoke ;D ;D ;D

Not timewarp again ::)

[Sparky]

I add my congratulations for the whole organisation of this 2011 World Championship, with the most noticeable people being Sean & Graeme on Admin, Nigel for superb tables, but also to the less noticeable crew that make the whole thing tick so well, thank you all for such a well run and enjoyable competition weekend.

Some teething issues were only to be expected and personally thought them minor in consideration of the logistics.

I also think the new format is a good thing for this event and that the organisers have already displayed their thoughtful and adaptive approach so reckon any future 'tweaks' will improve it further, and hope that the word goes out that you get a minimum of 4 games (assuming everyone turns up :o) so that it will encourage even more 'ordinary' players, like me,  to come over next year..........and would guess that the 'better' players must fancy that their chances in the early stages have improved and so maybe a few more will come next year too.

Amazinng weekend, loved the new format and hope it continues next year :)

Well done to Kevin on winning again

Definatley be returning next year for another sing song :)

[enzo]

Nov 7, 2011 23:07:44 GMT lewisstrat26 said:

Amazinng weekend, loved the new format and hope it continues next year :)

Well done to Kevin on winning again

Definatley be returning next year for another sing song :)

I second that! Well done to everyone & you've got my vote for the new format!

100% going again, what a crack!


+ve:

Very well run, impressed throughout. Stats and sheets up very quickly. Timings went well.
Hotel good standard inc facilities
Tables were superb quality & levelled beautifully
New format, more fair for everyone and more enjoyable.


-ve:
Keep the bar open 'til later. At least 20/30 people a night are after late hours drinks. We'd understand if we weren't buying drinks!
Some staff very unfriendly at times, almost offended us whereas others couldn't help enough.
Request they keep the outside pool open for 1 more week whilst we're there? (they closed it the week before we got there).
Merton couldn't offer us a suite/family room as requested, arrange prices for next year?
Some of the Karaoke singing ::) yes yes including myself!  :-[

[milko]

Firstly, may I congratulate Kevin on winning the Main event for the 4th time and to my son Steven on getting to the Final. I really thought and hoped that he was going to do it after the “Great One” missed on his break in the 2nd leg. Never mind, he made me very proud to be his dad and I’m sure that one day this title will be his.

Congratulations to Bernie McCluskey & Paul Sainsbury on winning the Pairs title for the 1st time and to Paul Barnett & Neil Higgins on being worthy finalists.

Also, well done to all the other Prize Winners.

So, after I’d asked so many questions leading up to this event, I’d better give my view on it all. !

My opinion is that the new format worked very well indeed, giving the players every chance to progress in the tournament. The “Lag” part of the format had its fair share of controversy, mainly due to the markers not knowing exactly how to interpret or knowing the rule, i.e. 1. Is it a foul if a ball rolls off slightly and lands level or past a peg?...Answer, Foul.

2. If the 1st player knocks over the peg then how far off the “D” can the 2nd player hit the ball to make it a legal shot?...Answer, I was told the “Red ball spot” !!

Although, saying that, I thought this made it an interesting addition to the game. (Hope Nigel’s got plenty of spare clocks!)

I was shocked when marking one Pairs match and all 4 players rolled the ball up and knocked the peg over!! :o ;D

On a personal note, I was pleased to reach the last 16, losing to Steve Mariner but had a great chance to beat him. I also had one or two issues during the W/E, once with a “deaf” barman and one with the “Tournament admin desk” BUT both were sorted out with an apology, much appreciated Graeme. 8-)

So, I will say it again, Superb Hotel, Great Food, Great Tournament, Great Time, Friendly People, need I say more, except, I will be back (Hopefully) next year.


Keith

PS I thought Michelle done a fantastic job on running the cards, (How many was it?). It was a really hard job for me to keep hiding from her! ;)

[Secretary J.B.B.L.]

All,

Firstly, many thanks to all those that attending the weekend, (it looked and sounded like it on the Sunday night). I have noted the start of the feedback on my other thread, therefore to keep it separate please do place it here. Any positive/negative, whether constructive or not please advise. This can range from Us (Admin), the Hotel, tables, format or anything else.

Obviously, if you wish to P.M. me, please do so instead.


Many thanks all.

Sean


I have moved the relevant recent posts across for you, Sean.   - tommo

[bigtj]

Excellent weekend, well organised, great bar billiards, venue terrific, well done to all the palyers making the last 16 onwards, and well done to KT on capping a tremendous season, unlucky to Steven.
Pairs competition hihgest of standards and well done to Paul and Bernie, unlucky Barnie and Neil. Barnie had a great weekend doing well in the singles as well.
See you all again next year.

[BB Warrior]

Firstly, my thanks to all involved in the organisation and running of the event, we had a fantastic weekend thanks to all of your hard work and I am sure that I speak on behalf of everybody when I say that we greatly appreciate everything that you do (every year) to make this competition such a success. 8-) ;D

I have read with interest some of the feedback that has already been written on the Forum and also enjoyed many conversations with other competitors while we were in Jersey.... here are my thoughts on things....

Administration.... First Class, always happy to answer questions and very helpful. ;D

Hotel.... excellent venue, not cheap in comparison to some of the hotels / B&B's that some of the other competitors choose to stay at instead, however IMHO the Merton offers good value for money when you consider the facilities that are available and we prefer to stay at the venue itself anyway (as that means less staggering distance to room at the end of the night! ::)) if we are away for the weekend.  The only complaint that I would make would be that the main restaurant closed mid-afternoon on the Sunday and I feel it would have been better if had opened late afternoon (or early evening) to allow people to eat and at least stay in the same room as the matches were being played in the later stages of the competition.  Having had a good breakfast, we weren't hungry at lunchtime and Colleen was still playing until early afternoon anyway.... as a result of that we missed the Finals as we had to go to the other restaurant for our meal in the evening..... :'( .... unfortunately the meal there was very disappointing, which made it worse. :-X

Tables.... Nigel did an excellent job with the tables, as always. ;)

Format.... Lots of different points to make here, so I will take these one by one.....

1) The lag up to the peg.
A very innovative idea that did appear to mean that "skill" would replace the "luck" associated with just tossing a coin.... however, unless I completely missed something, there didn't seem to be any rule stating the minimum distance that a player had to hit the ball off the spot to make it a valid shot? ???
This meant (in my opinion anyway) that the player(s) named second had a huge advantage over the player who went first.... having either played or scored more than 30 games over the course of the weekend that involved rolling the balls up to the pegs, I can only remember 5 (maybe 6) games where the player going first actually won.... :o .... and in almost half of those games the player going first knocked the peg over meaning that the other player only had to tap the ball off the spot to gain the choice of break, which doesn't really take that much skill. :P
Possibly the worst example of this I saw was while checking one of the later matches (I think it was either last 16 or 32) of the main competition, the player rolling first played what appeared to be a perfect shot with his ball ending up just brushing the peg and coming to rest immediately next to it slightly on the left hand side... the "main" scorer (a respected Jersey player) called that as a "foul" as had the ball hit the peg square on the ball would have knocked the peg over and his opponent hit the ball off the spot (it just about reached as far as the black peg) to "win" the choice of breaks.... I questioned the decision at the time and was told by somebody playing on the next table that the decision was correct.... ::) ....but it seemed very unfair to me then - and it still does now. :P
So, if this format is going to be used again in the future.... could I humbly suggest that either both players have to make the ball reach at least beyond the level of the 50 hole to be a "valid attempt".... or that the white pegs are removed and it is played as "nearest the white peg spots" as at least that will mean that both players have a more equal opportunity than the system that was used. 8-)

2) The Group Matches
Personally I think that these were a great idea as it means that we all got more games.... ;D 8-)  It does possibly favour the "stronger" players and means that there are likely to be less "shocks" in the early stages, you only need to look at the line-ups for the Last 64 of the Main Competition to realise that, however there are always chances for everybody in single leg games.  
However.... I think it would be better to make the Groups either 3 or 5 players to ensure that everybody has the same number of breaks in each Group and I feel that it would be better to do away with the "lucky runners-up", which seemed to give some advantage to the players in the later Groups on the day as they could see exactly what they needed to achieve to be able to progress ahead of players who had already finished playing.
By simply making it either the Group Winner (in Groups of 3) or Top 2 (in Groups of 5) who progress to the main competition, with remaining players going into the Plate, everybody knows exactly what they have to do to get through from the start and everybody starts on an equal basis. 8-)
Obviously, this would also remove the need to "lag" up to the pegs so could also save a bit of time in the Group stages... ;)
This year, there were 168 entries (which was played as 42 Groups of 4 players, total of 252 games), that could have been accommodated in 24 Groups of 5 players and 16 Groups of 3 players (a total of 288 games, meaning 3 series of matches extra above the format for this year) which would have given 64 places in the Main Competition. 8-)
By using a format of groups of either 3 or 5 players, any number of players (up to 192) can be fairly easily fitted in to provide 64 "winners".... above 192 entries and you may have to consider increasing the number of players who qualify for the main competition.... :-/

3) The "Live Draw"
A nice idea that added a bit of excitement at the end of the Group stages..... ;D
I was however surprised at how many people appeared to be drawn (in both the main and plate competitions) against people that they had already played in their Groups, maybe not immediately but often within a couple of rounds.  Maybe it would be better to have put players who had already played each other in opposite halves of the draw to ensure that they could only meet again if they both reached the Finals..... ???

However, overall the new Format worked very well and we will certainly be back again next year..... and will happily tell anybody that didn't go that they missed a great weekend. ;D

So another big thank you to Sean, Graham, Graeme, Nigel and everybody else for everything you did for all of us..... ;D ;D ;D