Pubs And The Future

[Chris_Sav]

With the AEBBA AGM coming up I am interested to know how things are going in your areas.

Ten years ago I was worried about losing players, we are still here.

Five years ago I was worried about losing the tables, we are still here.

Now I am worried about the increasingly alarming rate pubs are disappearing at!!

In my own league from our 2006 results, three pubs have shut and three have stopped having bar billiards. More worryingly, long term landlords are chucking their hat in and can mostly only be replaced with managers, my own pub included. Only two of our pubs have long term stable landlords, in four there are severe doubts over their future.

24 pubs in Deal Town have closed since I first started tippling almost fifty years ago, there are now only 27. 9 of those have gone in the last ten years. The position rurally is worse. My frequent trip through the lanes to Canterbury takes me past one open village pub and EIGHT closed village pubs that I can remember being open and have mostly been in!!.

My league, which is largely rural, is now getting to the stage of owning tables and having players but hardly any 'pub' pubs to house them. This I view as becoming a bigger threat than the first two.

How are you fairing?

Sav

[Sir Chancelot]

Much the same in Guernsey with so many pubs and tables gone since I first started playing league bar billiards in 1976.
Two of the existing league tables exist in clubs, however the teams are made up by players who do not drink there on a regular basis.
If there is landlord who is interested in the game or better, even plays league, you can expect good support.
However there is only La Fontaine in Guernsey with Colin de Jersey who looks after his two home teams and plays occasionally.
When our team was formed at L'Auberge Divette there were two leagues and four teams, two in each division at the pub.
The landlord played for one of the teams and certainly looked after us.
In the winter months Bar Billiards was a good regular source of income for the pub.
Sadly that pub has now turned yuppie and is a food restaurant/bar with no room for a table.
Other traditional pub games such as darts have suffered a huge decline in numbers also so it is not just Bar Billiards that has become unfashionable.
Perhaps we need to re invent the game in some radical way, a way which may need the input of someone who is new to the game and is not blinkered by the way we see the game.
Younger payers are thin on the ground, and if the current decline continues there may be only 100 players in the World Championship in 20 years time.

[NigelS]

Probably the biggest problem facing the game at the moment Sav.

After another move this year we have gone to the Bib & Tucker only to have played 2 home games to find out it will close at Christmas. Such as shame as a great landlord and a great new venue for us.

Also 3 teams will need to find a new home and the choices are limited to say the least....

We may run out of pubs before we run out of tables and players......

[gandalf the untidy]

Hi BB fans

I can foresee that there will be a rationalization of the pub scene in the near future, as less spare cash from punters ends up over the bar, which will undoubtedly cause breweries to reassess their current volume of outlets generally.

The result will be fewer pubs around, this in the long term won't be a bad thing as this will focus the available players at a reduced number of venues, probably leading to many 2 team pubs, which will make the game more profitable for those pubs that remain. If the pub issue gets severe then there are always clubs to target as possible venues with the added bonus of cheaper booze.

The major problem in the future may be the cost of travel to and from venues, Eastbourne has a very low player/driver ratio, with the continuing rise of fuel costs i see teams will have less ability to travel cheaply which could cause more isolation with leagues having a substantially smaller catchment area and therefore smaller leagues which will reduce pub incentives to continue running a table.

regs cs

I can empathise with many of the points made so far and would agree with Nigel's statement about running out of pubs before we run out of tables and/or players - were it not the case that both of these are under threat also !  By this I mean that there are no table rentals now except in Sussex, table ownership now becoming popular but it needs a landlord interested in the game to take that leap of faith.  And the average age of players is increasing all the time with (I reckon) as many players over 60 as under 60. The average age of my team is 66 ! So will we still be playing in 10 years time ? I think not.

There are also close comparisons between Deal and Horsham in that we have lost a lot of our pubs too. Have a look at this record of the teams that once took part, especially based in Horsham itself (I've played for most of them !) and it is apparent that the only actual pub in Horsham with a team is the Stout House.  
home.btconnect.com/horshambarbilliards.co.uk/page3.html

The League covers the rural district, and here too on our way to matches we drive wistfully past pubs which used to have bar billiards. Membership has been bolstered by Clubs being admitted to the League (they were banned up until 1968) and when you find a good club to play at it's usually beneficial both in decor/ambience and in the price of drinks. However in this day and age some clubs can work out to be no cheaper to drink in than a pub, although I would not include Southwater Sports Club in that statement - drinks very good value there. As Gandalf says, the price of petrol is coming more and more into the equation and can have an overriding influence on whether to enter Opens and/or domestic competitions. I am certainly having to cut down !

I often marvel at the diversity in the Leagues - some are club-orientated, some (like Mid Sussex) are more pub-orientated, some Leagues are expanding with new blood, others have the same people all the time, swapping venues on a regular basis.

I think we just have to enjoy it while it lasts, and try to give help and encouragement to others where we can - in whatever shape or form.

That's quite a serious blow about the Bib & Tucker, Nigel - just when you'd become happy and settled there. Hopefully you'll be able to find another good one as a base for Interleague.      

[milko]

We in Oxfordshire are also losing our pubs at a staggering rate, the latest one is the "Crown & Thistle" at Headington which closes on Jan 1st 2012. There has been an Inn/Pub on this site since 1669. :o

They haven't had a BB table for a long time now but this pub holds fond memories for me, as this was where I played when we won the "AE Team Champs" in the 80's (Twice) and also where I made the old "World record" score of 28,530.

Those were the "Good Old Days" 8-)

Where will it all end ?....probably with no "Pubs" at all!


Keith :(

[barbelman]

Dec 3, 2011 17:59:49 GMT milko said:

We in Oxfordshire are also losing our pubs at a staggering rate, the latest one is the "Crown & Thistle" at Headington which closes on Jan 1st 2012. There has been an Inn/Pub on this site since 1669. :o

I couldn't believe it when I saw it in the Oxford Mail...used to be such a busy pub although it's had it's ups and downs.

Such heritage in the hands of and at the whim of an anonymous accountant in East Anglia.....

Makes me mad! >:(

Tony

[Carls421]

Sounds like Norwich is a different kettle of fish to most places? Yes, there are a few pubs that have closed but the Bar Billiards leagues have increased alot. In 2007 there was one 4-Pin table, now we have a growing league and 4 pubs with 5 teams, one of the pubs are having to make 2 teams out of 1 because of too many members. The pubs in question are city centre so a walk away from each other. There is a bit of a problem with other pubs bringing in tables to join the league, only because they are hesitant to buy a table, they want to rent, but there are lack of places that have rental tables here. So not all doom and gloom in all areas.