plans for The World Four Pin Bar Billiards 2021

[daveuk1]

Just to let you know that The Suffolk BBA have decided not to reschedule for this year but a date has been set for next year, this is of course dependent on Covid-19 allowing. No decision has yet been made on the 4x4 team tournament.

The Plan is to hold the World Four Pin on Sunday 21st March 2021 at the Masonic Hall in Sudbury. There will be a doubles KO on Saturday 20th March starting around 5pm.

We would of liked to go for the following weekend but unfortunately that date was already booked at the venue.

On the Suffolk/Sudbury league front, their are no real plans as yet as to when the league will restart although the league doesn't normally start until the end of September, so hopefully by then things will all be a little clearer.

Of the six league venues in and around town there is an equal split of venues allowing bar billiards and those who are not yet playing.

The snooker club, the institute club and the brook are all allowing their tables to be played on while the tables at the bay horse and brewery tap remained covered and out of use and the white horse have temporarily removed their table from the bar area with a plan to reinstate it when they believe it's safe to do so.

Stay safe folks and lets hope we get back playing soon.

Dave

[daveuk1]

Just a quick update.
The Suffolk BBA have decided that we need to postpone the event, as we believe it will still be unsafe and unwise to hold the tournament in March
We have now set a new date of Sunday 25th July for the world four pin championships with either the 4x4 team competition or a four pin doubles tournament being played on the Saturday.

These dates are of course assuming covid restrictions allow, hopefully we will have a better idea about this in the next few weeks

[bigtj]

Thanks for the update Dave at least know to cancel accommodation and rebook for July

[daveuk1]

While July is still sometime off and nobody knows if we will be able to hold our tournaments then, it would be nice to know if there would be any interest from players if we held a doubles KO on the Saturday. I would imagine that, depending on numbers it would start around 4 pm and finish by 8.

[dillon]

I would be up for it with Sleezy Dave. Fingers crossed.!

[Chris]

Can we have our room ? At the pub ?

[daveuk1]

Feb 8, 2021 20:02:35 GMT Chris said:

Can we have our room ? At the pub ?

Of course, I had already provisionally booked your room anyway, Just in case.
Im not sure if your read, we have moved our open to the Sunday and plan to hold a doubles tournament on the Saturday late afternoon and early evening so I will just need to know what nights you want to stay. I am sure there will be something going on on the Friday night involving drinking . If it helps your regular neighbour has booked the Friday, Saturday and Sunday nights.

There is one other thing, if there is the slightest wiff of smelly cheese we may demote you to the tent at the bottom of the garden.

All of this is still very much dependent on covid, we are hopeful that by July we will be back to some kind of normality but we will be guided by our goverments rules.

Hopefully see you in July

Stay safe

Dave

[daveuk1]

Quite a few people have now contacted me asking about our proposed tournaments scheduled for Sat 24th and Sunday 25th of July and whether they are going ahead.
Although plans are in place to hold these on the dates above, at present our hands are tied by govermant restrictions and the roadmap out of lockdown. We wont know if we are going to move into the next phase of this until June 14th at the earliest, so until this date it seems pointless making entry forms available.

The way I see it is there are three possible scenarios.

First. No or not enough restrictions are lifted to make it possible to play and the event is cancelled.


Two. Some restrictions are lifted and we can play as long as we make the event as covid safe as possible.
I have written a risk assessment to try and cover this and it will mean we need to do the following as a minimum.

The tables, score boards and balls will be cleaned and treated with byotrol disinfectant (this is proven to be effective against the coronavirus for up to 24 hours) before the start of play, this proceedure will then be repeated during the day when we have a natural break between the morning and afternoon groups and again before the start of the KO stages.

Before entering the venue every person must have their temperatures taken and record a normal result.

Every person, players, spectators helpers etc must register their details with the admin, this will be used for track and trace purposes.

Hand sanitizer will be available in the entrance lobby, admin desk and beside each bar billiards table.

Fask masks must be worn by everyone while standing except for the players and scorer

Latex gloves will be made available for the scorers.

Players should sanitize their hands before the start of each game

We are a friendly bunch and I believe that shaking hands after games should be encouraged but left up to the individual to decide. Players must sanitize their hands after the game

That covers the basic, but we could be forced to introduce more measures including insisting every person entering the hall has had a negitive flow test in the previous 48 hours. Plus anything else the goverment throws at us.

Third. All restrictions are lifted and we carry on as normal. I still believe cleaning the tables and the use of hand sanitizer by everyone will be wise.

Please remember covid is here to stay and there is no guarantee that thing won't go pear shaped the day before our open and we are hit with new restrictions or plunged into another lockdown forcing us to cancel at very short notice

We hope to hold a committee meeting in the next few weeks and it would be very useful if you could leave any comments below, obviously including whether you intend to enter if we are able to go ahead.

Sorry about the length of this post, but this could be one of the first opens played for well over a year and it is important we get things right, mainly for everyones safety but also for the future of our game and further opens.

Thank you in anticipation of your help and understanding.

Lets hope we all get to meet up and play in July

Dave

[chrishaynes (R.I.P.)]

Thanks for update dave looks like you've covered it well, look forward to seeing you in july!!! Eastbourne on tour again!

[Chris]

Excellent post Dave.

Thank you

Chris

[johnslee]

Thanks very much for the post Dave. You have outlined and covered all possibilities so comprehensively. Let's hope it's option 3 fingers crossed.
As it stands myself and Jim Balchin all being well will be up for the weekend. Thanks once again Dave. 😁

[bigtj]

Hi Dave good work hopefully see everyone there

[daveuk1]

Just a very quick update.

We are hoping to get our committee members together on Tuesday 15th June when we hope we can make a decision on our open.

At the moment it seems 50-50 and things could go either way, it also seems to depend on which newspapers you read.

Lets hope its all good news.

Dave

[daveuk1]

I am sure you don't really need me to tell you but, unfortunately due to circumstances completely beyond our control we have had no option but to cancel our open.
I am really sorry for any inconvenience caused, I know some people have already booked their accommodation for the weekend.
If on the 19th July the restrictions are lifted I'm sure if any of you still want to come up to Suffolk we can organise some friendly games to be played in between drinking.

Sorry once again and thank you to everyone for your support.

[Chris_Sav]

Thanks for persevering with your attempts to get me to spend loads of money on beer.

Sad but sensible Dave, I'm going to miss it. Smelly cheese arrived today as well!

Count me in if there's a smaller gathering, provided it does not conflict with our ongoing NHS problem delays here.

[daveuk1]

Jun 15, 2021 19:47:31 GMT Chris_Sav said:

Thanks for persevering with your attempts to get me to spend loads of money on beer.

Sad but sensible Dave, I'm going to miss it. Smelly cheese arrived today as well!

Count me in if there's a smaller gathering, provided it does not conflict with our ongoing NHS problem delays here.

Well the smelly cheese will be ripe by July

[bigtj]

Again sad news hopefully all get together soon

[johnslee]

Thanks very much Dave for letting us know about your Open you certainly gave it your best shot. All being well me and Jim B will still come up for the weekend to take up your offer.
Hope to see you that weekend 😁

[daveuk1]

Just to let you know, if any of you still fancy coming up to Sudbury I have just cancelled the booking for all the rooms at the bay horse so there are some rooms available there, just remember its room only, NO breakfast.

We hope to organise some bar billiards on the Saturday, but what we do will depend on the numbers and what restrictions, if any are still in place. If the rule of 6 is still in force for inside we may be snookered a little.

A few people have aready let me know that they are still coming up and it would be handy if anyone else is thinking about it if they could let me know so we have an idea of numbers. Obviously we will be playing in a pub rather than the masonic hall.

Dave

[daveuk1]

Well,,,, that was a weekend and a half, thanks to everyone who came up to Sudbury. I'm suffering today after certain people forced some of us to drink too much.
I do remember sleezy winning at killer, collecting his winnings and then putting £40 behind the bar 😁 after that things are a little blurred.
Hopefully we can do it for real next march

[dillon]

On behalf of the Surrey / Sussex visiting contingency, I feel confident in saying that we have never been made so welcome anywhere.
Wonderful weekend, wonderful hosts, wonderful improvisation after the booking cockup.
The pubs, the meals, the tables and most of all the new friends.
THANK YOU SO MUCH SUDBURY. ESPECIALLY PAUL AND KATHY AT THE MASONIC HALL.
👌👌👌👌💋💋💋💋

[daveuk1]

Jul 26, 2021 20:14:36 GMT dillon said:

On behalf of the Surrey / Sussex visiting contingency, I feel confident in saying that we have never been made so welcome anywhere.
Wonderful weekend, wonderful hosts, wonderful improvisation after the booking cockup.
The pubs, the meals, the tables and most of all the new friends.
THANK YOU SO MUCH SUDBURY. ESPECIALLY PAUL AND KATHY AT THE MASONIC HALL.
👌👌👌👌💋💋💋💋

I guess it's a lesson learnt, don't leave checking in until early evening. Still at least we managed to sort it somehow and you got to visit some different places including the non league venue namely the five bells

[johnslee]

Hi all.
As Jim said what a smashing, entertaining and lovely time we have just had in Sudbury a great shame it wasn't for the world 4 pin. The Sudbury lads and lasses were amazing hosts, a lot of billiards and the occasional pint. As Dave said the time spent playing on the 5 bells table was pretty unique. Playing on a one off beautifully made Sam's top Wide but long with ribbed pockets and the most beautiful scoreboard.
There is definitely a place for the 4 pin skills of their players in the bar billiards world. Thanks Sudbury.

[tommo III]

Notes from "The Third Man"......

I joined up with John and Jim from Surrey and after a sumptuous breakfast at the White Horse Sudbury we had an all-day long session of 4-Pin bar billiards at the Brewery Tap with five “good old boys” from Suffolk.
Competitors: Dave Lillie, Colin Norledge, Jeff Bridges, Paul Gooch, Pete Lillie; John Slee; Jim Balchin and yours truly.
Killer: Wnr John; R-u Dave
Pairs 1 of 3: Wnrs John and Paul
Singles: Wnr Jeff; R-u Paul.
Pairs 2 of 3: Jim and John

Pairs 3 of 3: Dave and Clive

Highest break of day: Dave 1370.

Thanks to the Suffolk lads for an exemplary display of hospitality. Was relieved to hear that some alternative accommodation was sorted out for John and Jim – it would have been a bit of a tight squeeze in my room at the Hill Court !  A saviour was also found for me in the form of Steve Hale who deposited me at the Tap in his taxi after I was found wandering about town having lost my bearings……

Made a new friend, too: a 4-yr-old Border Collie bitch called Silver.

A thoroughly enjoyable event, thanks to Daveuk1 for organising !

I had to bail out on the Sunday as I had planned to visit Bury St Edmunds: Visited 3 country pubs on my way and will report my findings separately.

[Chris_Sav]

Round 2 in Sudbury tomorrow, this time I can make it!

Breakfast, Beer and Billiards - what could be better?

[johnslee]

Hi Chris 
Like your thoughts mate  a great 3 b's. Myself and Jim Balchin are heading for Sudbury tomorrow. Staying over at the Bay Horse
Will catch up for a few .

[Chris_Sav]

Aiming to be in Spoons at 1045hrs, cannot stay tomorrow night unfortunately, hospital visit on Monday.