The IBSF World U18 & U21 Snooker Championships will this year be held in China between the dates of 7^th and 17^th of July. Expressions of interest were called for from Australian referees to officiate at this prestigious event which prompted a response from Jon Moss.

I am delighted to announce that this application has been met with an affirmative answer.

Jon will be travelling to China with the blessing and encouragement of the V.B.S.A. as well as the other Victorian referees.

Jon has had a meteoric rise as a referee since first being accredited and has elicited admiring comments from many of his senior comrades.

His profile along with those of other Victorian referees can be found on the referee profile page on this site.

And the winner is.....James Mifsud.  Continuing his stellar recent form, James displayed his strong scoring skills which saw him come to the last frame with a slender 20 point lead over his brother, Steve.  Not wanting to collect another runner up cheque, James jumped away early in the frame and ran out a convincing winner.  Well done to James, Steve and the other 6 great players for putting on a terrific exhibition and keeping the generous spectators entertained.

Well done to James for his Top Break win of 71 and to Josh Gorski for easily taking out the Colour Potting compettition, by being the only one able to finish the job.  That time clock causes so much pressure!!

Thanks to the day's Referees, Larry, Kim, John & Jon.  I think they get just as much enjoyment as everyone else and fair enought too.

And thanks to the event team of John van Zanden, Alan Clews, Ian Gilbee, Ian Anderson and the special "Voice of the Masters", Mike Poda.  Mike has promised that next year, our 10th running, will be a step up from previous years.  Hang on to your hat for that.

Mark Dunn, Tournament Director.

The 2017 City of Melbourne tournament was completed this weekend with the triumphant return of favourite son Steve Mifsud. A champion in every sense of the word and up against another who deserves similar accolades in former C.O.M. champion Johl Younger. These two very personable gentlemen graced table 8 in the pit in the very opulent room at the R.A.C.V. Club in the CBD with Steve the eventual winner by 5 frames to 2.

Two days earlier they, along with 88 other players, started off this very popular tournament with the round robin stage. This was held in seven venues around the city where those players were split into groups of 5 or 6 which competed in their own mini tournaments. 4 groups at the new room in Yarraville, named in honour of the major sponsor Chris Christofi and his Reventon Group, 4 at the R.A.C.V., 2 at the Brunswick Club, 2 at the Bentleigh Club, 2 more at Cheltenham, 1 at North Brighton and 1 at AK 8 which is also in the city.

The top 2 finishers from each of these 16 groups then headed to the R.A.C.V. on Saturday morning to contest the best of 5 knock out stages and where some magnificent snooker was seen, the two standouts being a 109 break from Rudy Sulaeman and the eventual high break winning knock, a 122 by that man Steve Mifsud. Others that deserve a mention were Shaun Dalitz who seemed to knock in a 50+ break every time he went to the table and C.O.M newcomer, Australian U/21 champion, Tasmanian Cale Barrett who had a stellar tournament only succumbing to eventual champion Steve and even then only in the semi-finals.

That best of 7 semi-final and the other between Johl and Shaun Dalitz were held on Sunday morning with the well-attended best of 9 final kicking off a 2:00 that afternoon. Praveen Chandra was the referee for the Barrett/Mifsud semi with Neil Brown in charge of the Younger/Dalitz match. Neil Allison was the very competent and assured Grand Final referee. 

12 year old Queensland sensation, Jayden Dinga, is proving a big hit not just on the table but also on the little screen. 

Jayden is the current U12 national snooker champ, U12 national 8 ball champ, U12 QLD snooker champ, U15 QLD snooker champ, U15 QLD billiards champ and U18 QLD billiards runner up.  That's impressive in anyone's book.

A new TV Show "Little Big Shots" is coming to Channel 7 soon and Jayden is filming a segment for the show this week. He'll be doing some pool trick shots and talking about his snooker. What an amazing opportunity for this young man.  See https://vimeo.com/213039946 for a preview of the show.

I'm sure we'll be hearing a lot more from Jayden in the years ahead.

PS  And well done to our very own Kim Ivett for facilitating the above.  She's always on the lookout for a good story that will promote our game.  Great work Kim.

For some time it has been recognised that the VBSA has no place to recognise the contributions of its volunteer Board or Life Members who have collectively contributed so much to this great organisation and game of ours.

To have a physical, traditional Honour Board is not an option with the VBSA not having a physical home, though Brunswick Club has been a unofficial home for many years.  Consequently, a digital Honour Board will be prepared and displayed on the VBSA website.

In preparation for this, the attached lists have been started and I now ask that you

1. Provide some feedback on the above proposal e.g. are there people/sections we are not recognising that should be?
2. Fill in some of the many gaps & correct some of the no doubt many errors within the two lists.

It is worth noting that any member can nominate another member for Life Membership so if you have someone you think deserving, in accordance with the Section 9 (2) of the VBSA Rules, then please contact me to commence that process.

The board of the VBSA wish to advise all pennant players that Rule No. 8 of the current ByLaws (Matches) has been revised to clarify that if any player were to be in arrears by 10 points plus the value of the colours remaining after potting the final red, then the player would be allowed to finish that turn at the table and that the frame may only be claimed or awarded if the 10-point rule can be invoked at the conclusion of the turn.

It is also to be understood that any player with the advantage of that rule and is ahead in the frame by enough points has the right to claim the frame at any time during any turn at the table as soon as the rule comes into effect.

Please refer to below LINK to view updated ByLaws.

Thanks to Shelly Ames for highlighting this issue.

Pennant Team entries closed 17th Feb. 59 (yep, we missed one) teams have been entered, thank you all for your support. Season starts - Mon 27th Feb.

Please note the following fixtures have been revised at 9pm on thurs 23rd Feb. A State Snooker (AVS1), C State Snooker S1 East  (CVS1E), D State Snooker (DVS1) and B Premier Snooker. C Premier round 13 Dandy Club v Star has been switched to Star v Dandy Club. Sorry guys, yes it happens !!!!!!!!!! Will notify everyone!

Please Note: On Monday nights have combined A State & B State Snooker into 1 grade which will be A State Snooker (AVS1). Had 11 teams entered between A & B State so had to put one team down to C State that was South Oakleigh Club (thank you Warren & team mates for your understanding and cooperation). This made 11 teams in C State, explored the option of moving a team back into D Grade and could not find a suitable choice so have split C State into "C State East S1 (CVS1E)"  & "C State West S1 (CVS1W)", (sorry, could not think of a better description) had no other choice.

Important - C State Snooker East - SOC (South Oakleigh Club) is closed for renovation for the first 5 weeks of the season. Their home matches will be played at "Star Ent Centre"

Please Note: in 2017 Peter Politis will be taking on the role of Score Registrar. Yes, after 16 years as Score Registrar it is time! As Peter does not know players and teams as I do, PLEASE fill in the your score sheet with first names and surnames printed clearly, please photograph and email to scores@vbsa.org.au (sorry the SMS option is no longer available).

I would like to thank everyone for putting up with me for so long, I will still be playing with the website and assisting Peter to get started.

Regards Alan Croft

At the 2016 Annual General Meeting on 26th October, amendments to the Rules (Constitution) & ByLaws were approved.  The revised documents have now been uploaded to the website.  Click this LINK to be taken to the page or go to the About VBSA page.

Billiards rankings have been updated to include the pennant season and the state championship.

Thank you all for participating in this season.  Congratulations to the finalists, commiserations to those that did not make the finals. ALL grand finalists will receive a VBSA / Reventon polo shirt. Winners of the Grand Final will receive a monogrammed jacket and a team photo for their Club. The monogrammed jackets have to be made and will receive delivery in a couple of weeks, will let the captains know when they have been delivered to your respective clubs.

Congratulations to all that participated in a very competitive and well contested final series, matches were very hard fought and many decided in the last few minutes. Would like to complement everyone on the the standard of dress, it was, without exception, outstanding. To Jim Lewis and the referees, thank you for making the 2016 finals a success. To all those that were otherwise involved, thank you.

And the winners are:

• B Billiards - Yarraville G - 3  were defeated by RACV - 5
• A Willis Snooker - Brunswick United - 7 defeated  Yarraville Green - 4
• B Willis Snooker - Dandenong RSL - 7 defeated DC Knights - 3
• C Willis (East) Snooker - Bentleigh Bandits - 7 defeated  Hit & Run - 4
• C Willis (West) Snooker - AK8 Lions - 7 defeated Mulgrave CC - 6
• D Willis Snooker - Stars - 7 defeated Kings of Summer - 6
• A Billiards - Brunswick - 10 defeated Ballarat - 2
• B Reserve Snooker - Hit Billiards - 6 were defeated by  DC Warriors - 7
• C Reserve Snooker - Dand RSL -7 defeated  DC All Stars - 5

Some highlights from the season just completed:

• Steve Mifsud (Brunswick A Premier Billiards) played 14 rounds and won 13 winning most games, then won both matches in the finals. Steve made the highest break in A Billiards of 184 and the highest break in the finals with 127 in the grand final. Great to see you back Steve!
• John Auricchio tells me this was his 58th consecutive season with the VBSA (I guess that makes him older than me!). Congratulations John, will see you again next year.

If you have anything else that you think warrants a mention here please let me know scores@vbsa.org.au