To all VBSA members.

The AGM was held on Thursday 7^th September 2023 at the Hampton RSL, 25 Holyrood Street, Hampton

The Agenda, 2022/2023 Financial Audit, Minutes & Reports are attached below.

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The 2023 World Billiards Championship is being held between 14th – 19th October near Birmingham in the UK. 

The ABSC invites players keen to participate in the event/s to express their interest in being nominated as part of the Australian squad.

The National Governing Bodies information pack is attached, and contains full details of the World Championship as well as the lead-up event.

Please send expressions of interest to secretary@absc.com.au by Thursday 7 September.

Frank Dewens will retire as President of the ABSC, in accordance with the constitution, at the 2023 Annual General Meeting on Saturday 14^th October.  Frank has undertaken the role with great energy, dedication and distinction for the past 10 years, and his leadership will be sadly missed by cue sports both nationally and internationally.

The ABSC Board is now seeking expressions of interest from suitably qualified individuals who would like to be considered for the President role, for an initial term of 3 years.  This would suit someone with a passion for the games, a willingness to represent the sport nationally and internationally, sufficient time to make an active contribution and some experience managing a small organisation, drawing on the skills of other Board members.  A Position Description for the role is attached.  Expressions of interest should be lodged by Tuesday 26 September, and directed to the Secretary-General, Simon Fortune at secretary@absc.com.au in the first instance.

The new President will be ratified (or elected if there are multiple candidates) by the Member States of the ABSC at the 2023 AGM, and will take office at the conclusion of that meeting.

Frank would be delighted to mentor the incoming President in an unofficial capacity, and any questions about the role can be directed to him at president@absc.com.au,  to the Vice-president Alex Render at rendersnooker@gmail.com or to Simon Fortune.

David Collins championship was a great event.

Congratulations to Aaron Mahoney for coming up with these events, the ever present and helpful. George Hoy, Bassam Elbelli (the photographer and with his lovely wife as the Master Chef???? duo), David Collins offering hours of billiards tuition for free and the rest of the team who helped make this event happen. 

Special mention to Kevin Stone who  was kind enough to sponsor it.

 It was a real community effort.

 Without this collective effort these events would not happen.

 Let's encourage the players who took part to give back by helping with the next one ????

 If you guys ever need help let me know.

 I might be suggesting this particular event at Hampton. ????

Thank You

Alec Spyrou

2023 RACV Australian National Snooker Champion Steve Mifsud! Congratulations to Steve Mifsud (VIC) who has just won the 2023 National Snooker Championship defeating Adrian Ridley (VIC) 6-1 in the final. Final - Steve Mifsud 6 def Adrian Ridley 1 Semi Final - Steve Mifsud 5 def Vinnie Calabrese 3 Semi Final - Adrian Ridley 5 def Johl Younger 3 Highest Break - Shaun Dalitz 137 Well done to all the other finalists and to all the players who have travelled from around Australia to compete in this prestigious event. Thanks to the VBSA and all officials for their contribution. Special thanks to the RACV Club for their ongoing support of this Championship and providing a world class venue year on year. https://absc.com.au/result-detail?2023/racv-australian-national-snooker-championship-2023

To celebrate Ron Stecum's 97th birthday, some of his oldest acquaintances gathered at Frankston RSL and waxed lyrical about the "good old days".  No reputations were spared!!

A bit of Billiards & Snooker history in this shot.  Ron - VBSA Life Member & President from 1978 to 1982 & 1986 to 1988.  Don Richter, VBSA Life Member & President from 1983 to 1984.  Ron Cole, VBSA Life Member & President for an amazing 15 years from 2003 to 2017.

Congratulations Ron from all VBSA members.

Robbie Chilcott won the August Ranking Points Billiards Tournament at the Yarraville Club by defeating Simon Scerri in a high standard final.

Robbie made opening breaks of 75 and 62 to take an early 200 points lead in the match. Simon fought back with a 75 break but Robbie sealed the match with a 54 break to win the final 356 to 201. Simon Scerri had the highest break of the tournament with an 82.

Graeme Wright won the plate event by defeating Simon Fortune 163 - 152 in a close final. Graeme proved himself the master of the close game by winning his three plate event matches by margins of 3, 5 and 11 points.

Special thanks to Damian Wilcox and Sam Bashfield for refereeing for the day.

See attached Results

Don Richter
Tournament Director 

During the recent pennant finals there were quite a few instances of frustration being shown by the players, either in the form of banging or slapping table rails, cues coming iinto contact with the floor with a little more force than is necessary, or by audible swearing.

Many referees both past and present, have for a long time chosen to ignore most of these actions but there were and are some who choose the correct procedure, which is to inform those players that the actions so taken are unacceptable.

All the current referees have now been instructed to enforce the rules as they are written in the WPBSA rule book, which can be found in Section 4 (The Players). Specifically rule 1 of that section which directly targets bad language as well as any other action which may be deemed by the referee to be unsporting conduct and that offficial warnings must be administered.

Consideration must also be taken that with the increase of finals matches for major tounament and some pennant finals, that are live streamed, the watching audience and the chance that children could be among them must be kept in mind.

It is a fact that all referees have come from the ranks of the players and certainly understand frustrations and it is for this reason that the instruction to them is to issue a private unofficial word for a first offence which would not result in forfeiture of a frame, but for any further deviation from the rules an official and audible warning will be given where any further unsporting action will result in lost frames.

It is my fervent hope that such a scenario never eventuates and it is for that reason and to be as fair as possible to all, that this information to the players is being made clear.

Another successful Pennant Singles Finals series were concluded at Yarraville this week with the following results:

APS.  Winner - Henry Lau, RUP - Robert Wood

BPS.  Winner - Bassam Elbelli, RUP - Michael Kagan

CPS.  Winner - Quocchi Nghiem, RUP - Frank Leung

BVS1.  Winner - Ray Rogers, RUP - Masoud Alikhail

CVS1N. Winner - Michael Lang, RUP - George Savva

CVS1S. Winner - Shabbir Badshah, RUP - Frank Leung

I hope all parties enjoyed themselves and found the new format a welcome change. If you have any feedback or suggestions please email tournaments@vbsa.org.au

My thanks to the referees, Jon Moss for streaming and the tireless efforts from those at the VBSA that helped get this event run in a very short time frame and at the busy end of the Pennant season. Also, thanks to those that took part and came down to support. 

Regards

Alec Spyrou, Event Co-Ordinator

Hat Trick Series Event 2

Venue - Yarraville Club Melbourne.

Starts - Sat 12th - 13th Aug

Entries close Sunday 6th August

Now Closed

See entry list Here