Tourneys
Topic: SOLIHELL

On 2006-08-20 21:10 , Barron147 Wrote:

Just got text off Boyzone to say he had won the final, thats all I know. Fantastic going!!!! An English 8 baller that has turned his attention to the big tables and come good. He has had a fantastic year so far with good results on the IPT qualifiers and now this. Expect to see more from this kid, he is a class act.

Well done Boyzi, was only a matter of time before you won one of these pal!

Just another gripe about Solihull...

Before the tournament started, Brad Parker was ranked 13th, not SEEDED 13th but RANKED 13th. he has worked hard to get his ranking & was finally looking forward to being seeded for a tournament after a long climb up the rankings.

In all cases prior to Solihull, the top 16 seeds did not play a preliminary round & usually play 2 matches on the winners side to qualify for the Sunday.

Brad was seeded 10th on Saturday due to 3 people not turning up, yet he had to play a preliminary match, which quite frankly is a joke considering that some other people who were not top 16 players got a bye in their first rounds & didnt play a preliminary match.

This is completely unfair & could well have affected the outcome of Brad's tournament. It is not right, and is a slap in the face for someone who has worked hard to get their ranking.

If any of the seeds had to do a preliminary, it should have been the player who was seeded 16th, i.e. wouldnt have been top 16 if all of the top 16 had actually entered.

What do you think about this? I think its wrong.

I agree this is wrong but to be fair the rankings on the BPPPA mean absolutely nothing anyway. There is no reward for being in the top 16 especially now the BPPPA dont get World Championshop spots.

And because rankings mean nothing it means the advantages of membership, well there are no advantages to be honest. Except that you get a reduced entry fee which when you consider the average person will play about 10 events a season, the membership fee divided by these events means you are paying the same money anyway! All you get for your hundred and fifty quid or whatever are meaningless ranking points.

I appreciate the rankings mean nothing, but at the end of the day, the one small bonus you get from being in the top 16 is that you play less matches to qualify.

Also - not one of the other seeds had to pay a pre-lim. Brad was the ONLY one.

Well there we go, the only small bonus you get for being seeded was taken away from Brad at the last tournament. This means that there really is no advanatge to being seeded.

No you're right there. No advantage whatsoever!! It does make you question why a membership fee is actually paid, as it clearly means nothing at all. it is wrong though - as far as I know it has never happened before which makes me wonder if the draw wasnt done properly or something.

Wasn't this just luck of the draw? I thought that seeding simply meant that two top 16 players could not be in the same section of the draw. Aren't byes ditributed at random and dependant on the number of entries? It would be useful if someone clarified this. Surely if there were 128 entries then all seeds would have a prelim match? It does seem strange that only 1 of 16 players had a prelim though - can someone say how this works?

Yes, but not right now, I will post something after work. I think people are getting a bit carried away and blowing this out of proportion. Cazza, why not just email or call Ted or Nigel, why 'name and shame' on a public forum without knowing all the facts?

For what it's worth, I actually agree with yours and Brad's gripe, no top 16 player should have to play a pre-lim (at least that's my understanding as well), but let's get all the facts before having a go at certain people (directly or indirectly!)

But Simon can we be told what our membership money is being used for? Do you agree tht the fee seems a little excessive when there seems to be no advantage to being a member?

Hey - I didnt mean to start a massive row & I havent 'named or shamed' anyone - I just think its unfair thats all. I dont understand how it all works & was hoping for clarification hence the original post. As far as I know, it has never happened before, hence my post.

bring back dougie g

I am a member of SAPPA (Scottish American Pool Players Association) & although our tour is much smaller in comparison to the BPPPA one, the benefits we get are quite good.
We pay £25 a year and this in turn gives us reduced entry into the tournaments, but the major bonus is that being in the top 64 get half price pool at Rileys. The top 8 get FREE play.
All SAPPA members get free membership at Rileys

Do any of the BPPPA members get this?
If they dont, I'm sue it would soften the blow for such a large outlay for membership.

cazza, it's not a row mate, just healthy debate!! Myself or Nigel will post a reply after work which will explain how the system works (so everyone knows going forward) and how Brad ended up playing a pre-lim. Hopefully this will answer your question.

cusack_147, I do not want to get drawn into a debate with other users that have already made up their mind and have their own strong opinions about membership fees on the bpppa tour. For what it's worth, I do believe that all players on the bpppa tour should have something to aim for and that the current set up does not reflect my own and I'm sure other peoples aspirations for 9-ball in this country. But guess what, everyone in the bpppa is aware of this!

Change can and will happen of that I'm sure, do you really think Ted wants this kind of press on the web? Of course he doesn't. Why, because over time, people will stop playing and there wont be a tour. I'm pretty sure he doesn't want that to happen, don't you?

Thanks for your response. I am sure Brad will be very keen to hear why he was the first seed ever to play a pre-lim....

It still sounds a bit weird to be honest, as I thought if the numbers were high, pre-lims were done in a 1st round & then seeds entered in round 2 as a matter of course, but I will await your reply.

i take it that no-one can come up with a valid explanation for it then?!!

Never mind - lets just hope that it doesnt happen again because it is unfair. There were a lot of non seeded players that got a bye in the 1st round.

Many other people agree with me in the fact they have NEVER EVER seen this before. Brad did ask for an explanation at the tournament, and was not given one. He even waited until after playing the preliminary match so as not to upset the guy he was playing, because Brad is a polite guy & didnt want to cause unrest. This approcash has obviously done him no favours, and I am sorry but the whole thing stinks.

Perhaps he is too polite for his own good.

Cazza, please be patient as there IS an explanation for this, I have asked Ted / Nigel to post something. They are both busy people, but I'm sure you will see something here soon.

cazza - i will try to explain why some of the seeds had to play in the 1st round instead of getting a bye into round 2. With a field of 100 in inevitable that a seeded player would have to play in the first round if you had put the 32 seeded players into round 2 that would have left 68 which meant they would be more than 64 players in round 2 so unfortunately 4 seeds had to play in the first round so 28 seeds went thru and that 72 players to battle it out for a the remaining 36 spots to make up the last 64.

Daryl used the seeding system which was similar to one used in tennis no 1 seed at the top of the draw and the no 2 seed at the bottom. And it panned out with 4 seeded players having to play in the first round it seems unfair but it was just down to the numbers and if you have a full field of 128 you would have not had this problem so you can look at it anyway you like.

Personally it might have been best to give the top 28 ranked players thru to round 2 and seeded players 29-32 play in 1st round as really anyone ranked as low as 13 after round 1 should have been merited with a place in round 2.

Remember this is only the 2nd event and you will always get a few teething problems but i dont think this incident will happen again as the field will be full for future EPT events and the top 32 will be in round 2 and Bradley will find have no worries if he is still in the top 32 for event 3.

I hope this answers your query cazza just unfortunate that it had to happen but it wont happen again as i can assure you there will be 128 players for event 3.

cazza

my apologies i thought you were on about the EPT sorry.

doh i thought i was reading about the EPT not the BPPPA :-S

soz everyone.