GB9
Topic: 2015 Season Announcement

GB9 are pleased to announce details of the 2015 season, in doing so we have taken on-board feedback from a number of players who have taken the time to write or talk to us, weighed up with what is achievable and workable. We are pleased to announce the following highlights:

• Tour will be limited to 96 members – 16 Pro’s plus 80 Challenge players. Reserves will only be allowed to play if a member cannot attend an event
  
• All five events will be held at the Park Inn by Radisson Hotel, Telford, UK
  
• The main event will be double elimination to the last 16 then straight knockout
  
• The Pro event will remain as a 16 player field playing double elimination to the last 8 then straight knockout. If you wish to be considered for the Pro division please indicate this on your application form
  
• We will retain the two-tier Challenge division which has proved popular with the lower ability players
  
• If there are fewer than 64 Challenge players at an event all players will play in a single Challenge event
  
• ALL players will accrue ranking points, not just GB9 members. This means that anybody playing GB9 events in 2015 will have an official UK ranking
  
• Hotel costs have been reduced to just £36 per person per night when sharing and the single room supplement has been slashed by £10 to just £55 per night. This is amazing value for a 4* hotel including breakfast and use of all the hotel facilities
  
• Introduction of a Calcutta auction at all events, subject to a successful trial at the 2014 British Grand Prix event in November
  
• Vacant tables at the latter stages of the main event on Saturday afternoons will be used to host side events (extra entry fees will be payable), the type of event will be varied at each event i.e Scotch doubles, team events, 8-ball, Straight pool etc.
  
• Introduction of a high entry fee showcase ring game on Friday evening of each event (subject to interest)
  

All events will be held at the superb Park Inn by Radisson Hotel, Telford. The confirmed dates for all events are available on the event schedule page of our website.

So that we can judge interest, the closing date for applications is 30 NOVEMBER 2014 so don’t delay and get your application form in NOW and pay your £50 deposit to secure your spot.

2015 PRIZE MONEY

The following prize money will be on offer at each tour stop (subject to a 96 player field):

Main Event
Winner: £1,200
Runner-up: £600
3rd: £325
5th: £150
9th: £100

Pro Event
Winner: £1,000
Runner-up: £500
3rd: £250
5th: £150

Challenge Event – Tier 1
Winner: £500
Runner-up: £250
3rd: £150
5th: £75

Challenge Event – Tier 2
Winner: £350
Runner-up: £175
3rd: £100
5th: £50

Total Prize money per Event: £8,725


2015 MEMBERSHIP AND ENTRY FEES

Annual membership will be priced at £450 Challenge and £900 Pro. This includes entry to either Main and Challenge or Main or Pro at all five tour events for the season. You can choose to pay the annual fee up front or in the following minimum instalments – You can pay extra amounts at any time if you wish to pay off your account earlier:

Challenge Division:
Deposit by 30 November: £50
At Event 1: £150
At Event 2: £150
At Event 3: £100

Pro Division:
Deposit by 30 November: £50
At Event 1: £300
At Event 2: £300
At Event 3: £250

Entries for single events are welcome (subject to a space being available), and will be priced at £100 challenge and £190 Pro.

Ladies, Juniors and Wheelchair Players can play all five events for just £350. Further details on this is available on the member fees page of our website.

Applications AND Deposits received so far (95):

Abubaker, Aslam
Barley, Dave
Beesley, John
Boyes, Karl
Brisley, Michael
Buckley, Benji
Bullocke, Gary
Burford, Phil
Burton, Tony
Butterworth, Jon
Challenger, Terry
Christopher, Matthew
Clemens, Dominic
Colclough, Stewart
Cole, Steven
Collins, Adam
Collins, Mark
Connor, Colin
Cowie, Chris
Cripps, Robin
Dad, Arfan
Davies, John
Davies, Terry
Dracup, Sean
Evans, Dave
Exposito, Juan Carlos
Flecknell, Callum
Foster, Mark
Fraser, Chris
Frazer, Ian
Gardner, Simon
Gray, Mark
Hall, Chris
Hamer, Ryan
Hillan, Jack
Holden, Joni
Holmes, Ben
Hooley, Karl
Hopkin, David
Hughes, Mark
Ibrahim, Jan
Judge, Sean
Kojsza, Zoltan
Laucci, Massimo
Lunn, Mark
Majid, Imran
Margossian, Neil
Mccormick, Ian
Mcdonald, Mark
Mcdonald, Michael
Millership, Alan
Mole, Jimmy
Muratore, Bruno
Murrow, Jon-Paul
Nathwani, Ashik
Osborne, Craig
Parker, Bradley
Parker, Mark
Peach, Daryl
Raine, Darren
Randall, Darren
Rhodes, Michael
Robinson, Scott
Royce, Martyn
Seeney, Craig
Seville, Chris
Shaw, Adam
Shepherd, Mark
Simmonds, Dave
Simpson, Kev
Smith, Adam Benn
Southern, Tony
Sporton, Dean
Stanley, Mike
Staveley, Tom
Stevens, Adam
Stewart, Gary
Taylor, Martyn
Taylor, Paul
Thompson, Dean
Turnstill, Tony
Walker, Darryn
Warden, Andy
Wildman, Phil
Williams, Steve
Worrow, David
Worthington, Andy
Robertson, Will
Wykes, Paul
Chick, Steve
Colgrave, Andrew
Coton, Alan
Davison, Steve
Fee, Ed
George, Ben

Applications received but NO Deposit so far:

George, Darian
Bamotra, Jaspal
Cook, Daniel
Illingworth, Anthony
Martinez, Iván
Massey, Coilean
Sanderson, Elliott
Shafi, Amir
Sim, Del
Stavrou, Steven
Stock, Andrew
Triggs, Jack
Weafer, Tony


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Andy Warden, GB9 - Authorised Pro9 forum advertiser/sponsor √

Fingers crossed that we get a nice response to this... Perhaps you could give us a running commentary of the numbers registered and hopefully regular updates will inspire us to invite more and more people to register and play.

I think everyone shares the responsibility for recruiting new members - not just the GB9 board.


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Authorised Pro9 forum advertiser/sponsor

Just do one open challenge event, this will make the prize money better .. plus all the challengers should mix it up with one another anyway .. rather then doing a pro event open just do the 16 players all play one another at all the tours e.g you play 3 different people at each tour and prize money from 1st to 16th that's what you call a format boy's !!

Here's an idea - Each Pro player gets 2, 3 or 4 players in his team - (Depending on numbers) Each match is Scotch doubles with the pro selecting his partner each time from his group - The winning team moves on with all his players - The losing team has to drop the non pro player - The winning team is the last team with at least 1pro and 1 Amateur - Could be interesting? The winning team shares the pot out between all its players. A chance for more amateurs to cash in. Good opportunity to meet players and have a bit of team rivalry.

If everybody raved so much about how class the Blackpool venue was I'm surprised to see all events at Telford. Lets hope they finish resurfacing the ring road before the 1st event because driving around Telford centre is a nightmare at the minute.

Are you not on the mailing list Matt? Everybody should have received an email explaining the reasons behind all events being at Telford.

Not on the list Andy. I couldn't commit to a season as I work alternate weekends but the Park Inn is 20 minute drive away for me so I may look at attending a one off in the second half of the year.

GB9 need's to start looking at how to improve simple .. 8ball tour is close to 200 runners and i've heard GB9 have had as little as 50 odd runners for an event .. That is shocking for such a big tour to have a field that low tbh GB9 might have to look into doing an event over a bank holiday weekend which includes an event for non tour players to get involved in their own comp seperate from the challenge and tour itself and to then join a 3 man event weekend 1 pro 1 amateur and newbie which would make it intersting and encourage people to join the tour and what it has to offer

So a non tour player would have their own event to play in over the weekend aswell as watching the standard of the tour / challenge to see if they could / wanna compete and then to run a 3 man comp over that weekend to spice that shizzle up and make it the best event of the year.

Applications are coming in quite steadily for the 2015 season. I hope everyone gets behind us and shows their support. Applications need to be in by 30 NOVEMBER !!!!

DELETED post

I am tempted to sign up for GB9 events but have been for a few seasons now and never have.

Its a massive shame that the player numbers are dropping with all the work that has been put in.

I do have a few questions

Is there no sponsors for this season?
If sponsors do join, does the prize money increase?
If i add up the entry fees and subtract the prize money, there seems to be a yearly difference of £7000, does it really cost over £1500 an event to stage a GB9 event?
If im one of the 96 players and i cant make an event am i still charged for that event? If so, if the place is filled by a paying reserve do i get a refund? or does the prize money increase to show the place has been paid for twice?

Like i say the tour looks good would just like my questions answered before i make a decision on whether to play or not

Hi Collinsjohn,

The prize money advertised is based on the sponsors that have so far committed to next season however most sponsors are in product/kind only and not financial. Yes if we land some financial sponsorship before the start if the season it would all be put into the prize fund as our cots have been allowed for already (providing we get 96 runners).

It costs a lot to put on GB9 events:
First we have to move the tables from where they are stored now in Daventry to the venue in Telford - that is £800 for a start.
Then we have to have all 16 tables recovered at the first event.
Per event we have to pay for table install, staff (TD & ref) and livestream, trophies & travel costs for staff.

Then you have other costs such as website hosting, equipment and consumables.

Members pay an annual fee for all 5 events. Refunds are not paid except in exceptional circumstances. Revenue from filling places with a reserve would be carried forward to the following year but in effect it doesn't work like that as you will always have some players who drop off the tour half way through the year and think they don't have to pay the remainder of the fees that they have committed to paying.


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Andy Warden, GB9 - Authorised Pro9 forum advertiser/sponsor √

PS I've just paid my £50 deposit for next season


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Andy Warden, GB9 - Authorised Pro9 forum advertiser/sponsor √

Thanks cueman

Nice to get such a quick response. Im sure the GB9 will get the 96 required. I will join myself on payday or will that be to late?

how many have signed up already?

You have until 30 November mate. About 20 have so far.


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Andy Warden, GB9 - Authorised Pro9 forum advertiser/sponsor √

I have just spent this year getting as much match practise as I can in preparation for next GB9 season as I was hoping to play events at Daventry and if was lucky it would return to Stansted to as am from Essex but now all events are at telford I fear my chances of playing are very slim due to the distance I will have to travel

What is the latest time that players can play their first match on a Friday?

As a teacher I'm restricted to school holidays, but i finish at 1pm on a Friday - I'm a 5 hour drive away.

Thanks in advance

Deposit being sent on Friday pal, great weekends still but will be better if we got back to a good amount of players again, I guarantee everyone a good weekend, not just playing pool but it's a great laugh as well, have made some really top friends over the previous few years because of this tour so let's give it the push it deserves and get people signing up

Thanks for the nice comments Robin. Yes we're determined to make GB9 even better in 2015 with lots of fun side comps, ring games and of course the Calcutta auction that we think will add a real buzz to the events.

But GB9 can only be successful with everyone's support so if you want to see the UK's national tour survive and indeed grow then get behind us and fill in your forms and pay your £50 deposits ASAP.

Many thanks.