Harrow & District Snooker & Billiards League

ABOUT US

OUR COMPETITIONS

BILLIARDS PAIRS

Played for the Reg Ground (of the NORTHWOOD CENTRAL Club; League President 1961-1969) Trophy, this was an inter-club (ie both of the pair had to be members of the same club) Billiards competition open to all members of member Clubs.

It took the form of a knockout, redrawn each round. One member of each pair played until one has scored 150 points (250 in the final) whereupon the second member of each pair took over from the position left until one team scored 300 points (500 in the final).

Players were required to arrange and play their matches by a deadline date set for each round, at the venue of the "first drawn" pair except for the semi-finals and final which were scheduled and played at neutral venues.

Unfortunately, entries for this competition dwindled steadily over the years, culminating in only 3 pairs entering in the 2001/2 season. Clearly no longer viable, it was agreed at the 2002 AGM to experiment by replacing the competition with an Individual Billiards Championship starting in the 2002/3 season.

There was considerable speculation about the causes of the demise of the Billiards Pairs competition. The general consensus was that the reasons were 3-fold:-

• that there was a general lack of interest in Billiards amongst the (then) current players (as opposed to those of Reg Ground's day, a greater proportion of whom were brought up on the game)
• the restriction of the inter-club format requiring both members of the pair to be from the same Club
• that (in common with Snooker's Dwyer Bowl competition) the standard of play of an elite group had improved (perhaps with the introduction of the Summer Billiards competitions) to a level where many others had been discouraged from entering.