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We hope we have answered all your
questions about the tour, however, if we receive questions from players
about matters not already covered on the website we will endeavour to
answer the most common ones here.
Remember if you do have any
questions that are not answered on this site please
contact us and we'll try
and answer them promptly.
Frequently asked questions:
Will GB9 be arranging special deals with hotels?
We had hoped to do this but after extensive discussion with a
national hotel booking firm we were unable to negotiate a suitable deal.
This was mainly because the hotels offered to us did not have enough
twin rooms available. We will, therefore, do our best to identify
as many suitable hotels as possible and post details on the website
leaving members to make their own arrangements.
What is the difference between the Pro and Challenge
Division?
Quite simply for the Pro Division the entry fees are higher but with
that comes better prize money and the opportunity to play in the Pro
event with an elite 32 players including the worlds very best!
Why have you chosen such a radical new format? What was
wrong with the old 2-day double elimination format?
The new format gives EVERY player of all standards a real chance to
earn good prize money by playing against players of their own calibre as
well as competing against the very best players in the Main event. So
with this format everyone gets the best of both worlds. Also, we felt
the old format was becoming a little stale with numbers dwindling
rapidly as time went on. The new format is an exciting, fairer format
that we hope will stimulate renewed interest from players of all
abilities. With this new format players with lesser ability will have
just the same chance to cash in as the top Pro players.
Why have you changed the entry fees from the amounts mentioned in
the flyer handed out in Barnsley?
On reflection we felt the disparity between the entry fees for the 2
divisions was too high. We've reduced the Pro Division fee and the
impact on the Challenge Division fee is negligible at just £2.50 per
event on average. We want a tour where people are motivated
to aspire to be promoted into the top division where the rewards are
higher. With such a big step up in the entry fee for the Pro
Division we thought that might be demotivating for some, especially
those players whose ability puts them on the borderline between the 2
divisions. With the new fee structure the difference is just £210
(average £17.50 per event), which we feel is about right and will
motivate people to aim for the Pro Division and the higher prize money.
Will there be discounts for
ladies, youth and wheelchair players?
Whilst there are successful youth and wheelchair tours run by the
BPPPA there is currently no British ladies tour. GB9 do want to
encourage more ladies to attend events and in line with the previous
BPPPA main tour GB9 will be offering discounted entry to ladies. See
Entry fees for more details. Youth and
Wheelchair players are able to play on their own dedicated tours with
discounted membership off the BPPPA. We hope to see many of these
players applying to join GB9 too but we regret we are unable to offer
a discount on the entry fee. If you allow people to pay by instalment how can you be sure
everyone will pay and some will not drop out? If they don't pay surely
the prize money will not be guaranteed?
It is a condition of joining the tour that players commit to paying
the annual entry fee in full. We appreciate that it's a large
amount for many players to pay out in one go so we are allowing fees to
be paid in instalments and we are placing players on trust to follow
through with the agreement they make when they sign up. The
structure we've put in place for payment of instalments means that
players will have paid half the annual fee by the time they play the
first event so we feel it unlikely they will decide not to pay the
remaining fees at this point. In the unlikely event any player
defaults on payments we will reduce the payout for all subsequent events
by an appropriate percentage to cover the short fall. This
approach should mean that the impact on payouts is very minimal.
To be fair to everyone any player defaulting on payments will not be
allowed to play in future events in any season until overdue payments
are made.
When do instalments have to be paid by?
Your first instalment secures your place on the tour on a first pay first accepted basis so it makes sense to pay as soon as possible after
submitting your application although the closing date will be 31
December. For more information see Join the tour>
2008 Entry details.
Why aren't all entry fees are being paid out in prize money?
Are the organisers making a profit or taking a fee for running it?
No member of the GB9 team is taking any fee whatsoever for the
work they've put in to set this tour up, nor will they, with the
exception of the Tournament Director, who will be paid a small fee at
each event for running the event. Remember we have no additional
membership fees so your one fee pays for all prize money and other costs
of running the tour. Running costs have been kept to an absolute
minimum, which is why we are able to offer such a good prize fund at
each tour stop. Examples of other costs are: EPBF registration
fees, TD fees and expenses, Equipment, Website hosting,
and don't forget we are retaining some funds to allow us to reward the
highest ranked players at the end of the season. This tour is
committed to ploughing every last penny of your money back into the tour
to help it grow. We believe GB9 represents very good value
compared to any pool tour the UK has ever seen.
In year one how will you decide who goes in which division?
Various methods were considered for this but in the end we felt the
simplest and fairest method was to let you decide for yourselves in
season 1 and in season 2 let the rankings sort it out for us. We
will only intervene if there are too many applications for a particular
division or we see that one of our best players has inappropriately
opted for the Challenge Division.
Why aren't you using the BPPPA rankings to decide the Pro Division
for season one?
One of the aims of GB9 is to attract back to the main tour all of
our best players who have not been regulars on the BPPPA Tour this
season and therefore do not have a realistic ranking. There were
simply too many of these players out there with no BPPPA ranking or a
false ranking to make it feasible to use these rankings as a starting
point for the new tour. We think it's right to have a fresh start
and where all rankings start on zero. However, we will use
BPPPA achievements and other information if the Pro Division is
oversubscribed and we have to decide which applications to accept and
which to decline so your performances at BPPPA events could still be important.
What if I'm promoted to the Pro Division but would prefer to stay
in the Challenge Division?
Players who are promoted to the Pro Division will not be given the
option to continue playing in the Challenge Division. This is because
that player has proved beyond any doubt that they are good enough to
play in the Pro Division, and they will have earned good prize money in
the Challenge Division along the way. Not only that, but any player who
manages to get promotion to the Pro Division should be proud of that,
and try to progress, that is the whole point of competing. Also, if a
promoted player were to be allowed to continue competing in the
Challenge Cup events this would be unfair on the rest of the
Challenge Division players as the player in question would have already
proved they belong in the Pro Division through their high ranking
position. GB9 urges all players to take up the challenge of the Pro
Division - remember, the Pro Cup pays £125 for winning just 2 matches!
What if someone doesn't want to play all 6 tour stops and just
wants to play the ones local to them?
This is not what GB9 is all about. It is a true tour where
we expect all registered players to attend all the events. For
those people that want to attend professionally run events but do not
wish to join the tour they should look to attend some of the open events
to be staged by the BPPPA or one of the many locally run tournaments
being staged by other groups.
Why does the event start on Friday night? This is
inconvenient for many people due to work commitments.
The new format we've introduced means we'll play more pool over fewer
events. In order to complete the scheduled matches at each tour
stop we have to start on Friday night. This is typical on many
other tours. By reducing the number of events and spreading them
around the UK players should be paying less travelling expenses in the
long run. We do understand that for some players having to travel
long distances on a Friday will mean they may need to take a day or half
a day holiday from work for some of the events that are furthest away.
With the reduced number of events and the geographical spread we believe
this should not be too much of a burden. Also, to reduce the
impact on the players with the furthest to travel we are introducing a
system whereby those whose post code is furthest away from the venue
will be given priority over the latest Friday night match times. Will there be any player seedings?
Yes, after the first event all tournaments will be seeded according
to the latest ranking positions. See
Ranking and seeding for
more information. What benefits will a high ranking position give
you?
We know how important it is to make the rankings meaningful and
reward people for achieving a higher ranking and that's what you can
expect on GB9. Your ranking position could see you:
-
seeded into the later
rounds of tournaments
-
promoted to the Pro Division for the next season where the rewards are
potentially higher
-
automatically secure your place on the tour next season instead of
having to qualify
-
earn an end of season cash reward or funding to represent team GB at a
major event
See
Ranking and seeding for
more information. Will GB9 dates clash with other tournaments?
We will do all we can to avoid clashes with all other major cue
sport events. Sometimes unavoidable circumstances occur such as other
tournaments changing their schedules part way through the year thereby
causing a clash with our events. If this were to happen we will consider
changing the date of our event if it is in the interests of our players
but only after consultation with as many of our registered players as
possible.
Will GB9 ever hold events for other disciplines such as 8 ball,
straight pool etc?
As the name suggests GB9 is concentrating on providing you with
the 6 tour stops that will constitute the main British 9 ball tour. It's
obviously important that we raise standards in our country by offering
professionally run events at other disciplines too. Also, since the
GB9 is a closed tour open to registered players only it's also
important there are some additional 9 ball open events.
So professional pool in this country is not just about GB9; we are
only one part of it and it's important that we have other professionally
staged events alongside the tour. All of these additional events will be
the responsibility of the BPPPA. GB9 will be fully supporting any
events organised by the BPPPA and may provide assistance in the running
of them if requested by the BPPPA. Will you be using tapped tables?
Experience has shown that using tapped tables has a dramatic effect
on the average length of time taken for matches. The new tour format
brings with it an increased number of matches and set match times means
we will play to a strict time schedule. Therefore, it is inevitable that
GB9 events will need to use tapped tables, at least while we prove the
new schedule.
We do, however, appreciate the view of some of the purists who would
prefer not to use tapped tables and we've had various suggestions put
forward about changing the rack to make the break harder (e.g. moving
the rack higher up the table, breaking from the box, only tapping some
of the 9 balls etc.). We will consider these and may experiment with
some ideas as far as WPA rules will allow, possibly in one of the 3
events (e.g. Pro event). However, until we've proven the tight
schedule we will be using tapped tables because this helps us give you
set match times which is something we know the vast majority of you
place a high importance on.
Will you be using the 3-point rule on the break like they do on the
EuroTour?
Yes, as long as we are using tapped tables we will be using a rule
to help prevent deliberate soft breaks. For full details of the GB9 ruling on the break see the
rules page. |
