POOL supremo Adrian Locke has vigorously defended himself against criticism from some of Guernsey’s best players following his decision to cut the amount of prize money available at the recent island championships. Four of the best players in the island pulled out of the individual competition at the Happy Landings.
Word had been going around before the competition that the singles event had a purse of £700 for the winner. But it became clear during the previous evening’s pairs event that the prize money was going to be £150.
This led to Adam Shorto, Glenn Le Prevost, Adrian Holley and John Skillet all refusing to enter.
Locke is the chairman of the Guernsey World Pool Association and he also runs International Leisure, which sponsored the tournament along with Happy Landings.
On his withdrawal, Holley said: ‘To be honest it was over the prize money because the amount was derisory.
‘We all entered the pairs on the Friday night [when we saw] the amount that Adie Locke had advertised, it was nowhere near. We weren’t spending a whole day in the Happy Landings for £150.
‘Seven hundred pounds was what I was told it was going to be. For the time and effort the top players put into the game we deserve a bit more.
‘The prize money has steadily gone downwards. At the end of the day we’ve made a decision that for that amount of money we just don’t want to bother.’
Locke hit back at Holley’s comments, saying that this year’s championships had less funding but on the plus side there was no competition entry fee and that the use of the tables was also free.
Because of that, he said, the tournament attracted its highest-ever number of entries.
‘The same players had complained they had to pay for entry and for the tables the year before,’ he said.
‘Ninety-five per cent of the players on Saturday came, played and loved it and that reflects in the number of entries we had which was the largest we’ve had for the island championships.
‘As far as I’m concerned it was a massive success and I’ll be doing it the same again next year.’
Skillet declined to comment on the situation although the island’s number two player, Shorto, was happy to explain why he did not turn up for the main event.
‘It didn’t come from Adie Locke, to be fair - there were rumours there was going to be substantial amount of prize money but when we got there it wasn’t anywhere near [that],’ said Shorto.
‘There was talk it was going to be £700 and it was £150. To be fair to Adie Locke and Alan Opie [of Happy Landings] they have put up some good prize money for a long time and it did attract some people to the game.’
Shorto won the pairs competition with the top-seeded Martyn Desperques.
In the absence of Shorto and co Desperques had little trouble retaining his individual title.
The 23-year-old was also happy to reveal his thoughts about it all.
‘Half the players pulled out because of the prize money, which has always been £500 and £300 in the pairs,’ he said.
‘It was something to do with the sponsors.
‘There were four women and they got £100.
‘There were nearly 50 in the men and they got £150. I’m disappointed because the money would have been nice, but it’s still a good thing to win.’
‘I was defending it from last year and I like playing pool. It’s just mainly about the money but some people did get rather upset.’
Locke claims that he spent £380 on trophies and £585 on prizemoney, all of which came from his own pocket.
‘There was still money for the women, pairs and juniors that was slightly reduced and the men’s was lower because we couldn’t find a sponsor,’ he said.
‘Over the last seven years I’ve brought in over £100,000 for pool in sponsorship and no one has brought in anything else. As all sports know, it’s so hard to raise sponsorship at the moment.
‘They [the players] have got to realise how difficult it is to do. If there are any companies who would like to get involved, we’ll welcome it.’
Meanwhile, it appears that pool will be losing the services of some top cueists as they look to concentrate on snooker.
‘We’ve been running out of patience with the pool situation for quite a long time now,’ said Holley.
‘The ranking system doesn’t get done any more and we feel that snooker gets a higher profile. I know he [Locke] is not happy with it, but we’ve given a lot of time year after year and it’s now time to move.’
A weekly individual league featuring the best eight snooker players is in the pipeline for next season and it will clash with the pool league.
‘We’ve got an individual league starting on a Thursday night and the pool league is on Thursday nights,’ said Shorto.
‘Even if the pool had got more prize money next year, it wouldn’t make a difference to me. Pool would never come before snooker.’
Article posted on 20th March, 2007 - 12.00am
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