I don"t play in the league games and have no "invested interest" in this issue but would like to tell you all a little story:
Some ten years ago when I used to try and play snooker competitively I entered a competition about an hour away from where I lived. The competition was out of season really but the club owner decided to give one a try. And he tried hard, posters everywhere, all clubs, working mens clubs, you name it he advertised it. It was only £10 entry but he had guaranteed £500 in prize fund. Whatever happened he would be adding money from his own pocket as 50 entries was never going to be reached. He didn"t mind, he was a snooker fan, he would always put £300 up towards the County Singles Competition as a little extra even though it wasn"t held at his club! As you have probably gathered by now, a very genuine and generous guy!
Anyway, a grand total of eight players turned up!!! He was dissapointed to say the least. We all gathered and a discussion started. The guy stated how dissapointed he was and suggested we all took our entries back, he would throw in £200 and we have a small tournament between us and we can split the money as we like. He then explained that he would rearrange the £500 guarentee tournament for another time "in season". Most of us thought it would be good if we all took £10 towards travel expenses and play for the rest. One player in particular was not having any of it!!
"I"ve come to play in a £500 guaranteed tournament, that"s what I expect!"
In the end the club owner took our £10 entries, added the extra £420 to make up the shortfall and we played for the money.
Surprizingly enough the chap to this day has NEVER held another competition and stopped donating his £300 a year to county events!
I"m sure most of you can see that a few minutes of selfishness has caused years of lost "value".
I hope all involved come to a happy and mutual agreement so we can all enjoy the masses of "added value" in the years to come.
