The 40th World Bar Billiards Championships took place at the Merton Hotel in St Helier, Jersey over the weekend of 5th to 7th November.
Having been delayed a year due to COVID-19 the tournament was attended by 105 players, including 29 from Sussex.
The Singles competition started on the Saturday with the players being split into groups, with the top two qualifying for the Last 64 and third place players having a chance via the play-off to fill the remaining Last 64 places. Twenty Sussex players qualified from their groups into the latter stages which were staged on the Sunday.
After two rounds of matches 16 players remained including five from Sussex. Stuart Mepham, James Whittle, Dave Ingram (who unfortunately had to withdraw with health issues) and Joe Oakley were all eliminated at this stage.
This left Stuart Carruthers, who beat Joe, as the only remaining Sussex representative in the Quarter-Finals. He was however beaten at this point by England captain Curt Driver.
The tournament was won by Oxford’s Mark Trafford, who was winning for the third time, beating Guernsey’s Trevor Gallienne in the Final.
Sussex had a Finalist in the Plate in the form of Dick Cable. Unfortunately he was beaten in a low scoring match by Berkshire’s Jon Scoones.
Over the weekend the World Championship Pairs tournament was also played and Kevin Tunstall and Martin Cole regained the title they previously won in 2017. They beat Trevor Gallienne and Bob Le Moignan in a four-legged Final.