Gympie 8 Ball Association
Welcome to the Gympie Eight Ball Assocciation home page, firstly a huge thank you to QEBF for sponsoring the page and giving us somewhere to keep up to date.
The Gympie Eight Ball Association (GEBA) was founded in 1998
with the very fisrt season starting in 1999 and was ahuge hit from the start amongst local 8 Ball players. In 2000 we adopted the World Eight Ball rules so we could be in line with the bigger leagues throughout the state, this took some work as people are mostly reluctant to change. however 12 years on, we are all the better for it because all players have one standard set of rules to follow, this has passed on to most of the venues in Gympie as the house rules as well.
The interim years also saw an annual challenge match between Gympie and the Fraser Coast which was well recieved by players wanting to compete on a higher level, however some players were still wanting much more of an outlet and with the aim of learning more about the game. At the end of 2002 I started looking into the Queensland Eight Ball Federation to see what GEBA could hope to achieve, after speaking to Ron Danini and Alan Rowe from QEBF I was invited to attend the AGM where a whole new world of opportuniy for us, the biggest of all was the City vs Country event held on the Queen's Birthday weekend every June. We also had the chance to play in the ranking tournaments to see just how much we were yet to learn about playing this wonderful game. On my return from the AGM we had the Gympie AGM where I was elected President of GEBA and the new committee passed the motion to join QEBF on a one year trial, we have now participated in every City vs Country since 2003 and the local GEBA players have improved greatly every year. Now with the introduction of the Queensland Cup as well this year we have an extra opportunity to play the big boys (so to speak).
GEBA has 2 match nights per week, on the last Tuesday of each month we have the Tuesday Singles held and they are played over the other Tuesday's until that draw is completed, on the Tuesday nights 8 Ball is not being played a 9 Ball match takes it's place for a little variety and spice. Every Thursday night the main event, the teams fixtures are played, we have a number of teams playing out of different venues throughout the town, teams must consist of a minimum of 4 players, though 6 is the recommended number to avoid the forfiet of a doubles match, the teams play 3 rounds of 4 games of singles and one doubles game at the end of each round, players are only permitted to play a maximum of 3 singles and one doubles match. Teams will recieve 1 point for every win as well as an additional 2 points for the team win, a draw will result in 1 point to each team. There are normally 3 rounds of fixtures per season, though this can vary depending on team numbers in any given year, at the end of the regular season the teams will be divided into groups as per the points ladder for the teams finals events, eg: if we have 12 teams, they will be broken into 3 groups of 4, A-Grade, B-Grade and C-Grade and play off over 3 weeks in order for 2 teams to reach the Grand Final in each grade. During the year players individual and doubles wins will be accumulated for the purpose of crowning the Singles and Doubles points Champions at the end of the season.
Directly following the team finals, players will then shoot it out in the singles and doubles Championship events, this is a free for all so to speak where team mates will compete head to head, and in doubles players can stay with their regular partner or mix it with a mate form another team, these are played in best of 3 matches in a repercharge format giving players a double dip at the prized trophy at the end. We now also have a monthly mug competition, the brain child of Sean McConville, this is held on the last Sunday of every month during the season, also at the end of the year is the annual KJ Andrew Memorial Tournament, as the name states, played to honour the memory of one of our best sportsmen, lost too early.
Please be patient as I work my way through setting up the page, I will aim to have all winning players and teams from all grades up shortly and eventually the current points ladder etc, if you have anything you would like me to add please let me know via our facebook page for now until I have other arrangements in place. I you have any other enquiries call me on 0413 404875
Neil Turley
Admin
