The International Professional Pool Players Association (IPA) will be staging the English Amateur Championships at the Bradford Hilton Hotel over the weekend of 8^th to 10^th June, the next event in a long list of quality prestigious competitions that are taking the cue sports world by storm.

The International Professional Pool Players Association (IPA) return to Bradford for the first time in a decade, and in those ten years there have been a lot of changes for the better, though being crowned as English Open Champion is still as important as ever, despite the rich and varied
calander now available for both professional and amateur pool players alike.

Adam Davis returned to the winners circle for the first time since becoming the 2011 World Champion, claiming victory in the United Kingdom Open at the second IPA Tour event of 2012.

A fantastic performance over the weekend culminated in a convincing 8-3 win over first time IPA finalist and rising star Jordan Shepherd. Davis dominated from the off and quickly built up 4-0 lead over his young opponent. Jordan is another in a long line of Welsh talent who have chased glory on the IPA Tour, but as with many others who have gone before him, falling short at the final hurdle.  A short revival of hope was mustered with a few of his customary wild clearances, but it never caused a stir as far as Davis was concerned. 

The second major amateur event of the IPA season saw Blackpool’s Lee Anderson claim his first major IPA title, with a hard fought  6-3 victory over Dan Davy of Reading.

As well as the title of United Kingdom Amateur Champion,  he captured 16 priceless ranking points, which moves him into second place in the race for the end of season amateur play offs.

The Lancashire cueman was always in control throughout the final, building leads of 2-0 and 3-1, but despite his best efforts, Davy could never narrow the gap to less than 2 frames.

Another weekend another spectacular success for the IPA Tour, this time Birmingham were the centrepiece and I have to say the Hilton certainly did us proud.

16 tables were in action from 9.00am onwards, so keeping an eye on all the action took some doing (glad it wasn’t in my remit), but to be fair, the score cards came in thick and fast and the results were automatically updated on various social websites, so something for everyone.

Being a player who understands the game but has never played at this kind of level, I have to say I was very impressed with the number of eight ball clearances and the lack of nerves shown by players of all ages, amateurs and professionals alike – all of which reminded me why I only play for a pub team – but that’s another story.

Trying to write a clear unbiased review of the whole weekend was frankly an impossibility with so many games and so many faces of all ages, colours and creeds, and I ended up watching as much as I could live and the internet stream on the laptop at the same time, which simply made my head spin, so common sense suggested that I paid more attention to specific games – so sorry to those I missed, and to all the great shots I failed to see (and the lucky ones)!

Please click the following link to view the current live stream – http://www.ipapooltour.com/tour-extra/live-streaming/

You will need pop-ups enabled.

With our second IPA Tour event almost upon us, we have a lot to live up to after the undoubted success of the first event at the Hilton Blackpool, which garnered us some of the media attention the sport truly deserves.

On the weekend of the 27^th – 29^th April we will return to the Hilton NEC, and with everything in place, this truly outstanding venue seems sure to provide the kind of fantastic setting needed to showcase the players and our sport.

The IPA wishes to clarify its position in light of the newly announced On-Q Promotions World 8 Ball Championships.

The IPA welcomes On Q to the world of 8 Ball pool, and believes the announcement of the forthcoming World Championships is a truly exciting opportunity for all pool players and the sport.

Although the event is not an IPA tournament, and will be organised and staged solely by On Q Promotions, we welcome the invitation to our players to participate in this event, and in line with current IPA policy our members are allowed to play in any pool event of their choice, with no restrictions.

We wish On Q every success with this new venture.

The draw / playing times for all events at tour 2 are now available through the following links.

UK Amateur Championship Draw

UK Open Draw

The Classic Draw

Following the tremendous success of the IPA Professional 8 Ball Pool Masters, recorded for Sky Sports and due to be aired in May, the South West Snooker Academy – Gloucester has decided to alter its venue of excellence to encompass the first 8 Ball Pool Academy.