20/11/2024
Well what a few weeks it's been. Not being well since the start of November but haven't let it show so it didn't spoil the teams exploits at the world championships in Malta and at the 1st ever diversity pool tournament in Leicester. Whilst the world's were great for myself and the team it was a little underwhelming due to a lack of competition from other nations, at the moment that's the way it is but fingers crossed with the diversity comp we held on the 16th it could be the way forward for international disability pool.
I'd initially come about holding a mixed disability pool comp from the great work done in France by Eric Leroux. Ground work had been done here with Club 147 hosting the 1st ever comp and entries were coming in quicker than I expected, then a fortunate meeting with Mark Quirk put Ultimate Pool's name to it to provide a bigger spotlight for what could be something great going forward. Players from across England and a great team from Ireland Learning Disabilities Pool Team with manager Joe Quinn Jnr made for a great day of blackball pool. With a live ultimate pool stream on Tiktok with fab commentary from Nathan Slater and Tony Holgate they helped us showcase players with severe autism, cerebral palsy, nager syndrome, Parkinson's, neuro divergence conditions and much more. The feedback from all players and supporters was more than positive with the common consensus that this is the way forward for disability pool, everyone playing together to build a capable category for events like the nations cup, Euros and World's. Also congrats to the 1st ever winners of the diversity challenge Mahomed Abubaker main winner, Gary Rambo plate winner and Jess Walker ladies winner and a huge huge thanks to all that played as this couldn't happen without you too. 🎱👊🎱 Looking forward to 2025 and more diversity pool.
