OUR STORY
Macclesfield Pool League is an independent unaffiliated body governed by its duly elected Committee. Its goal is to promote and support the game of pool in Macclesfield and surrounding area.
The league has a rich history dating back to 1975. However, it owes its origins much further back in time, to a certain John Moses Brunswick, of Cincinnati, Ohio, as far back as 1845, who after emigrating from Switzerland in 1834 was steadily building a solid reputation as a builder of fine carriages. It was a good living; a solid career path for an ambitious young man in the mid-19th century.
Then, somewhat suddenly, everything changed. When Brunswick first laid eyes on a finely crafted billiard (pool) table, he knew he had found his calling.
As a gifted artisan with a passion for woodworking, the young man was captivated by the table’s intricacy, detail, fine workmanship, and beauty. He saw more than a table; he saw an opportunity to build something with unlimited potential and lasting beauty.
“If it is wood, we can build it — and we can build it better than anyone else,” Brunswick declared.
True to his word, Brunswick completed his first billiard table soon after for a successful Cincinnati meat packer. Word-of-mouth promotion quickly brought requests for more tables as Brunswick tables were becoming known around the world as masterpieces of original craftsmanship and design.
Due to the high demand for Brunswick tables, in 1873 Brunswick merges with rival Julius Balke’s Great Western Billiard Table Manufactory, to become The J. M. Brunswick and Balke Company. In 1884 Brunswick joins with another rival to become “The Brunswick-Balke-Collender Company,” the largest billiard equipment operation in the world, larger than all its competitors combined.
In 1901 the Brunswick-Balk-Collender Company introduced “American 8-ball to the USA , where it became one of the Country’s leading sport and leisure activity’s. English 8-ball pool is essentially a hybrid of the aforementioned “American 8-ball”.
There has never been an officially documented account of how the sport came to these shores, however, it is widely acknowledge that English 8-ball pool as we know it came to Britain in the early 1970’s with tables appearing in a few pubs, youth clubs, amusement arcades, bowling alleys and the like. There was no organisational structure of any note at this point and not very much in the way of competitive pool being played. The only publicity was on a TV programme called “Indoor League” hosted by Yorkshire Cricket legend Fred Trueman which was basically an array of pub sports. The pool competition was won by a Lancastrian named Dean Emmott. After this series, pool once again faded into relative obscurity and out of the public eye.
However, things changed very quickly when in 1975, B.A.P.T.O (British Association of Pool Table Operators) was formed as a non profit organisation in order to unify the activities of those who undertake the supply of pool tables to the licence trade.
Coin operated pool tables featured in every pub that had room to accommodate them.
Local leagues were hastily springing up all over the Country, as 8-ball pool became the fastest growing sport of its time, with every pub having the “8-ball pool played here” in its window. 1980 onwards, every pub in Macclesfield would have had their tables supplied by Hazel Grove Music. These tables were predominantly six foot, and would have the standard white ball as we know today (i.e smaller than the object balls, so to allow the white ball to return through the tables mechanism to the well. Prior to this it was the uncontrollable white ball the size of a tennis ball.
As to who had the first one is somewhat unclear, however, local folk law suggests it was either The Queens Waters Green, The Albion London Road, The Oval Upton Priory, or The Durham Ox Hurdsfield Road.
BAPTO formed their own recognised set of rules and began organising league pool and national competitions.
An organisation called the National Pool Council( consisting of Scottish, Welsh and English representation) had been formed in 1977 only to fall on the rocks through alleged misdeeds by the treasurer and to be re-born again in 1979.
By the time the NPC was re-born the Welsh had set up the Welsh Pool Association (WPA), the Scots had set up the SNPC (Scottish National Pool Council) and a meeting was to take place in Stafford to form the English Pool Association (EPA).
The consultant (not governing) body was still the NPC. The EPA was duly formed and Pete Wright was elected as the first chairman. The EPA had been formed to create a national structure to the sport but unfortunately a “them and us” attitude between the EPA and BAPTO was to last for the next three to four years. In its first year the EPA formed their own set of rules and grew from 29 leagues to 80, had qualified referees and an established England team. It was clear to see that the EPA was the way forward for the sport in England at least.
However, not everyone initially warmed to the EPA, as London, Birmingham, Manchester, Liverpool, Sheffield, Leeds, Norwich and Newcastle weren’t interested in this new body as these areas were heavily BAPTO influenced.
In 1982 the EPA withdrew from the NPC as splinter and unrecognised bodies began to form including the English Pool Federation, the Welsh Pool Federation and talk was going on about another rebel faction being set up in Scotland. At a crisis meeting at Gretna Green the EPF agreed to join the EPA in return for two places on the EPA committee. However the EPA did not rejoin the NPC.
The EPA was recognised by Sport England as the governing body for pool in England and continued to run pool successfully throughout the 1980’s and 90’s with more and more players becoming members and playing County and Superleague with all of them trying to reach the holy grail of winning an England team place.
Following the national trend Macclesfield Pool League flourished from just two leagues in its first season in 1975 to a peak of 72 men’s and 24 ladies teams. To enable the league to communicate to its members, monthly “Captains” meetings were introduced and were held on a Sunday lunch at the now demolished Trades Hall Chatham Street. This proved to be a very popular venue, as it opened its doors an hour early at 11am.
In 1993 MPL decided that there was an opportunity to run a Winter League in addition to its long standing Summer league. For a few years prior there had already been a Winter League run by the local LVA (Licensed Victuallers Association). Played on a Thursday it was designed as a “fun” league. MPL adopted the same approach and it became very popular and immediately attracted the same amount of teams as the Summer league. The Thursday match night was retained so as not to interfere with any possible overlap from the traditional Wednesday match night of the Summer league. It also allowed teams to be of mixed gender, so for the first time Men and Women could play on the same team.
In 2014, with a view to following the example set by the English Pool Association, a new league was created played to the World Rules rule set. With just 10 teams in the first season, this grew steadily to 15.
2022 saw another positive change, as International Rules was voted in to replace World Rules, and whats more it was decided they would be played on different nights to the long standing Macc Rules league, allowing members to play both sets of rules should they wish to do so. This positive move has resulted in a substantial increase in team entries and bodes well for the future.
MPL has always had a close association with the Cheshire County Pool Association resulting in the league regularly supplying both ladies and men’s players for the County side, giving local players the opportunity to compete at a higher level both at Regional and in some cases international level.
Records show that in 1978, Staffordshire Superleague (Interleague as it is known today) was formed with 12 teams representing leagues in Staffordshire and South Cheshire. The teams were Crewe and Nantwich A, B and C, Macclesfield A, B and C, North Staffs A and B, Stoke, Longton, Congleton and Hanley PC. Stafford PL became the 13th team the following year and the Superleague ran very successfully for 4 years
Whilst never lifting the title during that era its of some comfort that when a Cheshire and Staffordshire Super Pool League select side played against the then England team in 1980, and whilst an unlikely upset didn’t materialise, great satisfaction can be taken that six of the 15 players were from Macclesfield, or as the team sheets says “Macclesfield and District”.
A year earlier the very first Macclesfield v Congleton annual fixture took place. Fiercely competitive, it was Congleton who surprisingly won the first encounter by the narrowest of margins. However, over the next decade it was Macclesfield that gained the upper hand.
With the re-birth of the Cheshire County Pool Association, Macclesfield finally conquered the County scene winning the Cheshire Super/Inter league title on five occasions during the 90’s, and again in 2019.
Historically, from its conception, all leagues were, other than the first 5 years which were played under BAPTO rules, played under the old EPA rules (now known as Macc Rules). By adopting EPA rules this was a much needed step in the right direction in standardising the rules.
Some of the older members will remember the Presentation Nights of old, especially at The Willows Variety Club in Salford which was the home of MPL Presention Evening for nearly three decades until its closure in 2011. Tickets were as rare as snow fall in June with the club packed to its 500 capacity for many a year. In fact they used to say that our presentation night was the busiest night of their year, as a consequence we got a free compare, comedian and quality group, although we did have to pay for the very popular chicken in the basket.
Finals nights have had many, many venues and formats over the long history of the league, but the most imaginative was surely the old Macclesfield Town FC pub, The Moss Rose, renamed Bonkers, when in 1984 as a “one off” four pool tables were imported, with men’s and ladies singles, men’s and ladies “player of players” played from the last 16 down to a winner. Great, memorable night, only downside it finished at 2.30am the following morning.
Another memorable occasion was the 1996 Men’s final held at Bollington Cue Club, for which the then owner Tony Hatton had arranged for two-time snooker World Champion Alex “Hurricane” Higgins to visit the club on finals night and play the winner to a best of three pool challenge. True to his word "The Hurricane” did turn up, but on the night he was more like a “breeze” and ultimately found himself on the wrong end of a 2-0 score line against a newly crowned champion Rob Walker.
The league has also a proud history of raising money for local good causes through pool, and at the time of writing has raised over £5,000. Organisations to have benefited are East Cheshire Hospice, Park Lane Special School, The Bosley Wood Treatment appeal and more recently The Brain Tumour Charity.
The league would not have stood the test of time over all these years without the tireless and dedicated support of the committees of the day. Unknown to most of its members the league can boast a famous football legend who served on the Committee for a short time in the late 70’s. Willie Stevenson made his début for Bill Shankly’s Liverpool FC in 1962 and was a regular during his 5 years at the club, winning two league championships and an FA Cup. He then had a short spell playing for then non league Macclesfield Town making 41 appearances, before becoming publican of The “Old Kings Head” Chestergate.
The league has a rich history dating back to 1975. However, it owes its origins much further back in time, to a certain John Moses Brunswick, of Cincinnati, Ohio, as far back as 1845, who after emigrating from Switzerland in 1834 was steadily building a solid reputation as a builder of fine carriages. It was a good living; a solid career path for an ambitious young man in the mid-19th century.
Then, somewhat suddenly, everything changed. When Brunswick first laid eyes on a finely crafted billiard (pool) table, he knew he had found his calling.
As a gifted artisan with a passion for woodworking, the young man was captivated by the table’s intricacy, detail, fine workmanship, and beauty. He saw more than a table; he saw an opportunity to build something with unlimited potential and lasting beauty.
“If it is wood, we can build it — and we can build it better than anyone else,” Brunswick declared.
True to his word, Brunswick completed his first billiard table soon after for a successful Cincinnati meat packer. Word-of-mouth promotion quickly brought requests for more tables as Brunswick tables were becoming known around the world as masterpieces of original craftsmanship and design.
Due to the high demand for Brunswick tables, in 1873 Brunswick merges with rival Julius Balke’s Great Western Billiard Table Manufactory, to become The J. M. Brunswick and Balke Company. In 1884 Brunswick joins with another rival to become “The Brunswick-Balke-Collender Company,” the largest billiard equipment operation in the world, larger than all its competitors combined.
In 1901 the Brunswick-Balk-Collender Company introduced “American 8-ball to the USA , where it became one of the Country’s leading sport and leisure activity’s. English 8-ball pool is essentially a hybrid of the aforementioned “American 8-ball”.
There has never been an officially documented account of how the sport came to these shores, however, it is widely acknowledge that English 8-ball pool as we know it came to Britain in the early 1970’s with tables appearing in a few pubs, youth clubs, amusement arcades, bowling alleys and the like. There was no organisational structure of any note at this point and not very much in the way of competitive pool being played. The only publicity was on a TV programme called “Indoor League” hosted by Yorkshire Cricket legend Fred Trueman which was basically an array of pub sports. The pool competition was won by a Lancastrian named Dean Emmott. After this series, pool once again faded into relative obscurity and out of the public eye.
However, things changed very quickly when in 1975, B.A.P.T.O (British Association of Pool Table Operators) was formed as a non profit organisation in order to unify the activities of those who undertake the supply of pool tables to the licence trade.
Coin operated pool tables featured in every pub that had room to accommodate them.
Local leagues were hastily springing up all over the Country, as 8-ball pool became the fastest growing sport of its time, with every pub having the “8-ball pool played here” in its window. 1980 onwards, every pub in Macclesfield would have had their tables supplied by Hazel Grove Music. These tables were predominantly six foot, and would have the standard white ball as we know today (i.e smaller than the object balls, so to allow the white ball to return through the tables mechanism to the well. Prior to this it was the uncontrollable white ball the size of a tennis ball.
As to who had the first one is somewhat unclear, however, local folk law suggests it was either The Queens Waters Green, The Albion London Road, The Oval Upton Priory, or The Durham Ox Hurdsfield Road.
BAPTO formed their own recognised set of rules and began organising league pool and national competitions.
An organisation called the National Pool Council( consisting of Scottish, Welsh and English representation) had been formed in 1977 only to fall on the rocks through alleged misdeeds by the treasurer and to be re-born again in 1979.
By the time the NPC was re-born the Welsh had set up the Welsh Pool Association (WPA), the Scots had set up the SNPC (Scottish National Pool Council) and a meeting was to take place in Stafford to form the English Pool Association (EPA).
The consultant (not governing) body was still the NPC. The EPA was duly formed and Pete Wright was elected as the first chairman. The EPA had been formed to create a national structure to the sport but unfortunately a “them and us” attitude between the EPA and BAPTO was to last for the next three to four years. In its first year the EPA formed their own set of rules and grew from 29 leagues to 80, had qualified referees and an established England team. It was clear to see that the EPA was the way forward for the sport in England at least.
However, not everyone initially warmed to the EPA, as London, Birmingham, Manchester, Liverpool, Sheffield, Leeds, Norwich and Newcastle weren’t interested in this new body as these areas were heavily BAPTO influenced.
In 1982 the EPA withdrew from the NPC as splinter and unrecognised bodies began to form including the English Pool Federation, the Welsh Pool Federation and talk was going on about another rebel faction being set up in Scotland. At a crisis meeting at Gretna Green the EPF agreed to join the EPA in return for two places on the EPA committee. However the EPA did not rejoin the NPC.
The EPA was recognised by Sport England as the governing body for pool in England and continued to run pool successfully throughout the 1980’s and 90’s with more and more players becoming members and playing County and Superleague with all of them trying to reach the holy grail of winning an England team place.
Following the national trend Macclesfield Pool League flourished from just two leagues in its first season in 1975 to a peak of 72 men’s and 24 ladies teams. To enable the league to communicate to its members, monthly “Captains” meetings were introduced and were held on a Sunday lunch at the now demolished Trades Hall Chatham Street. This proved to be a very popular venue, as it opened its doors an hour early at 11am.
In 1993 MPL decided that there was an opportunity to run a Winter League in addition to its long standing Summer league. For a few years prior there had already been a Winter League run by the local LVA (Licensed Victuallers Association). Played on a Thursday it was designed as a “fun” league. MPL adopted the same approach and it became very popular and immediately attracted the same amount of teams as the Summer league. The Thursday match night was retained so as not to interfere with any possible overlap from the traditional Wednesday match night of the Summer league. It also allowed teams to be of mixed gender, so for the first time Men and Women could play on the same team.
In 2014, with a view to following the example set by the English Pool Association, a new league was created played to the World Rules rule set. With just 10 teams in the first season, this grew steadily to 15.
2022 saw another positive change, as International Rules was voted in to replace World Rules, and whats more it was decided they would be played on different nights to the long standing Macc Rules league, allowing members to play both sets of rules should they wish to do so. This positive move has resulted in a substantial increase in team entries and bodes well for the future.
MPL has always had a close association with the Cheshire County Pool Association resulting in the league regularly supplying both ladies and men’s players for the County side, giving local players the opportunity to compete at a higher level both at Regional and in some cases international level.
Records show that in 1978, Staffordshire Superleague (Interleague as it is known today) was formed with 12 teams representing leagues in Staffordshire and South Cheshire. The teams were Crewe and Nantwich A, B and C, Macclesfield A, B and C, North Staffs A and B, Stoke, Longton, Congleton and Hanley PC. Stafford PL became the 13th team the following year and the Superleague ran very successfully for 4 years
Whilst never lifting the title during that era its of some comfort that when a Cheshire and Staffordshire Super Pool League select side played against the then England team in 1980, and whilst an unlikely upset didn’t materialise, great satisfaction can be taken that six of the 15 players were from Macclesfield, or as the team sheets says “Macclesfield and District”.
A year earlier the very first Macclesfield v Congleton annual fixture took place. Fiercely competitive, it was Congleton who surprisingly won the first encounter by the narrowest of margins. However, over the next decade it was Macclesfield that gained the upper hand.
With the re-birth of the Cheshire County Pool Association, Macclesfield finally conquered the County scene winning the Cheshire Super/Inter league title on five occasions during the 90’s, and again in 2019.
Historically, from its conception, all leagues were, other than the first 5 years which were played under BAPTO rules, played under the old EPA rules (now known as Macc Rules). By adopting EPA rules this was a much needed step in the right direction in standardising the rules.
Some of the older members will remember the Presentation Nights of old, especially at The Willows Variety Club in Salford which was the home of MPL Presention Evening for nearly three decades until its closure in 2011. Tickets were as rare as snow fall in June with the club packed to its 500 capacity for many a year. In fact they used to say that our presentation night was the busiest night of their year, as a consequence we got a free compare, comedian and quality group, although we did have to pay for the very popular chicken in the basket.
Finals nights have had many, many venues and formats over the long history of the league, but the most imaginative was surely the old Macclesfield Town FC pub, The Moss Rose, renamed Bonkers, when in 1984 as a “one off” four pool tables were imported, with men’s and ladies singles, men’s and ladies “player of players” played from the last 16 down to a winner. Great, memorable night, only downside it finished at 2.30am the following morning.
Another memorable occasion was the 1996 Men’s final held at Bollington Cue Club, for which the then owner Tony Hatton had arranged for two-time snooker World Champion Alex “Hurricane” Higgins to visit the club on finals night and play the winner to a best of three pool challenge. True to his word "The Hurricane” did turn up, but on the night he was more like a “breeze” and ultimately found himself on the wrong end of a 2-0 score line against a newly crowned champion Rob Walker.
The league has also a proud history of raising money for local good causes through pool, and at the time of writing has raised over £5,000. Organisations to have benefited are East Cheshire Hospice, Park Lane Special School, The Bosley Wood Treatment appeal and more recently The Brain Tumour Charity.
The league would not have stood the test of time over all these years without the tireless and dedicated support of the committees of the day. Unknown to most of its members the league can boast a famous football legend who served on the Committee for a short time in the late 70’s. Willie Stevenson made his début for Bill Shankly’s Liverpool FC in 1962 and was a regular during his 5 years at the club, winning two league championships and an FA Cup. He then had a short spell playing for then non league Macclesfield Town making 41 appearances, before becoming publican of The “Old Kings Head” Chestergate.
