Sam Baird Exhibition Rileys – 2012

Exhibition Report

The West of England Billiards & Snooker Foundation (WEBSF) in association with Rileys, Plymouth promoted an exhibition of snooker by rookie professional Sam Baird. The evening started with WEBSF member Morgan Hall presenting Sam with a WEBSF cheque for £1048 to use towards his professional fees and expenses in his first year as a professional snooker player. This generous donation was raised by a small group of WEBSF members undertook a 24 hour marathon snooker tournament at Riley earlier in the year. Shortly after hearing that Sam had achieved professional status a few youngsters who felt compelled to do something to raise money to help with Sam’s expenses opted for a 24 hour marathon. Six adults and twelve under 18’s participated and the majority of them managed to do the full 24 hours.

The youngest person to participate was Morgan Hall, a young girl aged just 8 years. She had just signed up to weekly WEBSF coaching sessions and had thoroughly enjoyed the experience. The atmosphere was fantastic with everyone having a good time apart from a few grumbles about sore calf muscles! Each person kept a record of frames played and it worked out to 436 over the 24 hour period.

During the exhibition Sam played nine of the ‘marathon’ players personally thanking them and presenting each with a signed certificate in recognition of their magnanimous contribution to his cause. Spokesperson for the WEBSF said “The 24 Marathon was a real bonding experience and I think everyone learned a lot about each other. None of them envisaged how gruelling it would be both mentally and physically but all managed to survive through the night. The kids were amazing and recognised the importance of being involved in something for the benefit of someone else.”. All the matches where expertly refereed by Dave Dixon whist Steve Brookshaw marked the board. Sam is available for exhibitions or challenge matches and can be contacted via the WEBSF email: websf_uk@yahoo.co.uk

24 Hour Marathon participants:- Teresa Pinhey, Haydon Pinhey, Darren Hall, Cody Hall, Morgan Hall, Dan Legassick, Daniel Dyer, Stephen Dyer, Chris Coumbe, Adam Lewin, Chris Batey, Deborah Branton, Wayne Branton, Dale Branton, Peter Beckwith, Steve Brookshaw, Chris Corry & Roger Cole

Thanks to Rileys, Plymouth for hosting the exhibition and Dave Dixon (Plymouth referee).

Report by Steve Canniford

Results