HomeAbout Billiards DigestContact UsArchiveAll About PoolEquipmentOur AdvertisersLinks
From the Publisher
By Mike Panozzo
Mike became editor of Billiards Digest in 1980 and liked it so much that he bought the company. He has served on the Billiard Congress of America board of directors and as president of the Billiard & Bowling Institute of America.


Archives
• October 2024
• September 2024
• August 2024
• July 2024
• June 2024
• May 2024
• April 2024
• March 2024
• February 2024
• January 2024
• December 2023
• November 2023
• October 2023
• September 2023
• August 2023
• July 2023
• June 2023
• May 2023
• April 2023
• March 2023
• February 2023
• January 2023
• December 2022
• November 2022
• October 2022
• September 2022
• August 2022
• July 2022
• June 2022
• May 2022
• April 2022
• March 2022
• February 2022
• January 2022
• December 2021
• November 2021
• October 2021
• September 2021
• August 2021
• July 2021
• June 2021
• May 2021
• April 2021
• March 2021
• February 2021
• January 2021
• December 2020
• November 2020
• October 2020
• September 2020
• August 2020
• July 2020
• June 2020
• May 2020
• April 2020
• March 2020
• February 2020
• January 2020
• December 2019
• November 2019
• October 2019
• September 2019
• August 2019
• July 2019
• June 2019
• May 2019
• April 2019
• March 2019
• February 2019
• January 2019
• December 2018
• November 2018
• September 2018
• August 2018
• July 2018
• June 2018
• May 2018
• April 2018
• March 2018
• February 2018
• January 2018
• November 2017
• October 2017
• September 2017
• August 2017
• July 2017
• June 2017
• May 2017
• April 2017
• March 2017
• February 2017
• January 2017
• December 2016
• November 2016
• October 2016
• September 2016
• August 2016
• July 2016
• June 2016
• May 2016
• Apr 2016
• Mar 2016
• Feb 2016
• Jan 2016
• Dec 2015
• Nov 2015
• Oct 2015
• Sept 2015
• August 2015
• July 2015
• June 2015
• May 2015
• April 2015
• March 2015
• February 2015
• January 2015
• October 2014
• August 2014
• May 2014
• March 2014
• February 2014
• September 2013
• June 2013
• May 2013
• April 2013
• March 2013
• February 2013
• January 2013
• December 2012
• November 2012
• October 2012
• September 2012
• August 2012
• July 2012
• June 2012
• May 2012
• April 2012
• March 2012
• February 2012
• January 2012
• December 2011
• November 2011
• October 2011
• September 2011
• August 2011
• July 2011
• June 2011
• May 2011
• April 2011
• March 2011
• February 2011
• January 2011
• December 2010
• November 2010
• October 2010
• September 2010
• August 2010
• July 2010
• June 2010
• May 2010
• April 2010
• March 2010
• February 2010
• January 2010
• December 2009
• November 2009
• October 2009
• September 2009
• August 2009
• July 2009
• June 2009
• May 2009
• April 2009
• March 2009
• February 2009
• January 2009
• October 2008
• September 2008
• August 2008
• July 2008
• June 2008
• May 2008
• April 2008
• March 2008
• February 2008
• January 2008
 
October: Charlie’s Angles
October 2018

Fake news is nothing new. At least not in the pool world. Player-turned-promoter Charlie Williams has made an art out of the practice for more than a decade, most notably in the presentation of “news” surrounding his annual World Tournament of 14.1. And this year, Williams has taken his nose-thumbing tactics to a new level. Which is a shame, really, because what has become apparent is that his p.r. barrage against humanity has very little to do with making heroes of the players or glorifying the game, and everything to do with the fragile ego of an insecure promoter and his personal war against the World Pool-Billiard Association (WPA). To understand the reason for this rant, one needs to go back to 2006, when Williams decided to revive the World 14.1 Championship. Straight pool has long been considered the true game of champions in pocket billiards, but the rise of 9-ball as the future of professional pool made the game all but disappear in the late 1980s and throughout the ’90s. The revival of the game, even for one tournament a year, was met with great joy by both the old guard and the new. The WPA, accepted by national pool federations around the world as the governing body and record-holder of the sport, approved of Williams’ noble motives and put its stamp on the tournament at prize money levels far below its customary minimums in an effort to support the game. And so the World 14.1 Championship, still relatively small in terms of field and prize purse, produced WPA-recognized World 14.1 Champions for five years.

In 2011, however, the event was stripped of its sanction because both prize fund and player selection had dipped far below a level that even the WPA could allow. The sanction was pulled not as punishment, but as a means of protection for the promoters who were following the guidelines for events like the World 9-Ball, World 8-Ball and World 10-Ball Championships. To his credit, Williams continued to run his event, but his ego would not allow him to simply put on a quality straight pool tournament. He deftly changed the name of the event to the World Tournament of 14.1 and, for a few years at least, tempered his claims that the winner was acknowledged as “World Champion.” Recently, however, Williams’ various websites — his own personal website, Dragon Promotions, World Tournament of 14.1 and something called the World Sports Alumni — have gone to great pains to make the event something that it most certainly is not.

Scroll through the websites (which, comically, “Like” and “Share” each other’s posts), and you will be treated to Trumpian claims like: “78th World Tournament”; “Since 1912”; and “Name etched in history.” The sites hail Thorsten Hohmann, who won the event for the fifth time, as “Five-Time World Champion,” “Chasing Mosconi,” and “One Title Behind Crane in Fourth Place.”

Here are the facts. The event is not the 78th anything. The event has run since 2006. Thorsten Hohmann, who officially has one world 14.1 title, is hardly chasing Willie Mosconi. And he is not one world title behind Irving Crane. In fact, he is only one world title ahead of Frazier Crane. Neither the Billiard Congress of America nor the WPA recognizes any straight pool world champion beyond Oliver Ortmann’s 2010 win. As a journalist, I accept them as the official record keepers. All billiard media should.

A single promoter should not unilaterally decide that his event is a legitimate world championship. It is one of the reasons the pool world got together in the 1990s and established the WPA. A legitimate sport has to have governing bodies. For all of its warts, the WPA is pool’s. (And no one, not even Charlie Williams, has taken the WPA to task for its mistakes over the years more than Billiards Digest.) Individual promoters and upstart players associations come and go. The PBT, the UPA, the IPT…all have come and gone. You know what is still here? The BCA, the WPA and the World Confederation of Billiard Sports, that’s who. As for the World Tournament of 14.1 itself? Let’s face it. It isn’t even the top straight pool tournament in America, much less the world. The 2018 event — billed as featuring “48 invited pros” — ended up with 30 players, 20 percent of whom are not by the longest stretch considered pro players. The prize fund (always conspicuously absent from any promotional material) barely topped $20,000, with the “world champion” earning a princely $5,400. Added money? Perhaps $4,500. (Again, no announced amount.) Very un-world championship-ish. By comparison, the American 14.1 Championship boasts nearly $30,000 added and a total purse of $42,000. The entry fee is half of what the World Tournament charges. It fills a 48-player field that is far tougher than Williams’ World Tournament. Ask any player.

I don’t get any joy from bashing a tournament. The World Tournament of 14.1 does a lot of things right. It produces entertaining and informative videos during the event. It stages an annual Straight Pool Hall of Fame dinner, which commendably honors 14.1 greats. It kept straight pool alive and relevant when no one else would.

But please, Charlie, dispense with the wild claims and defiant attitude. The harder you try, the sillier you look. And you do so at the expense of the players you portend to support.

MORE VIDEO...