President and V.P of the Canadian Billiard and Snooker Association Resign

By: Markus Noé

This past week the Canadian Snooker Championships were held at the recently opened Corner Bank pool hall in Scarborough, Ontario. In most cases this would be the biggest story of the week, however there has been a major shift in our national association. Steve Cooper long time President of the Canadian Billiard and Snooker Association has resigned, along with the Vice President Kyle Richard.

The timing of this comes as a bit of a surprise with the Amateur National Championships right around the corner. However the annual board members meeting was set to be held this past weekend, and I guess this was as good a time as any for this announcement to be made. Mr. Cooper was absent but Mr. Richard did fly in to tie up any loose ends. Exact details are hard to come by as this is still a developing story. The Treasurer Randall Morrison who most of you would know as the guy behind the stream this year, has taken over the Presidential duties on a temporary basis. Morrison could also be the early front-runner to take over permanently.

We here at Cue Sport Nation and myself in particular have been openly critical of the the C.B.S.A. Prior to this years Canadian 8,9 and 10 ball Championships a story we ran just prior to the event got a lot of traction. The headline was "Will the Canadian Championships be a Success this Year," and can be read in our editorial section. In this article I discussed poor player turn out for the last several years, low payouts, and not only mine but our nation of pool players' displeasure with the direction of the C.B.S.A. There have been no qualifiers for our National Championship, player relationships from Western Canada and Québec have been non existent as they have not been participating for years now. Finally as a national association they are responsible for representing us on a international level and last year we were unable to send a team to the World Team Championships.

While John Morra was making history by winning all three pool divisions, many on social media voiced their desire for change. At times this got heated and Mr. Cooper and Mr. Richard instead of listening to the concerns of the players and supporters, took it all very personally and the conversation went off the rails very publicly. Perhaps this was the breaking point for the these two; we hope to find out more as the details become clearer. For now Morrison is the go to guy and we will be talking to him later this week to figure out the election process and where the C.B.S.A goes from here.

Richard will be working with Morrison and the current Secretary Al Tirk throughout this transition. Morrison will be attending the Amateur Championships which are located in Coopers back yard which will allow him to get any more help and information he needs from the former President. John White the Senior Vice President, has stayed on and it will be interesting to see his role moving forward. Stay tuned to Cue Sport Nation as we will update this story as it continues to develop.