Novice Team Trophy

The three player novice team trophy weekend.

Welcome to the 2025 BAPTO ‘Halloween’ Novice Weekend!

Important announcement: The cost of hosting our event at the Norbreck is increasing significantly, as the Britannia group are insisting we pay room hire charges for the arena, regardless of the guest numbers staying at the hotel. We are calling this the Norbreck tax, as it is completely out of our control. This is a decision from the head office of the Britannia group, and is standard policy for any event that now uses the Norcalympia room – the going rate for this room is currently £5,000 per day.

We could move to an alternative venue, but there will still be similar room hire charges, and finding a suitable venue is very difficult. Our event works well at the Norbreck; the arena has proven to be the perfect venue for us, having hosted many memorable tournaments over the years. The beer is good value and we get use of a quality sound and lighting system. The hotel staff know our event well, making it easier for us to work together and set up the arena, with all the table lights and seating etc. So rather than move to an alternative venue or call time on the tournament, we are asking players to pay a bit extra to keep the event at the Norbreck.

Amateur team entry fee will be increasing this year from £90 to £150 for 2025. The extra cost this year works out at £20 per player for a 3 person team and will be added to the team entry fee, so that all teams contribute towards the new cost. If you have 4 players per team, then it is only £15 per player, and with 5 players in a team, the extra cost is only £12 per player.

We previously got the room for free, as brought enough guests to the hotel. But their room is now in high demand, especially with many Pontins sites closing and other event organisers are wanting to book it.

Halloween Party – Part2!

Last year we held our first ever Halloween party on team registration day, with plenty of teams dressing up in the evening. This year it falls on the Friday 31st Oct, and we thought it would be fun to continue the Halloween theme into the main event. All players and spooktators are welcome to wear Halloween fancy dress for all the Friday events! We will be adding some themed décor to the arena for the duration of the weekend, to help get into the spirit of things! Players can compete in fancy dress on the Friday only.

Please note, plain black trainers are now allowed, as are tailored shorts (if you’re brave enough to wear shorts in Nov). To keep things simple, we have adopted the same dress code as Golden 8 Ball.

The event is open to 160 teams, which is our max capacity. Please book early to avoid disappointment. We do have a waiting list for those teams that can’t get in, and often they get offered a place as the event nears, due to teams dropping out. Prize fund has increased from £12,000 to £13,500, as we now have more teams entering.

There are no big top prizes (to deter ringers) but instead a larger spread of smaller prizes taken from a generous pot, giving many more players a share of the cash! No players of exceptional ability are allowed to enter, to include County A players, international players, professional players from Ultimate Pool or IPA or any other professional player, past or present. Past County A players are allowed to enter, but limited to 1 per team.

Amateur players from Ultimate Pool and IPA can now enter, providing that they have never ranked within the top 40 players of either organisation.

Novice teams will get to play a minimum 54 frames of pool before being knocked out, giving them plenty of pool to play and a chance to hone their tournament skills.

Our aim is to make this a pure novice event, to give the less skilful players a chance to play against more equally matched teams and enjoy competitive pool with a chance to win something. This is part of our drive to encourage more aspiring, grass root players to come and experience our amazing weekend pool tournaments, and enjoy competitive pool without being annihilated all weekend.

The Novice Team Trophy will follow the same format as the original BAPTO event, with a double round robin played Friday and Saturday, then knockout stages on the Sunday, giving teams plenty of pool to play.