Novice Series

Welcome to the Novice Series weekend

11th to 14th June 2026

Important Announcement – Norbreck Arena Costs & New Accommodation System

As announced last year, the cost of hosting our event at the Norbreck has risen sharply, mainly due to the Britannia Group’s new policy of charging room hire fees for the Norcalympia Arena. This is a head office decision from the hotel and applies to all events using the Norcalympia, regardless of the amount of event guests staying at the hotel. The current going rate for the room hire is £5,000 per day. 

Novice Price Changes – 2026

To soften the impact, we spread this increase over two years and increased the prize fund:

2025: £165 per team (already announced)

2026: £210 per team (final increase – extra £15 per player cost for 3 person team)

We do not expect further rises after 2026 – prices should remain stable for the next few years.

Why We’re Staying at the Norbreck

We have explored alternative venues, but:

• Most suitable options also have high room hire charges.
• The Norbreck setup works perfectly – the arena is ideal and has hosted many of our most memorable tournaments.
• Sound, lighting, and arena facilities are top quality.
• Hotel staff know our event well, making setup and coordination smoother.

Rather than move or cancel, we believe the best option is to stay at the Norbreck and share the extra cost fairly across all teams.

New Accommodation Booking System

From now on, we will manage all Norbreck hotel bookings directly. This is how the hotel works with other large events, and they have asked us to follow the same system.

What this means:

• We are effectively hiring the whole hotel for the event.
• All players will book accommodation through us – not directly with the hotel.
• Payment will be taken in full at the time of booking (no deposits or chasing balances).
• Sharon will be handling all bookings, payments, and room allocations.
• Standard room cancellation policy remains, if cancelled 8 weeks or more prior to the event

While this increases our workload, it gives us full control over allocations and ensures everyone gets the best possible service. Our aim is to make this process smooth, efficient, and as stress-free as possible.

About the Novice Event

This 3 person team event has been purposely created for the less experienced or less skilful amateur pool player. We want players of similar novice ability to be competing against each other, giving more players a real chance to win a slice of the prize fund. This is part of our drive to encourage more aspiring, grass root players to come and experience our amazing weekend pool tournaments.

This event is popular and fills fast, so we have expanded it to 160 teams, which is our max capacity.  Please register early to avoid disappointment. If we are full, your team can be added to a waiting list, and places usually become available as some teams tend to drop out.

We have further tightened up on the team entry criteria and will not allow any current County A players to participate. There will also be restrictions on lady players of high ability entering, to try and make this a truly novice event. No international or professional players (past or present) and no amateur players of exceptionally high ability.

We have changed the rules slightly, to allow past winners of the main trophies to come back and defend their titles, but if they win a main trophy twice, then they can no longer enter a G8B or BAPTO novice event. We made this decision, as sometimes teams do well on the day and win, but shouldn’t then be excluded. If they continue to win, then they will be excluded, as they should be progressing to the next level.

• This is a novice event, for the less skilful or less experienced amateur pool player.
• We have a popular juniors singles event on the Saturday for players 17 years or under – our youngest star in 2025 was Ray who was only 6 years old at the time of competing
• We have a guaranteed prize fund of over £19,500 with a top prize of £600 for the Gold Trophy champions, £500 for the Singles Champion and £600 for the Doubles Champions.
• The prize fund structure of the Novice event pays more money further down the line but with smaller top prizes for the winners. We believe this is a fairer way of distributing the prize fund in a novice event, as more players will benefit from a share of the cash prizes.
• Over 190 individual prizes will be paid in total, giving many more players the chance to win something. In 2025, we paid 200 individual prizes, when including losing prelim rounds and the Junior event.
• Any player that has won £1,000 or more in prize money, as an individual or as part of a team, at any recognised pool event, will not be allowed to enter. They will be deemed a player of exceptionally high ability and should be entering the Pro-Am instead.
• Any professional player past or present from Ultimate Pool or IPA.
• Past winners of the Novice Series Gold Team Trophy, Doubles and Singles CAN now re-enter the Novice Series. We have changed the rules, so winners can come back and defend their titles as many times as they want. But, if you win the same main event twice, then you will not be allowed to enter any further Golden 8 Ball or BAPTO novice events.  Winners must progress to the Pro-Am event. For more information, read the full details of team entry criteria.
• Team entry criteria is at the time of registration. If a player’s status changes after the team has registered, that is not a problem, and the player can still enter the current event, but will not be allowed to enter the following year. 

What to expect

• Guaranteed over £19,500 cash & trophy prize fund
• Over 190 individual cash prizes to be won!
• Limited to 160 teams
• Open singles, open doubles and flyer events
• Junior singles event limited to 32 players
• Min 37 frames of pool in team stage
• Min 3 players per team
• Dedicated live results, schedule and draw website – www.livepoolscores.com
• 42 Sam Atlantic pool tables
• Super Aramith Pro balls
• Hainsworth Precision cloth