SPA Affiliated Leagues Overview

Early in 2014 Scottish Pool Association (SPA) affiliated pool leagues nominated a representative who provided detailed statistics relating to the composition and structure of their league.
The vast majority of affiliated league representatives (around 40) were good enough to contribute to the survey. It can consequently be said with some confidence that the following is an accurate reflection of the state of Scotland's pool leagues at that time....

• There are in total around 8,500 blackball players registered with leagues of which close to 5,700 play league pool on a weekly basis.
• There are almost 750 SPA affiliated league teams in total playing regular blackball pool from the Shetland Isles to Berwick-upon-Tweed.
• Minimum league team size varies from 4 to 8 players, although more players may of course turn up for a team to play on league nights (often Tuesday evenings).
• Throughout Scotland 450 pubs and clubs provide venues for SPA affiliated league pool. Over 700 pool tables are available in total at these venues.
• Of 42 pool leagues, 27 said that both singles and doubles matches were played on a league night. The remainder reported playing only singles matches.
• From 8 to 16 frames are played during a league match, with the average number being 12 frames. Most leagues play out all scheduled frames in a match.
• The average fee that pool teams pay for affiliation to their local league is £60, although this varies from £10 to £160 depending upon league.
• To keep its membership informed close to 75% of leagues currently maintain a web presence of some kind and every affiliated league has been allocated a twitter account.
• In 2014 there were 42 SPA affiliated pool leagues. This represented a 23% increase in the number of affiliations over the previous year.

Regrettably the web site through which the above data was gathered was closed down and ultimately scrapped due to lack of support from key Scottish Pool Association officials.