It’s Only Been 4 Months…
Wow it’s only been four months since we launched the Paphos 8 Ball Pool League but boy we have crammed a lot in.
We looked at our options with the freedom that comes with starting a new venture and rather than starting a full winter league through to May or June, we decided shorter tournaments and leagues would be more exciting, with more champions through the year. With rules, we adopted a lot of the English pool rules with a few tweaks which proved popular.
Trophy Winners
2025 WINTER LEAGUE - October to December
We went with a short 10-week league with the Champions announced before Christmas playing 6 teams, with each team playing home and away. We adopted a pretty much standard format of 3 doubles and 6 singles matches. It was great to see these teams playing, but one team did run away with the title winning all their matches…
2025 Winter League Champions - CRAZY SPOON
Tied for second were The Bottlebank and Petsas Rangers. The Bottlebank ahead on legs won the runner up prize.
We had a bit of a review and implemented a new team handicap system affecting the team at the top of the league, Crazy Spoon with a minus 3 handicap. The bottom placed Meeting Pub gained one point. These handicaps were in force for each match played, home and away. We also listened to players and captains and removed the doubles matches from the knockouts.
Phoebe is the BOSS? Sadly Aces could not play the knockouts due to the bar being renovated and Spyros roping in his team to work with the ever-faithful Phoebe on watch! Really looking forward to playing there in the Spring League. We did gain an extra team for the knockouts… The Godfather in Peyia.
When playing knockouts, those who loose in the early rounds end up with no matches to play for a number of weeks until the knockouts have finished; we wanted to avoid this and ensure teams kept playing matches each week for as long as possible. We decided a double elimination tournament would be perfect so we created the main Knockout Cup, and then those who were knocked out in the 1st two rounds played our Knockout Plate Tournament.
We also listened to players and captains and decided not to play the three doubles and only play the six singles, with each singles match playing best of 3. We knew an even score at the end of both legs could result in a tie so we introduced a single frame sudden death playoff to decide the winner. This has proved to be great fun and exciting finale to match.
2026 WINTER KNOCKOUT CUP
Both Crazy Spoon and The Godfather ended up with a bye in the 1st round. Petsas Rangers played The Meeting Pub and were tied after the 1st leg, but Petsas Rangers worked hard and sealed the win to go through to the next round. Petsas Restaurant played The Bottlebank. A great couple of matches saw The Bottlebank go through to the next round.
The almighty Crazy Spoons played Petsas Rangers in the next round of the Cup. This was the 1st match Crazy Spoon had played with the handicap of minus 3 and it was such a success. Crazy Spoon were ahead 8/4 after the 1st leg with Petsas Rangers needing to turn up the gas in the 2nd leg… and they did starting with Terry for Rangers taking on the undefeated Stefan from Spoons… undefeated until this match which saw the start of an incredible comeback for Rangers taking Crazy Spoon to a tie breaker. With Noel playing for Rangers, professional snooker player Stefan for Spoons, it was not Stefans' day when Noel beat him as well to take Rangers into the final of the Cup.
The Bottlebank played The Godfather in the other semi final and although there was a close match in the 1st leg, unfortunately The Bottlebank could not make the 2nd leg sending The Godfather straight through to the Final against Petsas Rangers.
The final was another great couple of matches between The Godfather and Petsas Rangers. These two teams had never played each other before. Petsas Rangers won on home turf in the 1st leg. In the 2nd leg The Godfather came really close, but Paul for Petsas Rangers won his frames to win the final for Rangers with one match to play. Congratulations... Petsas Rangers are the winners of our first Winter Knockout Cup.
2026 Winter Knockout Cup Champions - PETSAS RANGERS
2026 WINTER KNOCKOUT PLATE
In the Plate knockout tournament, The Meeting Pub played Petsas Restaurant in the 1st round, with the Restaurant Team shining through. With The Bottlebank unable to play their match against Crazy Spoons, we had two great teams in the Plate Final; Crazy Spoon and Petsas Restaurant.
Again the new handicap system proved itself with these two teams tied going into the 2nd and final leg. This was an awesome contest with the lead switching hands after each match. After Pampos took the final match with a 2-1 win it forced Spoons into yet another play off at Petsas, this time against the Petsas Restaurant team.
Stefan played again for Crazy Spoon against Petsas Captain Demetris. Stefan was not going to be defeated against another Petsas team and clinched the playoff winning the Plate Knockout Tournament. Congratulations Crazy Spoon
2026 Winter Knockout Plate Champions - CRAZY SPOON
What's Next...
We had our review with captains. Not playing the 3 doubles matches, and only playing 6 singles has been a big hit, not least because we are not still playing till midnight, or worse 1 am in the morning which usually happened when we included 3 doubles matches. Playing 6 singles tends to finish by 10pm, leaving players to stay a bit longer and chill over another beer, or get home early! The handicap system did its job, matches played against Crazy Spoons really did level the playing field and there were some great battles going all the way to sudden death playoffs at the end to decide the winner. Fantastic atmosphere in the bars while the tension grew to the winning shot.
We also made some rules changes such as where there is a foul, and 2 shots awarded to the opponent where we played two shots carried. We removed the carry and kept it simple with 2 visits/shots. We also removed nomination on the break to choose ball colour. It will now be the 1st legally potted ball.
2026 Spring League
Our new spring league has just started. We will continue playing 6 singles and no doubles matches with a sudden death single frame play off if the match is tied. The Crazy Spoon handicap will be minus 2. All that's left to say is to wish all teams the best of luck this season.
One more thing.... team tops
Petsas Rangers have great team tops, with their team logo on the front and Paphos 8 Ball Pool League on the back. There is also space on one of the sleeves. If you are interested, contact Mark on 95 934130 or email info@paphos8ball.com
