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Recognised by Sport England as the Governing Body for Pool in England |  |
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England Teams
About the EPA England Teams
The EPA provides the means by which any player can earn a place in the England team. The way this is achieved is by tracking every players results at county matches.
Then at the end of the playing season the seven highest ranked players in each region are invited to attend the England team trials along with eight retrialists from the existing team.
There are points differences between what you can clock up in the County 'A' and County 'B' level so that although in most cases you must be a regular for your Countys 'A' team it is not impossible for a County 'B' team player to make the trials.
In the Ladies and Junior's the same selection policy is applied but because there are no 'A' & 'B' squads in these sections its a straight race to get to the trials but it's certainly not any easier.
Once you have made it into the squads you are only there by right for one season only. After that you have to retain your place by winning your matches. The Men's England Squad is probably the the best known because there are more matches for them to play. The Ladies England Squad may not have as many matches in any season as the men but the squad is packed with the England's finest female players. We have a youth structure set up so that there is a natural progression through to the senior ranks when the time comes to leave the England Junior's Squad.
Some time ago, the EPA introduced an Under 21's squad which was later extended to include Under 23's. There are also Senior's (over 50's) and Master's (over 60's) Squads. The U23's and Senior's trials are based on the same format as the Men's and Ladies format.
If you are one of the unlucky players not to be retained by the team managers at the end of the playing season all is not lost, you drop into the trials along with that season's best county players and try to recapture your place by doing well at the trials.
Of course, if you are one of the County players who have earned a place in the trials by your hard work throughout the Intercounty season it will be your sole objective to make sure that you, not one of the "non retained" England squad members, get into the squad.
The trials system comes under fire from some quarters but we are one of the very few sports where it is possible for a player to be playing in a local team one day and within a year be a full International player playing in the World Championships.
Format of the England Team Trials
Proposed format passed by the EPA National Committee.
Swiss system with 64 players.
No player will play a player from their own region in the first round.
In the trials format, where there are spaces due to players not turning up, these will be offered to reserve players who are present from any Region. If there are more reserves than places, the player(s) with best average(s) will be entered first. Any spaces still not filled will be classed as byes during the first three rounds and will be randomly drawn to ensure that 3 different players are given a bye during the first 3 rounds for each place not filled.
All matches will be best of 5 frames.
All players will play against opponents who have the same record for the first six rounds.
After completing six rounds, the situation will be as follows;
1 player will have qualified on six wins, no losses.
6 players will have 5 wins and 1 loss.
15 players will have 4 wins and 2 losses.
As there are now an uneven number of players, it is proposed to play the remaining rounds as follows;
The 6 players with a 5-1 record will play against each other, with the three winning players qualifying for the England team.
The 15 players with a 4-2 record will be split into 5 groups of three and will play a round robin format to obtain a winner from each group. A player winning both matches will go through. In the event of a three-way tie frames against will be used to decide the winner. If there is still a tie, matches will be reduced to best of three and replayed.
The 3 players with a 5-2 record, plus the 5 winners from the round robin play-off will then be drawn to play one final match to decide the final four places (where possible against a player they have not previously played).
This system will provide 8 qualifiers for each of the England teams.
