2026 Country Week Championships Wrap Up

2026 Country Championships

Well another exciting and fun weekend of playing nonstop pool at WAEBF HQ at the 2026 Country Championships. Our official squad comprised 42 players across seven divisions, and we unofficially supplemented another four players to form a team with two players from Katanning called the ManKats to avoid a BYE in the division 9 fixtures.

While we didn’t bring home a flag the important thing is we had a genuine crack and all well within the spirit of the game.  Divisions 1, 3, 4 and 8 landed in 3^rd place, with Divisions 2, 5 and 6 finishing in 5^th spot – reflecting on the divisional results in Poolstat we were unlucky not to have finished higher in some divisions but hey that’s life and pool.

When I reflect on the composition of teams of recent years, I think we are seeing a period of transition as more established players are moving into higher divisions and replenishing the ranks with more and more players new to country week.  Case in point Gary Hatchett moving up to Division 3 and was placed third with 73.33% frame % while Hugh Highman playing country week for the first time came 2^nd in Division 9 with 84.62% frame %.

Thank you to all our sponsors for all your support including all sponsors big and small Mandurah Towing Service, Shelford Constructions and ABC Crane Hire, Anytype Electrical, Jeremy Bower Pool and Snooker coaching and Martian Media.

I would also like to personally thank all the captains for another outstanding job and finally a big thank you Suzie Gibbs for stepping into the team manager role over the weekend, and to Sue Aylward (your Association Secretary) for organising just about everything (shirts, stubby holders, accommodation, taxi transport etc) so the rest of us can enjoy the weekend.

Paul Aylward

President