BWA – Billiards Worldcup Association
There are numerous abbreviations used in today’s billiard environment. Most probably the ones that come to mind are your local club or national federation. Worldwide the two most familiar ones are the UMB and CEB, the World and European billiard federations.
There, at least to me, is only one abbreviation in all of billiards that is closest to my heart, the BWA.
The BWA, or Billiards Worldcup Association, founded in 1985 must be seen as the organization that put three-cushion billiards on the map. All of yesterdays and todays professional three-cushion players are owing a lot to the BWA, as all outstandingly organized tournaments (like Blankenberge by Kurt Ceulemans, the McCreery tournament in New York and the current World Cup edition in Seoul) have originated out of what the BWA started.
Some time ago I talked with Bert van Manen about writing a piece about the history of the BWA, Bert mentioned, quite right by the way, that the overall history has more negative than positive sides to it. For me the BWA mentions a lot as they professionalized three-cushion billiards by contracting great players, creating a earning model, organize the well-known “World Cup Tournaments” and they found and excellent way to market themselves.
BWA – Billiards Worldcup Association
As a collector you’re always on the lookout for interesting item, BWA items however are not easily found. The few I had (tie, lighter and business card holder) proved that over the years.
During my talk with Bert (Bert van Manen) I mentioned to him that whenever the chance would occur I would love to have an BWA badge. The ones who were worn by the players on their jacket. Bert told me he had one and offered kindly to send me one together with some other items.
After I opened the package he sent me I was extremely surprised and happy with the items he had sent to me. Label pins, 29 pictures of contract players, some decals and the so much desired badge. A big thank you to Bert for sending me the BWA (and other great) items to add to my collection. Hopefully I will find more BWA items to add but as mentioned before, they are hard to find.
Item: Kozoom / Frits Bakker
The remaining part of this page is dedicated to the history of the Billiards Worldcup Association and I would like to express my thanks and respect to Cor van Erp, Michel Cielen, Raf Borremans, Pierre Cornelissen, Maarten Oldenburg, Bert van Manen and Jan Rosmulder for providing me with beautiful BWA items and their knowledge.
Please note that I'm fully aware that not all was peachy during the BWA era, I have documents that prove that. I have decided to willingly ignore this and focus on the good things. Let's not forget that the BWA paved the path for today's professionals who can make a living out of the great game of three cushions billiards.