THE HISTORY OF STRAIGHTSHOTS

The Straightshots Pool League has a history stretching back to 2002, making it one of the oldest and best established Yahoo! Pool leagues.

Straightshots Pool League was formed on 24th January 2002. The person responsible for bringing SS into Yahoo Pool was an Englishman called Carl whose ID was Clubberx20. He was the League's first Head Admin and held the position for 8 months before handing over to Darlene (XxKittyKatxX), from the USA, on 14 August 2002. She remained HA for 5 months until 18 January 2003 when New Zealander Clint (ClintEvenbly) took over. His spell at the helm lasted just a couple of months before Roy (JUDGE1474) from Australia came into the hot seat on 22 March 2003, followed by the American 'Maj' (majestic_099) replacing him on 17 June 2003. 

The rest of 2003 saw another 4 changes; on 1 August 2003, Dan (happy_guy_who_smokes) from the USA lasted a month in the role, handing over to Tony (sticcmove) also an American on 22 September 2003. Dan returned on 28 September 2003 for another short stint but one month later, the American handed the role back to Tony who, in his second spell as HA, went on to outlast all previous Head Admins by staying a commendable 17 months or so. 

On 1 March 2005, another American, namely Shirley (flatbrokeagain2825), grabbed the reigns and she remained in the position for 9 months, leaving after a controversy regarding SS finances. One of the League's admins, Laura (LAURA1315), took over on 7 December 2005. She became the first HA from England since the League's founder in 2002 and served in this role for just over 5 years.

The League has had a chequered existance, enduring times of inactivity and controversy, with numerous intended breakaway leagues. However, Straightshots has always remained strong and defied those who tried to ruin the League. When Laura took over as Head Admin, SS was in a poor state and was lucky to generally reach 30 tourneys a day. But hard work by her and her team of Admins and TDs increased the figure to around 70 a day, and at its peak the figure often topped the century, making SS one of the most active pool leagues around to this day.

Without doubt, Laura's involvement brought SS off its knees and into a state of healthy activity and her continuing leadership at the helm for so long – easily making her the longest serving HA – spoke volumes about the level of commitment she gave the League overall.  

There have been many Admins, HTDs and TDs who have contribu-ted to SS's continued existance over the years, too numerous to mention hereWith apologies to those missed out, notable dedicated members towards the SS cause include Andrea, Ash, Bee, Chad, Chris, CJ, Deven, Don, Eric, Greg, James, Jason, John (irish_wolf), Jon, Karen, Kimberley, Laura, Michele (Angel_of_Darkness), Nicki, Roy, Sassy, Shelle, Shirley, Steven, Steve (lvlr_licky), Tia, Tony, Tracey and many more, all of whom gave an enormous amount of time and commitment to ensure that SS remained a top active league.

Straightshots has been a part of interleague competition since January 2003, originally participating in IPC (Interleague Pool Competition) and WIP (World Interleague Pool) individual inters, in addition to PLC (Pool League Championship) as the League's first team inters. In March 2003, SS won the PLC divisional trophy and Cases Cup – captained by Nicki (on Nicki_598) of Wales – in the first season. The League was founder member of the new MLP (Major League Pool) and won the Pacific Division in MLP's inaugural season. SS dominated MLP in season 2, winning four trophies in April 2004, and also was successful in the inaugural UIC season in August 2005, taking the Regular Season title and Premier trophy, captained by Roy. 

SS continued to take part in several individual interleague competitions, including IPC, ILT (Interleague Tournament), NPA (National Pool Association), PIT (Professional Interleague Tournament), WIP as well as MLP. The first SS player to achieve notable success in inters was Richie (ss_gooclriddance) of England who won a WIP competition in January 2003. Downwithyour-rating (name unknown) won the League's first MVP (Most Valuable Player) award in MLP Season 2 in April 2004. 

Roy was instrumental in most of SS's early interleague team successes, helped by Nicki as co-captain. The Judge was effectively the first SS interls coordinator, a role which Steven (steven.rules) of the USA later took on in 2005. Steven endured a spell where interleague success dried up considerably and he was eventually assisted in a difficult role by Marie (milly_molly03) from Northern Ireland as his co-captain. 

It was Marie who ended a two-year stretch without success by leading SS to the UIC5 Emerald Consolation Cup in June 2007, turning a 0-7 season into 11-11. Soon afterwards, Englishman Nigel (e_n_d_i_k_a_y) was appointed UIC captain with Marie as co-captain and the pair took SS to two trophies in UIC6. Finally Steven stood down and was replaced by the British pair who became joint coordinators in 2008. They changed the face of inter-leagues in SS by introducing an improved organisational structure and the trophies started to roll in, notably in UIC, UIC Swiss, WPC Expo and IPA. 

During 2008, the SS Cam Cup was started and was originally run by Jonathan (crazy_canuck) using a website designed by Laura. He ran it for 6 seasons with the help of Steven (steven.rules) before Nish (xlx_nish_xlx) took over for one season. Jonathan returned in 2010 to run a further 8 seasons, finishing a year later.

In April 2010, Marie and Nigel stood down after 2 years of success which included an incredible 24 trophies, and Shelle and Nicki took over. With Shelle then doing the job on her own, Nigel (now on en_dk) returned to SS to become coordinator for a second spell in November 2010. He had a spell in International Cue Addiction (ICA) where he led them to the UIC Swiss title in Season 6.

On 7 January 2011, Shelle (shelle4461) from Florida, USA, took over as the League's 12th Head Admin after the long-serving Laura decided to step down. 

Straightshots continued to be widely recognised as one of the biggest names in interleague pool, a meritable profile of which the League is extremely proud. Founder members of several prestigious competitions, such as PLC, MLP and UIC, the League's team trophy count since first entering interleagues in 2003 made SS the all-time leading team with over 60 trophies.

In 2012 the League was affected by room locking and bots, in addition to a breakaway league called New Era, which reduced activity for a while and struggled as a result. Also during 2012, Nigel (en_dk), the League's new Co-HA, restarted the SS Cam Cup, renaming Divisions A and B as the Gold Conference and Silver Conference respectively. he introduced a Bronze Conference as the Consolation Plate.

SS continued to exist albeit at a lesser level of activity until Yahoo Games decided to phase out all parlour games, including pool, on 31st March 2014, forcing all leagues to look for new gaming sites. After an unsuccessful period in Pogo, SS decided to become a Multi-Gaming League and moved to Gamedesire in July 2014, sharing a room with Pool Sharks, although this did not last too long due to PS's demise.

SS carried on hosting tourneys in the Gamedesire room called Morocco before moving to a new room labelled League 02. But it was the SS Cam Cup which at times kept SS ticking over during the quiet periods, with games being reported as SS leagues to help activity. Two further Cam competitions called SS Cam Timed and SS Cam BankQ8 were formed.

On 14th December 2015, Shelle, who ended just short of 5 years as HA, passed the League to Nigel, now the League's 13th Head Admin. He was HA for five months before giving the League back to Shelle in May 2016. During 2017, SS won the UIC Swiss championship, which was the only interleague competition being run in Gamedesire, for the 14th time out of 20 seasons.

In July 2017, Roy Sheppard, one of the League's first Head Admins, sadly passed away aged 76. In January 2019, Shelle handed the League to long-serving Marie, the 14th person to hold the Head Admin position. On 8th September 2019, with the League enjoying a revival in activity, SS moved to League 01 to avoid overlapping with UIC Swiss in League 07. Also in 2019, SS returned to being a pool league again, dropping the multi-gaming title.

On one Friday the following month, a day full of 'fast fours' brought an incredible 100 tourneys being played. However, a turbulent week of comings and goings saw three changes of Head Admin – Marie was briefly replaced by Shelle who handed the League to Nigel two days later for safeguarding. He in turn returned the League to its rightful HA, Marie, the League's longest serving member.


Through the hard work of many dedicated individuals, the Straightshots Pool League continues to exist in League 01 (Pool 8 2009) in Gamedesire; not as fervently as in the League’s hey days in Yahoo Pool of unrivaled activity but members can still enjoy playing under the well-established and popular SS banner.


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