Newtown Pool League was founded in
1983, after which the first season ran over the summer period, finishing
in September that same year. Ever since, the League has been held over
the Winter months starting in the last week of September and finishing
in late Spring. The league was formed with the co-operation of a Pub
machine supplier, Associated Leisure Hire Ltd., together with the
inaugural Chairman, Roy Nuttall who was then the Landlord of the Grapes
Hotel in Commercial Street, Newtown. Roy and Jim Leak, then of the
Castle Vaults, Broad Street, Newtown, were both customers of Associated
Leisure and arranged the early sponsorship, which, for the first season
extended to the provision of trophies to get the League under way. The
first meeting saw 
the
election of Roy as the Chairman, and Owen Durbridge (pictured
right) as the Secretary/ Treasurer. Owen had attended with the
intention of entering a side from the local Police Station where he was
a Sergeant having just moved to Newtown from Pembroke where he had
several years experience running a large League in that area.
The first season was very successful, with Owen's competitive experience influencing his Nomads team (pictured below at the first ever Presentations Night), who played from the Cambrian Vaults, as they swept the board, taking the League losing just the one match and winning the League 6-a-side Cup which was sponsored by the late Bill Jones, the Butcher of The Cross, Newtown. The Nomads players also took the Player of the Year through Owen Durbridge, who also won the Singles title, as well as the Player of the Year runner-up through Kevin A.G. Jones. Dai Lewis and Clive Howells won the doubles tournament.
It was a remarkable first season, with Bill Jones' influence at the Elephant and Castle Hotel securing the League the use of the function room without charge, a tradition which has been maintained nearly 20 years later.
Associated Leisure remained connected with the League for several years, with their sponsorship later extending to providing the tables for Finals Day at the Elephant which was a superb facility for the membership.
As the League gathered
momentum and increased in size, so Roy Nuttall left the area and his
place was taken by Jim Leak (pictured left), through whose
Chairmanship the League thrived. The Castle Vaults (picured below)
quickly became the
headquarters of the Newtown Pool League, with Jim's wife, Sue at the
forefront of providing assistance with the running of the League. The
pub's "Castle A" and "Castle B" teams quickly became
the sides to beat and dominated over the years to follow.
Probably the League's greatest achievements surrounded the Shropshire Star Knockout which was held around February each year, with its first three years taking place at the old Technical College, New Road, Newtown where there were major entrants amongst the 128 limit Knockout for a Thousand Pounds in prize money, with £500 going to the winner. Star players travelled from South Wales, Aberystwyth and the West Midlands to compete and the first ever event was won by Steve Griffiths of Caersws with Wayne Smith, then of Aberystwyth, coming runner up.
The second event was even more successful as the League extended itself by providing 10 pool tables, with 8 for competition use, and two running Speed Pool and 15-1 competitions which were hugely popular. The 128 entries sold out easily and running the bar for the benefit of the League, the people involved in organising things raised nearly £1,000 profit for the League.
The third year was just as successful except Associated Leisure had seen little extra trade arising from their sponsorship and after providing a very valuable service over their period of involvement with the League, they left us. They were replaced by Stretton Leisure, who assisted with the staging of the third Shropshire Star event by providing 8 pool tables, but they, too, were interested in increasing their trade in the town and found that Licensees were too heavily tied to the companies they could trade with, giving companies little room for spending money on a League that could offer them little in return.
The League increased from one division to two, then onto three with Sue Leak being instrumental in the formation of the Women's League in the late 80's. The Ladies was an extremely competitive competition and featured some star quality players, not least of which were Wendy Morris and Joanne Evans who went on to gain Welsh International status with the Ladies Team. Julie Davies, now Julie Smith having married Wayne Smith, began her pool career in the Beehive side going on to live in Swansea and play for, and manage the Welsh Ladies team. Unfortunately, the Ladies League died a death in 1996 as the top players decided to concentrate on other things. There are still a large number of very able Ladies competing amongst the men, but there are insufficient to justify a League of their own.
In 1999/2000 the Ladies Singles event was resurrected, and although only a couple of dozen entered, there was sufficient to run the Knockout, with Julie Smith beating Helen Jones in the final.
Jim and Sue Leak had in the meantime moved their business to the Waggon and Horses in Newtown, and eventually they left these shores altogether, moving to Tenerife in 1993. He was replaced by Allen Birch, a former Castle player from the first days of the League, and a fitting Chairman given his long association as a League member.
Another innovation which has twice been tried was the running of a Mid Wales Pool Superleague; in 1984 a Newtown side was formed to take on a side organised by the Welshpool Pool League. (Pictured above is the first team ever assembled to play for Newtown Pool League) The side was chosen from the top performing players in the League and was successful in defeating the Welshpool side both home and away. As the Superleague grew to incorporate Rhayader, Llandrindod Wells, Builth Wells, Knighton, Llanbadarn Fynydd and Welshpool, it became very popular and even attracted sponsorship from the Newtown based Mid Wales Development Board to assist teams with their travelling costs. Despite the large distances, the League was keenly contested, with Newtown quickly adding a second side because of demand. Newtown were successful for the majority of seasons, but were put to the test by Rhayader on a couple of occasions, with their side going on to compete in the Welsh Counties League in later years. Interest from the Newtown players never diminished which was demonstrated by the inclusion of four teams from this League when the format was changed to five-a-side teams to make travelling easier. When the Superleague eventually folded in 1996, the Mid Wales Inn at Pantydwr were the champions, with Phil Wilson as its skipper. It was reformed in 1998/1999 when Newtown formed two teams to be joined by Llanidloes, playing out of Llangurig and Welshpool playing out of the Conservative Club. Llangurig were seen as the major threats as they incorporated Phil Wilson who chose to play from there as opposed to defending the title from Pantydwr. He was joined by the Welsh International captain, Neil Kershaw,who was to prove to be a superb player. But it was the Newtown "A" team who showed them the way, with their own superstar in Wayne Smith as they reclaimed the title for the cup to return to Newtown.
Having already led the way in the distribution of its own weekly newsletter, Newtown Pool League joined the age of technology in 2000 when this web site was launched. Up until then, newsletters were either posted, or more often delivered by hand each week, with the popular "Pool Press" nearing its 400 edition when it was transferred to the World Wide Web. To add some interest to the newsletter, pictures were commissioned of all the teams in the League in 1997, but of course, new teams are added each year and also many new players - so plans were made to take the picture of every member of the 2000/2001 season to enable accurate reporting to take place each week.