The Summer League is a competition started in June 2013 that offers a League competition through the summer months with an alternative match format.
The 2013 season was successful with 8 teams taking part in the competition and congratulations go to Shoot Bolts who won the league with a 100% record. This feat was matched in the 2014 season, with Shootpool Reds winning the league unbeaten.
In 2015, we saw more teams enter, and the 12 teams were split into two groups with the groups drawn randomly, playing the 5 other teams in their group home & away, with the top two from each group progressing into a knockout stage that saw The Harry Potters beat Ex-Services A's in the final.
2016 saw 16 teams competing, split equally into four groups this time, with the top 2 in each group progressing into the knockout stages and the bottom two from each group entering the new Shield competition with The New Roth'mans' winning the Premier title and Wonky Newy clinching The Shield in the last frame of the final.
From 2017 season, we saw 20+ teams entering, with two groups of 10+ leading into knockout rounds, and a record 24 teams entered the 2024 season, meaning the format changed to four groups of 6, with the addition of a third KO comp, The Jug.
Individually, Paul Kanchanlall has the most honours in the Summer League, with five tournament wins and two runner-up medals. Next best is David Feore, who has three wins and three runners-up, and the following list of players have three wins and two runners-up; Ade Lansdown, Brian Keeble, Keith Jones, Larry Baker and James Connor.
The Summer League played to Blackball rules. Each match is split into 2 halves, the first half consisting of 6 singles and the second half of 4 singles followed by a scotch doubles frame. Similar to AIPL, players can only play a maximum of two frames, one in each half, so can either play one singles frame in each half or a singles in the first half & the scotch doubles frame in the second half.
The teams will pick the players and fill the cards in the same manner as the AIPL, with the home team listing their players first, and the away team selecting afterwards. A lag will take place before first frame to determine who gets the first break, and will be alternate breaks thereafter. Teams score 2 points for a win, plus a point for every frame won as well. If teams are level at the end of the group stage, the league placings will be decided by points, then frame difference, then head to head record between the level teams.