Morray Dolan
Strachan, Britain's leading pool cloth manufacturer, is backing the new International Professional Pool Players Association (IPA) eight-ball tour in 2012.
The company has joined Hilton Worldwide and Heywood supreme pool tables as backers of a new committee now heading up the organisation, which has attracted over £120,000 in prize money.
The committee is keen to develop the amateur and professional game in 2012 and hopes to see eight-ball pool return to the TV screens followed next year by the launch of a televised premier league.
The 2012 IPA tour has been conceived by world top ten pool professional Morray Dolan, pictured, and a committee keen to provide the game with a professionally-managed circuit that also appeals to the European market.
The new season starts in March with the British Open and the amateur championships in Blackpool. It will end in Newport in October with the Welsh Open and the Welsh amateur championships.
Dolan has paid close attention to regional alliances with the South of England hosting its first event, in Bracknell, for six years. The Midlands stages the tour's flagship event at the NEC in April and the tour travels north in June with an event in Bradford.
Strachan marketing manager Stuart Gardiner, pictured, is pleased the new tour has gelled so quickly. "All credit must go to Morray and the committee for pulling together the eight-ball game.
"I can see the players getting behind the tour because it has been constructed with their interests and those of spectators at its heart. It can only be good for the game and lead to more European players climbing the world rankings," added Gardiner.
