This season, the PPL consists of 11 bar teams with six players representing each bar.
For their last season the RPL had 22 bar teams consisting of four players per bar.
The PPL positions itself as a friendly pool league with its players being on a level of good to average while the RPL could best be described as slightly more serious with some very talented players. However, some players like the game so much they play in both leagues.
The organisers of the PPL and RPL recently put their heads together and came up with the idea of creating a new event featuring players from both leagues and now the Patong-Rawai Challenge 2018 has been born.
The Patong-Rawai Challenge 2018 sees 12 players from each league play against each other and the first instalment of the challenge was played last Wednesday (July 18) when players from Rawai made their way to Genius Garden and Restaurant in Patong and played against two six-member teams from Patong and play according to PPL rules.
In return, 12 players from the PPL will on Wednesday (July 25) make their way to the Laguna Complex in Rawai, but this time around the challenge will see three teams of four players play against each other, this time following RPL rules.
For this special challenge, all players have been provided with special polo T-shirts made possible by all the event sponsors; Thailand Pool Tables, Genius 2 Garden and Restaurant, The Phuket News, White Hart Bar in Rawai and Coyote Media Vision.
In the game last Wednesday, 10 men and two ladies came from the RPL to battle the team from Patong which consisted of seven men and five ladies. There was a draw to select two teams from each side and also to see who had to play against who.
With everything being new, players were a bit nervous as nobody knew what to expect, but once the draws had been made all players went into full battle mode with each of them having to play a single, double and beerleg match.
Patong’s A team had very tough competition from their opponents which featured some of the island’s best pool players such as Goh, Nanni and Andrew. However, there was still some strong fighting spirit from Patong A but they suffered a 7-4 loss.
The Patong B team was made up of three ladies and three men and the ladies were certainly on a mission and played really well leaving the Rawai players quite surprised. Matters weren’t helped by the Patong ladies celebrating loudly in every game that went their way.
The final result for the B teams was a surprising 9-2 victory for Patong.
The second round of Patong-Rawai Challenge 2018 will be played Wednesday at Pita Bar, Masaya Bar and Galaxy Bar all located within the Laguna Complex.
Visitors are all welcome to attend the matches at one of the participating bars. You can also visit the Patong Friendly Pool League or Rawai Pool League Facebook pages.