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The Curacao Billiards Federation was officially founded on December 17th 1955.
At its infancy the federation consisted of Surinamese, European Dutch and very few local Curacaoan
member-players. It was a body that represented solely carom billiards.
At that time pocket billiards (a.k.a. pool) was disregarded as a legitimate sport, and was rather looked
upon as some kind of pass-time, entertainment and gambling activity.
Pool, then, did not have well-known and generally accepted and respected playing rules as did carom
to a modest degree.
Only two carom games: Straight rail (libre) and 3-cushion were in fashion for tournaments.
At the time the pool games popular were: rotation (61), black-ball and ten-ball.
Some curious carom players did attempt to play and enjoy pool, however, risking of being labeled as
outcasts, because pool was then also regarded as inferior to carom and not to be promoted by
carom players. The carom fanatics and promoters really hated pool.
In short, carom was considered as billiards for the gentleman whereas pool as a game for pool- bar
roamers and gamblers.
Cash money involved at and/or during play was shunned by the carom-players group.
Notwithstanding, carom players did adopt a way of playing involving money, that they did not consider
gambling: when a player challenges another player with about equal or equal playing abilities, the
loser of that particular competition pays table charges and consumption at table during that
non-tournament match.
About two years before the founders of Curacao Billiards Federation received approval of its by-laws,
officializing the existence of the federation, a young 18yrs old Eddy Schotborgh received an invitation
to help the representatives of that body with proper rules interpretation, refereeing and technical
details on legal shot execution, particularly when double hits and push shots were involved during rail
and chuck nurse play (se'rie ame'ricaine) and pique' shots.
Mr Schotborgh, not pertaining to any group of players, was at that time a feared ad prominent player of
both carom and pool as well as a knowledgeable and expert table mechanic for both the carom and
the pool table.
Making use of the opportunity offered, Mr. Schotborgh also explained the carom group of players and
their future federation board members that carom definitely was not the only officially recognized
billiard discipline and sport as was thought and ruled by by-law at the time.
And that the billiard sports consisted of three autonomous disciplines , which are: carom ,pool &
snooker; and that their autonomy specifically concerns sport and financial matters.
This means that an entity or organization which according to its by-laws represented only carom, may
not organize pool neither snooker tournaments to be regarded as official events.
If an entity or organization represents more than one or all three billiard sports, its by-laws must
specifically define which the billiard sports are and also must include the autonomy clause, so that
each of the disciplines is properly represented and promoted, without preferences or discrimination.
Due to the above reluctance of the carom stake-holders to cope with the co-dependency of the
billiards sports Mr. Schotborgh chose to single-handedly promote pool as a serious sport, focusing
on rules and the precision of table bed and cushions playability aiming to reach a high degree of
table uniformity, thus consequently, leave the group of carom players and their board members to
promote carom on their own. Mr. Schotborgh started an organization called Dutch Caribbean Billiard
Association (DCBA) in order to facilitate participation of players from the Netherlands Antilles and
Aruba for qualifying purpose. Mr. Schotborgh established international contacts involving all three
billiard sports to promote pool and ascertain that he was proceeding correctly with his efforts.
Mr. Schotborgh helped with the official revision of many pool rules by eliminating ambiguities and
rephrasing, when required to promote plain talk.
At a later date, Mr. Schotborgh on request of the WPA (World Pool Billiard Association) designed a
pool table to compete with a then coming BCA (Billiard Congress of America) design.
During a board meeting in Borlange, Sweden, Mr. Schotborgh's design was voted (10-4) in his favor
as to become the official WPA pool table for World Tour & World Championship pool events to be
sanctioned by the WPA.
Billiards could never have been recognized by the I.O.C (International Olympic Committee) if it was
not presented as a legitimate collectivity of the three most played disciplines, involving the three
sports under one single confederation: World Confederation of Billiards Sports (WCBS).
Continental federations affiliated to the world governing bodies, which are the members of the WCBS,
namely: WPA (Pool), WSF (Snooker) and UMB (Carom); however, representing more than one billiard
sport and consequently affiliated to more than one world governing body, must include the
AUTONOMY CLAUSE in by-laws, in order to safeguard their separate and particular independency.
The autonomy clause is contained in the by-laws of WCBS and may be copied literally.
This entire introduction and history was told and written by Mr. Eddy Schotborgh.
On behalf of the entire board and members of the Curacao Billiards Federation we want to
express our gratitude to Mr. Eddy Schotborgh for this really impressive lecture.