The Pro-Am Series Weekend

Welcome to the ‘Pro-Am Series’ tournament

12th to 15th June 2025

Important announcement: The cost of hosting our event at the Norbreck is increasing significantly, as the Britannia group are insisting we pay room hire charges for the arena, regardless of the guest numbers staying at the hotel. We are calling this the Norbreck tax, as it is completely out of our control. This is a decision from the head office of the Britannia group, and is standard policy for any event that now uses the Norcalympia room – the going rate for this room is currently £5,000 per day.

We could move to an alternative venue, but there will still be similar room hire charges, and finding a suitable venue is very difficult. Our event works well at the Norbreck; the arena has proven to be the perfect venue for us, having hosted so many memorable tournaments over the years. The beer is good value and we get use of a quality sound and lighting system. The hotel staff know our event well, making it easier for us to work together and set up the arena, with all the table lights and seating etc. So rather than move to an alternative venue or call time on the tournament, we are asking players to pay a bit extra to keep the event at the Norbreck. 

This extra cost is approx. £20 per player and will be added to the team entry fee, so that all teams contribute towards the new cost. We previously got the room for free, as brought enough guests to the hotel. But their room is now in high demand, and other event organisers are wanting to book it. To sweeten this deal we are increasing the festival prize fund by a significant amount.

Pro-Am team entry fee will be increasing from £125 to £225 for 2025, but the cash prize fund is also increasing by £5,620 to over £25,500 in cash prizes and trophies. All prizes in team stages have been increased, with a top prize of £4,000 to the Gold Trophy winners.  With 4 players in a team, the extra cost is £25 per player, if you have 5 players per team, then it is only £20 per player, and with 6 players in a team, the extra cost  is only £16.67 per player. 

We were originally planning to organise a 3rd weekend event, to meet the demand from teams wanting to enter, but with the new room hire rates, this is 3rd weekend option is no longer feasible. Instead, our next best solution is to get more teams entered into the existing weekends.

We are continuing to give players the option to book 4 nights and arrive on Wednesday 11th June – this extra night’s stay will cost just £42 for half board, or £30 for B&B, per person. Arena will be opening from 11am on the Wednesday, for practice and flyers.

To support the growth of Ladies pool, we will continue to allow ‘lady spectators’ to enter the Ladies or Mixed Doubles events, with a spectator’s wristband but they must be with a team and staying in the hotel. These are only £20. Entry fees for the events will still apply. This will allow ladies who don’t want to participate in the team event to come and join the Ladies side events at a more affordable rate. Ladies who attend the Novice series can also enter the Ladies Singles and Mixed Doubles at the Pro-Am weekend, using their Novice series player wristband. Offer is only applicable to the Ladies side events and does not include the team event.  

All money raised from spectator wristbands is donated to our nominated small charity or good cause. Details of this will be published in the event programme.