Players vote to keep existingboard

The board of the World Professional Billiards and Snooker Association survived an attempted coup yesterday when it came through an EGM by the emphatic margin of 48-26 in the Shropshire town of Shifnal.

The meeting was attended by more than 20 players including Stephen Hendry, Ronnie O'Sullivan and Mark Williams. The players have been acrimoniously split between those who wanted the board to remain and continue its association with World Snooker Enterprises as its commercial managers and those who supported a rival bid from Altium to run its financial arm.

Hendry has been one of the board's most vociferous critics but after the vote he said that he and his fellow rebels Steve Davis and Terry Griffiths would accept the decision.

"I'm going to shut up from now on," Hendry said. "I've done enough criticising for a lot of players and that's the end of it as far as I'm concerned. I didn't expect the vote to go our way to be honest, I wasn't very optimistic. Now it's time for everyone to get behind the game and let World Snooker Enterprises get on with what they've been brought in to do."

WSE has offered no new investment in the sport while Altium, who eventually withdrew from the bidding process complaining of unfair treatment by the board, was guaranteeing nine ranking events for five years with an initial investment of £2.5m.

Jim McMahon, the Glasgow driving instructor who is the WPBSA's chairman in all but name, regarded the result as "a red-letter day for snooker. A new era of stability and continuity beckons and it's up to all of us to make sure it stays that way".

Because of the WPBSA's financial difficulties, WSE has been forced to cut prize money for this week's British Open from £666,800 to £450,000 and for next month's UK Championship from £746,900 to £615,000 in order to offer eight ranking events this season and faces having to replace the £2m in tobacco support which by law will not be available next season.

The rebels intended to reopen negotiations with Altium but supporters of the board, with Peter Ebdon, the world champion, especially vociferous, insisted that the Altium bid was nothing more than a front for Ian Doyle, the controversial 61-year-old Scot who manages Hendry and 20 other voting players, to "take over the game". This claim was strongly denied by John Davison, who headed up the Altium bid.

"Ian Doyle is not a shareholder, director or employee of Altium," Davison said. "I have continually stated that I would be happy to enter into whatever legally binding agreement that might be required that he would not become one."

McMahon, leading a board which also includes Joe Johnson, the 1986 world champion, Jim Chambers, a Walsall coach and landlord, Gordon McKay, an Edinburgh snooker club owner, Tony Knowles, a world No2 in the 80s, and Paul Wykes, the current world No69, said that its victory yesterday had been achieved despite "a concerted and unbalanced media campaign against the board and the WSE deal".

The Altium deal was unpalatable for some because it embraced acquiring the association's remaining television and sponsorship rights for £1, albeit with an assurance that their entire worth would be redistributed in prize money.

It was not only politically a good day for Ebdon. The world champion advanced to the last 16 of the British Open in Telford by surviving the loss of the first two frames to beat Tony Drago 5-3.