Sixteen players, one table, a straight knockout: four to six hours of pool from the first break to the last black. Every frame of the WA Shootout at the Weston Arms is timed as it's played, so here is every series.
Every series, timed
Every round was best of 3, and the final best of 5. Series I had twelve players, Series II fourteen and Series III fifteen, so their draws had byes; Series IV was full at sixteen.
| Series | Players | Matches | Frames | First shot to last | A frame | Between matches |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Series I · 9 May | 12 | 11 | 29 | 3.5 hours | 5.9 min | 2.3 min |
| Series II · 20 June | 14 | 13 | 37 | 4.5 hours | 6.7 min | 1.6 min |
| Series III · 1 August | 15 | 14 | 33 | 4.0 hours | 6.4 min | 2.2 min |
| Series IV · 13 September | 16 | 15 | 41 | 5.9 hours | 7.9 min | 2.0 min |
Swipe for every column →
Best of 3 or best of 5?
Best of 3, until the final. Across every best-of-3 match we've played, a 2-0 is quick and a 2-1 isn't:
13 min
a 2-0, on average
24 matches
21 min
a 2-1, on average
25 matches
That's about eight minutes for every match that goes the distance, and you can't plan for which ones will. Best of 5 in every round would add frames to every match. Save it for the one everybody stays to watch.
Why one series took two hours longer
Series III had fifteen players and Series IV sixteen, one more. In Series III's first round, one match went 2-1. In Series IV's, six of eight did.
| Series | Round | Minutes | Matches | Went the distance |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Series I | Last 12 | 99 | 6 | 2 |
| Series I | Last 6 | 47 | 3 | 2 |
| Series I | Semi-finals | 9 | 1 | 0 |
| Series I | Final | 17 | 1 | 1 |
| Series II | Last 14 | 149 | 7 | 7 |
| Series II | Last 7 | 39 | 3 | 0 |
| Series II | Semi-finals | 27 | 2 | 1 |
| Series II | Final | 32 | 1 | 1 |
| Series III | Last 15 | 94 | 7 | 1 |
| Series III | Quarter-finals | 74 | 4 | 2 |
| Series III | Semi-finals | 29 | 2 | 1 |
| Series III | Final | 14 | 1 | 0 |
| Series IV | Round of 16 | 178 | 8 | 6 |
| Series IV | Quarter-finals | 82 | 4 | 3 |
| Series IV | Semi-finals | 24 | 2 | 0 |
| Series IV | Final | 38 | 1 | 0 |
That first round took 94 minutes in Series III and 178 in Series IV. Most of the two hours is right there.
Deciders aren't the whole story. Series II's first round went 2-1 seven times out of seven: 21 frames in 149 minutes, a minute a frame quicker than Series IV's 22 frames in 178.
Leagology does the sums for you
You don't need a spreadsheet for any of this. When you set up a series on Leagology, it tells you how long the day will run, and once you've run one of the same size, the estimate comes from your own series.
On the day, the draw is made from who actually checked in, every match is marked as it's played, and the screen on the wall shows who's on and who's next. The numbers in this post are what that leaves behind.
What that means for your day
Sixteen on one table is an afternoon. Our first breaks have been between 12:34 and 14:05, and the last black has gone down between 17:34 and 18:33.
Best of 3 until the final keeps it moving. The final is the one match everybody stays for.
Allow half an hour on top. About half an hour of each day went between matches, and that's before the draw and the photos.
Questions landlords ask
How many players can one table take in a day?
Sixteen fits. Our fifteen-player series took four hours from the first break to the last black, and our sixteen-player one just under six, every round best of 3 and the final best of 5.
Best of 3 or best of 5?
Best of 3 until the final. A 2-0 took about 13 minutes and a 2-1 about 21, so best of 5 in every round adds frames to every match.
What if somebody doesn't turn up?
Players check in at the door, and the draw is made from who is actually in the room. Somebody on the waitlist gets the place.
How we measured this
Every series of the WA Shootout at the Weston Arms, Rochester, from May 2026, all on one table. Every shot is logged by the person marking the match as it happens. A bye, where one player goes through with nobody to play, isn't counted as a match.
"First break to last black" runs from the first shot of the day to the last, so it includes the time between matches. A match's minutes run from its first shot to its last. "A frame" is a series' match minutes divided by its frames. The 2-0 and 2-1 figures are the averages of every best-of-3 match that finished that way.
