On Cue with PoolSoc

Is the ‘balls in holes’ sport too laddish? 

How would the St Andrews Pool Society describe their sport to an alien? “Grab a stick, look at the ball, shoot it in the pocket,” says Franni Elekes, PoolSoc President.

“Balls in holes,” Christopher O’Brien, PoolSoc Vice President, tells me. “That’s become our motto,” Elekes adds.

Pool is an understated staple of our university’s social scene. If you walk into any hall of residence at any ungodly hour, nine times out of ten you’ll see a group huddled around a pool table in a common room. At least four nights out of seven, PoolSoc has an event on at the Union, where even an alien could probably play a few frames without much of an issue — at least none raised by the committee. 

“Anyone who shows up on our doorstep, we just take in,” Elekes says. “We’re trying to bring in a breath of fresh air, both to societies and to sport. We’re on the edge of both, which is an attractive quality.”

PoolSoc formed two decades ago, when the sport itself was enshrined in very male pub culture. The current committee, though, has made it clear they’re fighting that laddish stereotype. I’m talking to them on a Monday evening, where they dedicate their session to practice for women and nonbinary people — even this early on in the night, things look lively. 

For Elekes, this space is important to safeguard against the misogynist culture that still exists in pool. “I’ve had quite a few comments from male players when I’ve been at tournaments; you’re always catching it from the corner of the room,” she says. There’s a “worrying gap” of social spaces for women in St Andrews, Elekes adds. “Not much else is on like this around town.”

There has been an array of changes that have taken place in PoolSoc over the last two years, from making the society constitution gender-neutral, to signing accessibility pledges and collaborating with the Disabled Students Network. Advocating for access is a job that’s never truly over, though. 

“If I could change one thing about our social scene, it would be to address accessibility — both in terms of enabling access to those with disabilities and in terms of promoting economic accessibility.” Ella Leeds, Social Secretary of PoolSoc, says, “Membership is £3, and we stick to that. The university could do better to be more inclusive in those regards, from my perspective.”

Sports society fees can be, in some cases, a literal hundred times more expensive for an academic year’s membership compared to PoolSoc. Before joining, Elekes had been considering other sports, but found herself at a loss when considering the price and commitment they demanded. PoolSoc is more casual: “With us, you can just rock up to the Union [...] and we’ll welcome you. ”

Leeds agrees. “You can choose to marry yourself to PoolSoc, but you can also be one of those people who shows up every few months, and we’re still gonna love you as much as someone who shows up every night.”

This year PoolSoc’s focus has been community. This weekly Monday session is in association with EmpowHER, but the committee are eager to make regular collaborations between social action societies a regular thing. “By creating spaces for collaboration, you increase the strength of the community,” O’Brien says. “We share a lot of the same ideas anyway, so why not? The whole point is empowerment; it’s better to do this as a unit rather than in isolation.”

“Something special is done when several groups come together,” Leeds says. 

But are these collabs necessarily anything radical? Leeds says it doesn’t need to be. “We want to see this across campus […] It’s been successful for us, and we want it to continue, through us and elsewhere.”

O’Brien can’t get behind the lack of variety in what societies here are offering — something PoolSoc is actively trying to avoid through their events. “Societies are often one-trick ponies. They have their own sphere, and you either belong to that, or you don’t. We try to include as much variety as we can […] with variety, you avoid being cliquey, like certain other sports societies tend to get. Inaction towards inclusivity is negative action within itself.”

PoolSoc aims to create spaces for everyone, but Elekes, Leeks, and O’Brien emphasise the benefits of carving community access for the average member. Elekes and O’Brien’s academic families were formed in PoolSoc, and Leeds found her roommates here. 

“We are a close-knit group, but not in a way that shies away from taking in more people. I walked in, and I was immediately taken in,” Leeds says. “I hung out with these people that I’d just met until, like, four in the morning, and I was just like, ‘Okay, cool, these are my people.’”

“The aim isn’t just to tick boxes; we want to create these lasting connections,” O’Brien says. “The aim is community, and it always will be.”

It seems that ‘balls in holes’ has become St Andrews’ great equaliser.

Illustration by Calum Mayor