Within hours of England’s Michael Hill lifting the Dumbuck Vegas Challenge trophy, event organiser Steven Allison had been inundated with requests from as far afield as France, Malta and the United States for a repeat tournament in 2015.

Now, along with Tommy McMillan, the owner of the Glasgow Road hotel, Steven is looking at doubling the size of the event to cater for 32 competitors with a prize pot of £32,000 next autumn.

Steven said,”The tournament was a huge success, we had 16 of the UK’s best players — including World and European champions — together for three days for some fantastic pool.

“Within four hours of the final, I’d been inundated with players from all over the world asking to be part of the next tournament “This is a really exciting opportunity for world class pool here in Scotland and, I believe, an ideal event for us to try and secure TV coverage for.” Tommy McMillan, who only took over ownership of The Dumbuck earlier this year, believes such a major sporting event will reap rewards for the local economy.

“If we can pull this together, it will be a major boost for the town. Pool has grown to become a hugely popular spectator sport for families and many players bring with them their own legion of fans.

“With our event running over three days, I’m in no doubt the local tourism economy will feel the benefit of us bringing this event to West Dunbartonshire.”