Year: 2018

The 2018/19 Prize Money

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This has been published by Worldsnooker

The prize money breakdown for all 2018/19 season ranking events is now available:

Click here for the prize money

And for details of the re-ranking dates Click here

Biggest ranking event winner’s prizes in 2018/19:
Betfred World Championship: £500,000
China Open: £225,000
International Championship: £175,000
Betway UK Championship: £170,000
Ladbrokes Tour Championship: £150,000
Yushan World Open: £150,000
China Championship: £150,000
Ladbrokes Players Championship: £125,000
Ladbrokes World Grand Prix: £100,000 

 

As you can see the weight of the Chinese events is now very significant whilst the European events carry very little points. In fact all five together carry only 250 000 points (and pounds). The International Championship alone is £175000 and the China Open alone is £225000, and of course the World Championship is £500000. This is very bad for the future of snooker in mainland Europe. Indeed the European events are unlikely to attract the big names, therefore they will not attract big sponsors and the whole situation can only spiral down. I wouldn’t be surprised if the Paul Hunter Classic (only £20000 !) and the Gibraltar Open were disappearing next season and those are the only two events that still involve amateurs. Somehow, making the Paul Hunter Classic a ranking event is killing it. It was such a great “festival of snooker” when it was a pro-am. This is a real shame and a poor tribute to Paul Hunter.

 

From Snooker Legends to World Seniors Snooker Tour

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Jason Francis, creator of Snooker Legends, chairman of the World Seniors Snooker Tour and the man who has been at Ronnie’s side for about five years, tells us about his snooker and business journey since the creation of Snooker Legends in 2010 until today and the building of a viable, well organised and international Seniors Tour.

This is the “second edition” of Jason’s story, but even if you did read the first one, you will find plenty more interesting  stuff in this one.

Jason here is the narrator of his own story, and the whole book takes us through his dreams, his endeavours, his experiences – good and lesss good – and his emotions, from the day he thought about creating snookers shows featuring Legends of the game, and Alex Higgins in particular, to the idea of a proper Seniors Tour giving a future in the sport to those who have given so much to it, still love it with a passion, but aren’t quite good or strong enough anymore for the very competitive main Tour and its hectic schedule.

Along the way, Jason tells us about the players he’s been working with. Jason is a positive person and, clearly, he focuses on the good in people rather than their weaknesses. He’s telling us about the real persons, not the stereotyped images crafted by the media in order to create stories featuring villains and good guys. There are many players you will look at differently next time you see them on TV!

Jason also tells us about his sometimes difficult relationship with World Snooker and Barry Hearn. But then again his focus is on “making things work” rather than “starting a war” although, at a time, that scenario was a real possibility. There were issues, hurdles, misconceptions and, at times distrust and envy. But there were also people really wanting to overcome those and build something for the better of the sport they love.  Ultimately, now they are working together: the WPBSA Seniors Tour is reality.

Jason has been at Ronnie’s side from mid 2012 until end 2017. He tells us about their relationship, building trust and friendship, the highs and lows, the successes and the crises, the laughter and the tears and, finally, where they stand today. By the way, Ronnie wrote the foreword of this book.

I really enjoyed the book. Just one regret: the editorial work could have been better, there are a few glitches here and there and it’s a pity.

The book is available on Amazon

And here is David Hendon, assistant editor at Snooker Scene and Eurosport commentator chatting with Jason about his book:

Farewell Marius …

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Yesterday we got the sad news that Marius Ancuta has left us … he was only fifty I think, far too soon. Marius was the voice of snooker in Romania. He was to Romania what Rolf Kalb is to Germany. Marius loved snooker with a passion and had been commentating on Eurosport since the early 2000s. He also commentated on numerous exhibitions, featuring top players like Ronnie, Jimmy White, Mark Williams, Stuart Bingham… too many for me to remember.He introduced thousand of new fans to the sport. He was enthusiast, sensible and very knowledgeable.

More importantly yet, he was a good warmhearted person, a lovely bloke without one ounce of vanity. Thank you for everything Marius, I feel privileged to have known you. Rest in peace … and, in moments like these, the non-believer I am wants to dream that maybe, only maybe, there is some place, somewhere, where you are now sitting, whispering commentary next to a table, with Paul Hunter and Joe Davis doing battle.

Farewell Marius … 

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Marius (right) in Bucharest with Alex Crisan, Ronnie and Mark Williams

Exhibitions and Charity reminder …

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Jimmy and Dennis Lincoln Jan 2019

I know that Christmas is still very far away, but be sure to put this one in your agenda. Remember surplus proceed to World Disability Billiard and Snooker. You can have fun and help others in need, isn’t that great?

Just a little reminder of what happened the last times similar events were run in Lincoln!

Ronnie had a “sandwich” …

And there was a great Q&A session too

Images taken at the events last February can be found here and here.

This time it will be Jimmy White and Dennis. Come along!

World Open 2018 Qualifiers Round-up

Monique Professional snooker tournament

There were a number of upsets in those qualifiers! Anthony McGill, Shaun Murphy, Graeme Dott, Michael White, Stuart Bingham and Mark King being amongst those who were probably expected to win, but didn’t. Stuart however probably didn’t have his full focus on his snooker: his young son Shae was in hospital and understandably he was Stuart’s priority.

Shaun didn’t play terrible, but Mei on his day is very solid and reliable and that was enough in this match. Graeme Dott made too many mistakes against Zhao Xintong, who looked focussed and determined to make the most of his return on the main tour.

Alan McManus also lost and that’s a concern as he needs results to stay in the top 64. Ali Carter, who also needs results to stay in the top 16 won easily.

A couple of top players had a scare. Stephen Maguire needed a decider to shrug off Adam Stefanow. This is Adam second narrow defeat in qualifiers and, to me, he’s been very unlucky with his draws, having to play against two vastly experienced players, one of them notoriously very hard to beat and the other top 16 material. Mark Selby was awful before the MSI – he trailed 3-1 at that point – and far from his best afterwards: he can count himself very lucky to have played against an amateur. Luke Simmonds – who was 1998 IBSF World Champion and Under-21 Champion, but never did anything of note as a pro afterwards – can play but as soon as Selby started to come back at him after the MSI he looked a beaten man; had he got a bit more belief he could have won this match, he had enough opportunities.

Looking at the young ones there were wins for Jack Lisowski, Elliott Sellor, Sunny Akani, Zhou Yuelong, Luca Brecel, new pro Harvey Chandler (he beat Michael White), Alexander Ursenbacher, new pro Simon Lichtenberg (he beat Ken Doherty), Yuan Sijun, Lyu Haotian, Stuart Carrington, Scott Donaldson and Zhao Xintong as already mentioned.

Looking at the veterans, there were wins for Peter Ebdon, Fergal O’Brien,Rod Lawler, Anthony Hamilton. The last two mentioned are clearly determined to try to stay on tour against all odds! Jimmy White and Joe Swail lost heavily.

One last thing: Marco Fu did win his match very comfortably but for what I saw, wasn’t playing particularly well: he scored heavily in the balls but the opportunities came from his opponent mistakes – basic ones – rather than from Marco’s safety/tactical game. His opponent, Chris Totten was utterly shocking, unable to string 3 balls together: he scored 35 points all match.

All detailed results are on Cuetracker and on snooker.org. The latter also has links to the youtube videos of the streamed matches.