Riga Masters 2019 and International Championship 2019 – Draw and Qualifiers Format

June 5, 2019 Monique Professional snooker tournament Professional snooker

The Q-School is barely over and already Worldsnooker has published the draw and format for the two first ranking events of the new season: the Riga Masters and the International Championship.

The draws for the qualifying rounds of the Kaspersky Riga Masters and the International Championship have been made.

These are the first two ranking events of the 2019-20 season, with the qualifiers to be played at Ponds Forge in Sheffield from June 10 to 17.

Please note that players who have qualified from Q School will have the opportunity to enter these events and the updated draws will be issued once places are filled.

Click here for the Riga Masters draw

Click here for the International Championship draw

Click here for the playing schedule

Tickets for the 2019 Kaspersky Riga Masters are now on sale. CLICK HERE FOR DETAILS

The tournament will run from July 26-28 at the Arena Riga in Latvia.

Unsurprisingly, Ronnie has entered neither of them.

The Riga Masters unfortunately isn’t a “rich” tournament and there are always a number of top players who skip it. Ronnie, John Higgins, Mark Allen and John Higgins are giving it a miss and that will surprise nobody. But Judd Trump also is missing from the draw. He’s the World Champion for the first time and, maybe, one could have expected him to be there at the opening event of the new season.

The International Championship of course has a big prize money and everyone is there … except Ronnie.

Q-School 2019 – the results

June 5, 2019June 5, 2019 Monique Professional snooker tournament Professional snooker

Yesterday saw the conclusion of the Q-school 2019.

Congratulations to the four Event 3 graduates:

Andy Hickx, Barry Pinches, Alex Borg and Alexander Ursenbacher.

All of them have been professional before and three out of four are over forty. They earned their place, so it’s big well done to them, but it’s not the kind of outcome I like to see with the future of the game in mind.

Congratulations to the four who graduated through the Order of Merit:

Si Jiahui, Lei Peifan, Peter Lines and Billy Joe Castle

Two new names – Si Jiahui and Lei Peifan, both teenagers – and two returning pros, Peter LInes and Billy Joe Castle.

Lei Peifan 16, is the youngest player of on the tour, Jimmy White, 57, is the oldest.

Here is the final Q-School 2019 Order of Merit

Players on the Main Tour 2019:2020 – snooker.org

There are (only) 10 teenagers on the tour, 8 of them from China. Jackson Page (Wales) and Riley Parsons (England) are the only “exceptions”.

There are 35 players over 40 on the tour, 3 of them over 50. One of those players, David Lilley is a pro for the first time. Marco Fu (Hong Kong) and James Wattana (Thailand) are the only Asian players in this bracket.

There are 23 players from China on the Main Tour. There are only 18 players on the tour who are 22 or less, 13 of them are from China. The oldest chinese players are 36 – Mei Xiwen and Chen Feilong – and only four others are in their 30th – Liang Wenbo (32), Ding Junhui (32), Tian Pengfei (31) and Xiao Guodong (30).

There is no woman on the tour, despite it to be open to both genders. On Yee Ng is the one who got the best results in the Q-School and she isn’t even in the top 56 that would guarantee her the right to play on the Challenge tour.

The youngest player in the Q-School 2019 was Iulian Boiko (13!) from Ukraine. He did well enough to secure his spot on the Challenge Tour. Wether he will be able to play in it, remains to be seen … obviously he’s still a schoolboy. He also became the youngest player to score a competitive century in a professional event.

Answering Eddie Jones…

June 3, 2019 Monique Snooker

Yesterday, in answer to my latest post, Eddie Jones commented

This is an unpopular opinion but im going to say it anyway. Woman’s Snooker tour is a great breeding ground for Women players but there has to come a time a good woman player moves to the next level and that means play in tournaments which contains the best Amateurs to hone their Skill. Both Ng And Reanne Evans are great players but flicking between Womans Tour and playing better players can’t work you got to commit and then the results will come.

and he is RIGHT of course but it’s not quite that simple when looking at the women in snooker in general.

Nearly ten years ago I wrote this article

10 years! Since then Hannah Jones has left snooker … and things haven’t really changed by the looks of it, at least at grass root level, which is where any player starts at.

Just read those more recent articles …

This one is by clusterofreds, and written last year

This one is from “inside the games” and reports on what Rebecca Kenna had to say during a television show only this year.

The governing bodies are not supporting discrimination and made it clear.

Nevertheless, the actual situation remains that girls have to overcome a lot of more hurdles than boys to be accepted and respected at grassroot level, which is where it all starts. That doesn’t help. Succeeding in every sport is also a number game, and if girls are outnumbered at grass root – because they feel unwelcome at best – we shouldn’t be surprised to see very few of them succeeding at the highest level, or staying away from the Main Tour.

And then there are other, trivial but unavoidable, considerations about sponsoring and funding. The poor “image” of women in snooker is not helping them to find sponsors.

On Yee has repeatedly stated that her ambition is to compete with the men. She came very close to beat Alan McManus in Sheffield last April, she didn’t do badly in the Q-school this time either. She’s slowly getting there. But she can’t afford to lose the funding she gets from her national body in Hong Kong, and what justifies that funding are the successes she gets on the Women’s Tour, because that’s what makes Hong Kong sporting authorities proud and gives them results to show off on the sporting scene. So she can’t ditch that to focus on the main tour just yet.

Two young Thai women, Mink (Nutcharut Wongharuthai – 19) and Ploy (Ploychompoo Laokiatphong -16) weren’t seen at the Q-School, despite Mink’s statement that her ambition is to compete on the main tour, and her making a 147 earlier this year. I can only suppose that they couldn’t afford the cost of it. BTW, there was no male Thai player at the Q-school this time either, so I can only suppose that they got no support from their federation.

And here is a question for Lewis … are women competing on the CBSA “professional” circuit alongside with men? If not, why?

2019/20 Season – Main Tour players

June 2, 2019 Monique Professional snooker tournament Professional snooker

Just a short update about who will be on the Main Tour next season.

According to a reliable source on twitter

The CBSA has yesterday confirmed that Chang Bingyu and Bai Langning have qualified to play on the World Snooker Tour for the 2019/2020 and 2020/2021 seasons.

This comes as no surprise to anyone who follows snooker in China.

The last Q-School event is now into the early phase of round 3.

There will be no woman on the main tour. Ng On Yee has been the only one record at least one win in the Q-school. On Yee has won four matches, and is currently ranked 75 in the Q-School order of merit.

The two youngest players in the competition, both from mainland Europe, are also out, but they certainly gained invaluable experience. Iulian Boiko, 13 years old from Ukraine, won four matches, and lost in a deciding frame in round 3 of both Event 1 and Event 2. He also became the youngest player to make a century in professional competition; he is currently ranked n°56 in the Order of Merit. Ben Mertens, 14 years old from Belgium, reached the second round in each of the Q-School events and also made a century; he’s currently ranked n°80.

Si Jiahui from China, only 16, is currently on top of the Order of Merit. As it stands it would ask for something impossible for him not to get a tour card via the Order of Merit: Peifan Lei, Lukas Kleckers, Billy Joe Castle and Ross Bulman would all need to reach the QF in Event Three and to lose at that stage for Si to miss out. Kleckers and Castle being bound to meet in the QF, should both of them get to the last round, Si Jiahui is already certain to get a tout card.