Mark Selby beat Ronnie O’Sullivan in last year’s final
Mark Selby will be defending the title at the BetVictor Home Nations series event which runs from December 6 to 12 at Venue Cymru in Llandudno, North Wales.
The field is packed with the world’s leading stars including Judd Trump, Ronnie O’Sullivan, Neil Robertson, Kyren Wilson, Shaun Murphy, Mark Williams and Scotland’s top players John Higgins, Stephen Maguire and Anthony McGill.
WST had previously planned to stage the event at the Emirates Arena in Glasgow, where it was hosted from 2016 to 2019. However at short notice WST was informed that this was not possible due to a contractual issue.
A spokesman for WST said: “We were disappointed with this decision, particularly as it came one day prior to the box office opening. This left us unable to find another venue in Scotland to host the event – we exhausted all possibilities but none of the suitable alternatives had the relevant dates available.
“We realise this will come as a blow to Scottish fans and players to miss out on a tournament in their own country this season. We fully intend to return the event to Scotland for the 2022/23 season.
“Despite this setback, we are delighted to stage the event in Llandudno which has proved a fantastic location for a wide range of our events in the past and has always found great support amongst our fans in North Wales and beyond.”
The BetVictor Scottish Open will be televised on Eurosport, Quest and a range of other broadcasters and streaming partners worldwide. It counts towards the BetVictor Snooker Series rankings, with the leading money-winner across eight events to bank a £150,000 bonus.
Llandudno is a beautiful place: the whole area and nearby Anglesey. are a dream if you like hiking but… it’s very very cold! Brrrr …. I’m not sure that Ronnie will want to do the fell run up to the great Orme in December!
On a different topic, there were a lot of reactions to the Joe Perry’s interview that I shared yesterday, the vast majority supporting Joe’s views. One person who reacted on twitter and disagreed was … Barry Hearn. No surprise there of course.
Barry, once again, came up with the “golf model”, that he described as “brutal but rewarding”. The comparison doesn’t hold and here are the two main reasons why:
Golfers trying to make the cut, play for a performance, not to beat a specific opponent. Where their ball stands after a shot and before the next is not influenced by any opponent, it’s their doing and theirs only. Because of that they all face exactly the same challenge (OK, except if weather conditions change dramatically during the course of the event). This isn’t the case in snooker. In snooker, depending on the draw and on your opponent’s form, you may play an excellent match and still lose, as you may be mediocre and still win.
The money they earn if they make the cut is much, much bigger than what snooker players earn for winning a first round match. Snooker is only “rewarding” if you regularly get to the semi-finals or better.
One thought on “2021 Scottish Open Draw and Format + some reactions to yesterday’s post”
I Can confirm without a shadow of a doubt Llandudno in Winter is extremely Cold especially on the prom where Venue Cymru is.
They used to play the Mercantile Credit Classic at the Norbreck Castle Blackpool in Early january i went twice 1989 and 1990 you could hardly stand up going to the car the wind was so strong. same will be the case at Venue Cymru if the wind gets up.
Mark Selby beat Ronnie O’Sullivan in last year’s final
Ronnie O'Sullivan 
I Can confirm without a shadow of a doubt Llandudno in Winter is extremely Cold especially on the prom where Venue Cymru is.
They used to play the Mercantile Credit Classic at the Norbreck Castle Blackpool in Early january i went twice 1989 and 1990 you could hardly stand up going to the car the wind was so strong. same will be the case at Venue Cymru if the wind gets up.