Neil Robertson won the BetVictor English Open this season
The Brentwood Centre will host two major professional cue sports events in 2022: Matchroom’s World Cup of Pool and snooker’s English Open.
The Essex venue will host these events for the first time this year, drawing the biggest stars of 9-ball pool and snooker to Brentwood from around the globe.
Matchroom World Cup of Pool will bring 32 nations together as two-player teams compete for national pride, the title, and their share of a $250,000 prize fund from June 13 to 18. The tournament is a straight-knockout format leaving no room for error. Germany are the reigning champions with one of the world’s best in Joshua Filler spearheading their defence. The likes of World Number One Albin Ouschan of Austria, the USA’s finest Shane Van Boening and Great Britain’s two-time Mosconi Cup MVP Jayson Shaw will all look to lead their sides to the title over six action-packed days.
Matchroom President Barry Hearn OBE said: “The World Cup of Pool is one of Pool’s most unique tournaments and it promises to be a fantastic spectacle with such a diverse international field set to come to Brentwood. 9-ball is ever growing, and it promises to be an atmosphere and event not to be missed. We cannot wait to see the likes of Ouschan, and Shaw compete on our doorstep. We’re excited to deliver a world class event with Brentwood Borough Council this June live on Sky Sports in the UK and networks worldwide.”
Snooker’s English Open will run from December 12 to 18, featuring over 70 players, including the top 16 in the world rankings. Winners in recent years include Ronnie O’Sullivan, Judd Trump, Mark Selby, and current champion Neil Robertson.
The world ranking event, part of snooker’s Home Nations Series, will be televised by Eurosport and a wide range of other broadcasters around the globe.
World Snooker Tour Chairman Steve Dawson said: “We are delighted to bring a WST event to the Brentwood Centre for the first time. It is a fantastic venue and right in the centre of a traditional snooker heartland as so many great players have come from Essex over the years, including Ronnie O’Sullivan, Ali Carter, Stuart Bingham and many more. This is a fantastic opportunity for local fans to see the very best players in the world competing for a prestigious title. We look forward to working with Brentwood Borough Council on delivering a top-class event which will be enjoyed by our players and fans.”
Brentwood Council Leader, Councillor Chris Hossack, added: “It is fantastic news that Matchroom are committed to bringing quality sports with an international audience to The Brentwood Centre. We are excited to have Matchroom working with us and Everyone Active to continue to put Brentwood on the map with their world class sporting events.
“It has been years since snooker fans have had a chance to see their sport in Essex and to have the World Cup of Pool as well in Brentwood is just brilliant”.
The upcoming World Snooker Federation Championships will be one of the largest international snooker competitions staged in recent history with 319 individual players from 44 different countries set to compete for places on the World Snooker Tour.
To be held at the Ding Junhui Snooker Academy in Sheffield, England, from 15-26 February 2022, the event will include two major mixed gender tournaments, the WSF Junior Championship (15-18 February) and the WSF Open Championship (19-26 February*).
*This is a change to the previously announced dates due to the unprecedented number of entries received for the Open Championship, which will now start a day earlier on Saturday 19 February.
The winner of each competition will earn a two-year professional tour card from the 2022/23 season.
JUNIOR CHAMPIONSHIP
The event will begin with the second staging of the WSF Junior Championship, open to players aged 17 or under up to and including 31 December 2021.
With 68 players entered – up from 56 in 2020 – from 20 different countries, the competition welcomes many of the world’s brightest young talents including:
Liam Davies – Former Q Tour Event Semi-Finalist
Paul Deaville – 2021 WST English Open Last 16
Anton Kazakov – Former Ukrainian National Champion
Ben Mertens – Youngest player to win a match at the professional World Championship
Stan Moody – 2022 WST Shoot Out Last 64
Bulcsú Révész – Former Hungarian National Championship winner
The event was won previously by China’s Gao Yang.
OPEN CHAMPIONSHIP
Now set to start a day earlier on 19 February, the Open Championships have also seen an incredible number of entries with 280 players of 43 nationalities set to contest the title won previously by Luo Honghao and Ashley Hugill.
The entry is significantly higher than the numbers in both 2018 (89) and 2020 (152) and is a diverse field with representation from all over the world, as well as leading players from the World Women’s Snooker Tour and World Disability Billiards and Snooker circuit.
Following the close of entries yesterday (Monday 31 January), it is now anticipated that the draw and format will be released by no later than Thursday 10 February. All players will also be contacted with information as to practice facilities, including an online booking form for available sessions during the tournament.
The qualifying round will be staged from February 2 to 6 in Leicester, with all players needing to win one match to make it to Turkey. Notable ties include:
Former World Champion Shaun Murphy v legend Jimmy White Three-time Crucible king Mark Williams v Women’s World Champion Reanne Evans All-time great John Higgins v Barry Pinches UK and German Masters Champion Zhao Xintong v Louis Heathcote
Speaking personally, it’s very nice: Brentwood is 30 mins train journey from my house. If I am not working, I can commute each day. Wonderful!
But the report says there will be over 70 players, not 128. This means that the 2021-22 qualifier system is retained, with 1st round matches not involving an elite player to be banished to a closed-door anonymous qualifying venue, probably in Englnad rather than in each of the 4 nations. I had hoped this was a temporary measure. This smashes the ethos of the Home Nations, and continues the ranking-based apartheid that fractures the tour. Players lower down the rankings might not get to play at any main venues. Horrible. Assuming the qualifiers use the same structure, each event lasts a total of 13 days. This means that WST have abandoned the idea of holding events in China in 2022.
I also think that WST (or rather WSF) are wrong to hold an U18 competition, with a tour card. That’s too young – it should be U21. It means there will be a 17-year old (or younger) on tour, who most likely won’t be ready. If Gao Yang wasn’t able to travel to Germany because of his age, it raises questions whether they should be awarding tour cards for those so young so easily. In fact, it’s possible that some of the amateur qualifying tournaments might still not be running in 2022-23, so it’s possible they might also ultimately award tour cards for losing finalists again. This makes things even worse, and suffers from random draw problems.
I note that the record number of entries probably reflects the UK location, and that no players from China will be travelling. I can think of a few U18 players from China who would have been strong contenders.
Any reason they’re moving the English Open to December? That week for the last two seasons has been occupied by the World Grand Prix.
Not sure … maybe the venue availability?
Probably due to the soccer world cup being in December. The UK championship is being moved to early/mid November next season to avoid a clash. This means other events will move to accomodate.
Snooker’s English Open will run from December 12 to 18, featuring over 70 players, including the top 16 in the world rankings. Winners in recent years include Ronnie O’Sullivan, Judd Trump, Mark Selby, and current champion Neil Robertson.
Ronnie O'Sullivan 
It’s very bad news about the English Open….
Speaking personally, it’s very nice: Brentwood is 30 mins train journey from my house. If I am not working, I can commute each day. Wonderful!
But the report says there will be over 70 players, not 128. This means that the 2021-22 qualifier system is retained, with 1st round matches not involving an elite player to be banished to a closed-door anonymous qualifying venue, probably in Englnad rather than in each of the 4 nations. I had hoped this was a temporary measure. This smashes the ethos of the Home Nations, and continues the ranking-based apartheid that fractures the tour. Players lower down the rankings might not get to play at any main venues. Horrible. Assuming the qualifiers use the same structure, each event lasts a total of 13 days. This means that WST have abandoned the idea of holding events in China in 2022.
I also think that WST (or rather WSF) are wrong to hold an U18 competition, with a tour card. That’s too young – it should be U21. It means there will be a 17-year old (or younger) on tour, who most likely won’t be ready. If Gao Yang wasn’t able to travel to Germany because of his age, it raises questions whether they should be awarding tour cards for those so young so easily. In fact, it’s possible that some of the amateur qualifying tournaments might still not be running in 2022-23, so it’s possible they might also ultimately award tour cards for losing finalists again. This makes things even worse, and suffers from random draw problems.
I note that the record number of entries probably reflects the UK location, and that no players from China will be travelling. I can think of a few U18 players from China who would have been strong contenders.
Any reason they’re moving the English Open to December? That week for the last two seasons has been occupied by the World Grand Prix.
Not sure … maybe the venue availability?
Probably due to the soccer world cup being in December. The UK championship is being moved to early/mid November next season to avoid a clash. This means other events will move to accomodate.