If you follow snooker stuff on social media, you may have noticed a lot of post about “The 900” recently et you may wonder what this is all about … here are some answers!
The “900” will be a televised event for amateur snooker players, the first in many years. It’s an initiative by Snooker Legends.
The event will feature 25 nights of televised snooker, available on SKY Channel 537.
It will start on Monday, September 19, 2022, will be broadcast from Monday to Wednesday, and will run until Wednesday, November 9, 2022. That’s eight weeks and each week will produce a winner. Those 8 winner will contest a Grand Final on November 16, 2022. All events will be staged at Jason Francis’ Crucible Club in Reading.
The broadcast time is unusual: 10 pm until 1 am UK time.
The 900 is a new concept, but shares many elements with the Shoot Out.
A frame is 15 minutes long, that’s 900 seconds, hence the name. A 20 seconds shot-clock will be in operation, with no time-outs. A ball must touch a cushion on any shot, unless it’s a pot. Any foul gives the opponent ball in hand, and that includes “time out fouls”.
About the format…
Each Monday, 8 players will contest a knock-out mini tournament. The winner will get £500, the runner-up will get £250. The finalists and both losing semi-finalists will progress to the Wednesday “Final”.
Each Tueasday, the Monday’s losing quater-finalists are joined by 4 new players. They will compete in a mini tournament with a similar format to the Monday’s one.
Each Wednesday, the 8 players who emerged from the Monday and Tuesday, will compete in a weekly Final. The winner will take £1500 and will progress to the Grand Final. The runner-up will get £500 and the losing semi-finalists will take £150 each.
The Grand Final on November 16, 2022, will be contested by the 8 weekly winners. The winner of this Grand Final will get £5000. The runner-up will get £1500 and the losing semi-finalists will get £500.
The players
This event is an invitational event, meaning that players are invited by Snooker Legends. It is for amateur players ONLY. No holder of a 2022/23 professional tour card is eligible. Also, players serving a WPBSA or a National Gouverning Body ban are not eligible.
Those who follow Snooker Legends on social media will have seen that quite a few players have already been invited and confirmed. They come is all forms and shapes: from juniors to seniors, able-bodied and disabled…
Good luck to all involved!
Ronnie O'Sullivan 
I will watch this , I was wondering what the 900 is about it’s a 15 minute frame of snooker.
I’m a massive snooker fan and love the shoot out 2 so will definitally watch this
It’s wonderful they televise amateurs, but I will never warm up to these shootout “snooker” rules. 😦 I don’t mind the shotclock, although the idea that it is only a 15-minute long frame might encourage players to run down the clock (I’m convinced there is nothing “fast and furious” in it, but good for the very defensive players), and the a “ball must touch a cushion on any shot, unless it’s a pot. Any foul gives the opponent ball in hand, and that includes “time out fouls”” makes me scream and fear that there is a desire to change the game into this.
I don’t think there is any danger or intention of “changing” the game here. I believe that those rules were set into place for reasons. The first and main one being that Jason only has a fixed time slot on this streaming/television channel. Hence he has to strictly constraint the matches duration to fit in the time slot. The shot-clock, to an extend prevents “running the clock”. No way someone can take several minutes pondering over a shot… after 20 seconds their opponent would have ball in hand. When asked why he had a shot-clock in seniors events, Jason answered that it was to prevent them getting “bogged down”.
The short clock is the least of my problems though, although I guess one can make some points and then make safeties and run down the clock, though the need to hit the cushion might hinder it. This is what bothers me, the need to hit the cushion and the ball in hand.
I can only suppose that this format is there to suit the broadcaster. Obviously they want as many people watching as possible. Running such a channel is not cheep and, most certainly, their sponsoring depends on the audience. I’m not sure that the audience for this will be mainly “hard” snooker fans. Actually, I expect it to involve a significant % of gamblers. With that in mind, they will not want to have one player running the white behind a color and then spending half of the match in attempted escapes and longish replacing of the balls. Remember, those matches are only 15 minutes long and the players are amateurs.