Yesterday was the first day of this season British Open. Mark Williams is the defending champion. The format is slightly longer than last year, which is good.

The qualifiers’ venue doesn’t look particularly welcoming I have to say: it looks very dark, a bit run down… and empty.

There are only two matches scheduled in each time slot and both are shown on Eurosport player … although, paradoxally, yesterday morning they weren’t available for the UK fans due to contractual issues. An agreement was found rapidly though.

Here is the “Day 1” report by WST:

Hendry Knocked Out Of British

Stephen Hendry was left waiting for his first win of the 2022/23 season as he lost 4-1 to Zhang Anda in the qualifying round for the Cazoo British Open.

All results

China’s Zhang goes through to the final stages in Milton Keynes next month, running from September 26 to October 2.

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Hendry beat Zhang 10-9 in the first round of the World Championship in their only previous meeting back in 2010, but this time the legendary Scot finished second best.

Breaks of 49 and 59 helped give Zhang a 2-0 lead. Hendry pulled one back with runs of 54 and 43 in frame three, but he didn’t score another point as Zhang rolled in breaks of 78 and 75 to book his place in the random draw for the last 64.

It was a good day for Chinese players as Chen Zifan scored a 4-2 success over Women’s World Champion Mink Nutcharut, while Zhao Jianbo top scored with 105 in a 4-3 defeat of Jackson Page. Xu Si saw off Himanshu Jain 4-2 while Li Hang compiled runs of 130 and 107 in a 4-0 win over Liam Highfield.

Steven Hallworth top scored with 130 as he beat Julian LeClercq 4-2. Ben Mertens won 4-1 in a battle between two tour rookies against Ryan Thomerson, while Robbie Williams took a 68-minute decider on the final black to beat Ashley Hugill 4-3.

It was a “typical” nowadays Hendry performance. He went on the attack, potted some great balls but also surprisingly missed some relatively easy ones … leaving the lot every single time. He seems to stay determined to play the game the way he used to do … but he isn’t quite the player he was and the opposition, down the rankings, is much, much stronger than it was some 30 years ago. I can’t see him going anywhere this way.

Watching Mink was painful. She was poor in all departments but one: she kept trying her hardest despite being comprehensively outplayed. She did improve as the match went on, but it was too little, too late.

The Steven Hallworth v Julien Leclercq match was a good match overall. Between them they had three centuries in the first three frames. The fourth frame was pivotal: it was scrappy, the balls ran awkward, the black was tied up for most of its duration. Julien should probably have won it to go 3-1 up, but he missed the last red and knocked the pink in as well in the process. Steven, who is now an amateur but is much more experienced than Julien, took full advantage. Losing that frame, and the way he lost it, knocked the stuffing out of Julien a bit. He wasn’t quite the same player after that. He has to learn to deal with such disappointments, it’s part of the sport. I’m sure he will.

Ben Mertens had a much easier passage as he ran the show against Ryan Thomerson, although it was Ryan who scored the highest break of the match, a 89, in frame 2. But it was pretty much all he did… Ben dominated the other four frames, playing a fast, entertaining and very attacking snooker. Ryan looked slightly punch-drunk towards the end…

Here is the announcement by WST, including information about the format:

BetVictor World Mixed Doubles Teams Drawn

The draw for the inaugural BetVictor World Mixed Doubles has been made, with seven-time World Champion Ronnie O’Sullivan teaming up alongside 12-time Women’s World Champion Reanne Evans.

The pioneering event is pairing each of the world’s top four men with one of the top four women. As one of the few major sports where men and women can compete alongside each other on an equal footing, snooker will showcase its diversity in this showpiece tournament in September.

The Draw:

Current and seven-time World Champion Ronnie O’Sullivan and 12-time Women’s World Champion Reanne Evans
2010 World Champion Neil Robertson and Current Women’s World Champion Mink Nutcharut
2019 World Champion Judd Trump and three-time Women’s World Champion Ng On Yee
Four-time World Champion Mark Selby and Women’s world number four Rebecca Kenna

Televised live by ITV, the invitation event will take place over the weekend of Saturday September 24 and Sunday September 25 at the Marshall Arena at MK Stadium in Milton Keynes.

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The four pairs will compete over two days in a round-robin format, followed by the final with the winning team to be crowned inaugural champion.

Each round-robin match will be four frames, with all frames to be completed. Teams will score one point for each frame. At the end of the group phase, the top two teams will go through to the final, which will be best of seven frames. The two players in a team will make alternate visits to the table (rather than alternate shots).

Session times are 1pm and 7pm on both days. Each of the first three sessions will feature two group matches, so all eight players will be in action. The final will then take place on Sunday September 25 from 7pm.

Once again, I hope that there will be other options than ITV for us fans outside the UK.

Alternate visits, rather alternate shots, will probably provide more “fluent” action and faster matches. I just hope that it will not become a “90% men/10% women” show.

WST has published some information about the 2022 Hong Kong Masters:

Hong Kong Masters Invitation Criteria

The Hong Kong Masters returns to the World Snooker Tour in October and the world’s finest players will be in attendance.

Hong Kong snooker icons Marco Fu and Ng On Yee are already confirmed in the eight player field and the criteria for the other six places will be based upon ranking positions.

The remaining spots are to be offered to players in order of the official world rankings, as they stood at the conclusion of the 2022 World Championship. The identity of the current top six players remains unchanged following last week’s BetVictor Championship League.

The Hong Kong Billiard Sports Control Council (HKBSCC) will make an announcement of the confirmed field in late August. The tournament itself takes place over four days from October 6^th to 9^th.

This prestigious invitation event was last held in 2017 and was a tremendous success. The last edition in 2017 was held in Hong Kong’s Queen Elizabeth Stadium, which was recognised by many players as one of the best venues for a snooker tournament. Neil Robertson beat Ronnie O’Sullivan in the final.

This time it will be staged, for the first time, in the Hong Kong Coliseum, the largest indoor stadium in Hong Kong with a maximum capacity of 10,000. Ticketing information will be announced by HKBSCC in due course.

So the players who will receive an invitation are: Ronnie, Judd Trump, Mark Selby, Neil Robertson, John Higgins and Zhao Xintong. Both finalist of the inaugural event will get an invitation.

The next two “in line”, are Mark Williams and Kyren Wilson.

I’m still not convinced that snooker will work in a 10000 capacity venue though, and I hope that it will be broadcasted in Europe. It wasn’t last time.

WST has just published the draw and format for the 2022 Northern Ireland Open:

BetVictor Northern Ireland Open Draw And Format

The draw and format for the 2022 BetVictor Northern Ireland Open is now available.

The qualifying round will run from August 23rd to 28th at Robin Park Leisure Centre in Wigan, with the final stages taking place at the Waterfront Hall in Belfast from October 16th to 23rd.

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Matches involving the world’s top 16 players and the two Northern Irish wildcard nominations will be held over to the final venue. That includes world number 22 Zhou Yuelong’s last 128 game, where he will face the winner of the wild card match.

Local hero and defending champion Mark Allen will begin his bid to retain the title against China’s Chang Bingyu. World Champion Ronnie O’Sullivan faces plays Germany’s Lukas Kleckers first up, while four-time Crucible king Mark Selby faces 12-time Women’s World Champion Reanne Evans.

Click here fro the draw

Click here for the format

Here are the last 128 matches that caught my attention

• Ricky Walden v Xiao Guodong
• Jimmy Robertson v Gary Wilson
• Fan Zhengyi v Ashley Hugill
• Ali Carter v Ding Junhui
• Lu Ning v Jak Jones
• Noppon Saengkham v Ben Mertens
• Jamie Clarke v Marco Fu
• Zhao Xintong v Lyu Haotian