Here are some news about snooker that might interest us, fans.
WST announcements:
2022 UK Championship Format and prize money:
Cazoo UK Championship Format And Prize Money
The format of the Cazoo UK Championship has changed so that the world’s top 16 are seeded through to the last 32 and will play in the final stages at the York Barbican, running from November 12 to 20.
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All other players will compete in the qualifying rounds at Ponds Forge in Sheffield from November 5 to 10, with 16 players going through to York to be drawn at random against the top 16 seeds.
Here’s how the qualifying format works:
Round 1
Seeds 81-112: Placed in 32 specific positions in the draw
Seeds 113-144: Drawn at randomRound 2
Seeds 49-80: Placed in 32 specific positions in the draw, so if top seeds win in round one, seed 49 meets seed 112 in round two, 50 meets 111 and so on.Round 3
Seeds 17-48: Placed in 32 specific positions in the draw, so if top seeds win in round two, seed 17 meets seed 80 in round three, 18 meets 79 and so onRound 4
Round three winners all play against one another to reduce the field to 16. Draw arranged so that if top seeds win in round three, seed 17 meets seed 48 in round four, 18 meets 47 and so on.Round 5
Top 16 seeds placed in specific positions in the draw, and drawn at random against the 16 qualifiers.All matches up to and including the semi-finals are best of 11 frames, then the final on November 20th is best of 19 (8/11).
Prize money
Winner: £250,000
Runner-up: £100,000
Semi-finals: £50,000
Quarter-finals: £25,000
Last 16: £15,000
Last 32: £10,000
Last 48: £7,500
Last 80: £5,000
Last 112: £2,500
High Break: £15,000
Total: £1,205,000
This, for me, is a very welcome change as it gives the lower ranked players a more winnable match and only 32, instead of 64, will walk away with no prize money/ranking points. My only regret is that it’s not played in York.
2023 German Masters Final will be best of 19:
Friday 30 Sep 2022 12:10PM
The final of this season’s BetVictor German Masters will be played over the best of 19 frames, for the first time in the event’s history.
The final stages of the world ranking event will run from February 1-5 in 2023 at the famous Tempodrom venue in Berlin.
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Zhao Xintong won the title last season when he beat Yan Bingtao 9-0 in the final. All previous finals have been best of 17.
The qualifying rounds will be staged in November, with 32 players going through to the Tempodrom.
Another welcome change as it’s about lengthening matches. I hope that this trend continues.
Week 3 at the 900 starts today
This is what we have in store for tonight:
and these are the players for this week:
Ronnie O'Sullivan 
Will the new UK format lend itself to finals like Xintong and Luca, coming from where they were in the rankings? I don’t think so. Just going to be finals with two Top 16 players, like the World Championship.
The flat 128 draw wasn’t all bad. It was reducing the Bo17s to Bo11s which I disagreed with. Are there no tournaments now with the #1v#128, #2v#127, etc., format? The UK was unique in that regard then, compared to the Home Nations/German/European/Turkish Masters formats.
I’m not sure about that at all. The format isn’t as long as it is at the Crucible where all matches are multi-session. That opens the door for more “upsets”. Also personally I strongly disliked the way the UK draw worked. It created a lot of “dead” matches involving the top seeds vs amateurs. The reason why that type of pairing was introduced was to please the BBC. They didn’t show the first round and wanted to maximise the chances to have all the top players in round 2.
Yeah, but I liked when the amateurs who “shouldn’t even be in the building” would beat the Top 16 player in the first round and create great drama.