Here is what happened yesterday in Leicester
Zhou And Jones Make Winners’ Week
Zhou Yuelong and Jak Jones earned their places in the second phase of the BetVictor Championship League ranking event in Leicester, topping their respective groups.
Click here for the results and schedule
In group 17, China’s Zhou began with a 3-0 whitewash victory over Scottish amateur Chris Totten, rounding the win off with a century run of 105 in the third. However, the three-time ranking event finalist’s progression was put under threat after he suffered 3-0 reverse against Oliver Brown in his second match.
Brown was defeated 3-1 by Ashley Hugill and drew 2-2 with Totten. That was enough for him to secure second place and meant that a win for Zhou in his final match against Hugill would see him top the group. Zhou obliged with breaks of 77, 75 and 50 to run out a 3-0 victor.
Welshman Jones ended last season superbly with a run to the quarter-finals of the World Championship on his Crucible debut. He continued to impress in group 26, but was held to a 2-2 draw in his opening match against Dean Young. He followed that up with a 3-0 whitewash win over Rebecca Kenna to set up a group decider against Jamie Jones. It was Jak Jones who prevailed 3-1 to top the group and make the next stage.
I’m not sure who writes those reports but they should do better …
“Welshman Jones ended last season superbly …”. Which Jones? There were two of them, both Welsh, Jak and Jamie. Of course given the context you understand it’s Jak but is typing those three letters to make the text more easily understandable too much to ask?
Anyway… yesterday wasn’t the best day for me, with all sorts of (minor) inconveniences and power cuts. I did see only bits and pieces of the action. What I did see though was Bex Kenna coming back from 2-0 down to force a draw against Dean Young. She hadn’t won a frame all day, and Dean didn’t gift it to her as the draw meant that he would finish third whilst a win would have given him a second place. It made no material difference for Bex, she would be last in the group no matter the outcome, but it made a 1000 pounds and ranking points difference for Dean. Bex nevertheless tried her best to the very end, and played for pride. Well done!
Today we have Ali Carter, Jackson Page, Long Zehuang and Ryan Davies on table 1, Wu Yize, Pang Junxu, Hammad Miah and Stan Moody on table 2.
In other bad news … this
Shame on you WST. This is the second most important tournament of the season. If it’s played with the same tiered format as last year, only 32 players will be at the main venue. All the others will compete in front of nobody, with no support, no atmosphere, no or little exposure. This will impact their opportunities to find a sponsor. This is dispiriting and another clear sign that snooker is NOT in a good place. No wonder more and more players look at other cue sports for opportunities. And we shouldn’t be surprised, nor should we blame the top boys who are nearing their 50th to give priority to lucrative exhibition events.
And about players looking at other cue sports… this conversation came up on twitter
Brendan has been a top referee in snooker for many years, but has now turned to pool…
Ronnie O'Sullivan 
Terrible state snooker is in right now very sad to see & as a club owner & a former snooker player it’s worrying times for the future of the game
Electronic games, pools , heyballs…
And most important of all, work… the good old days of 8hour work, 8hour free time, 8hour sleep had gone.
Have a hard feeling in the China here, almost all jobs have to deal with electronic devices… and that definitely impede enjoyment of snooker. (when internet was not that advanced, office hour ends everyone is off from work, now it is not the case.)
The WST “reporting” has always been egregiously lazy, not to mention one-sided, UK-centered, and bland. Even a short look at the results tables would have you better informed.
Here’s the Kenna vs. Young
Frame scores: 1-90(50); 30-100(81); 54-53; 72(64)-8
Young started out well, but Kenna kept her nerve winning frame #3 by a single point, and she scored her only half-century of the day to win #4. Seemingly, Kenna took two and a half matches to settle in, and the game she found then appeared to be competitive – at least against someone on the level of Young.
I’ve been wrecking my brain to find a plausible rationale for the decision to disallow spectators. The only one I could come up with is, they are trying to force those who would like to see some of the action to sign up to some streaming service. Anything else? Any idea anyone?
Whatever it is, really, I do blame the “top boys”, heading toward their 50ies, who would have the stature to protest against such decisions, but can’t be counted on. Moreover, isn’t the WPBSA supposed to work and function as some kind of “players union”? Why can’t they get off their hindquarters and throw their weight around in the interest of those they allegedly represent?
The reason I can see it that it’s cheaper. They probably can install the tables in some venue that has no or not much seating, no need for security, no need to provide catering, no ticketing system required, no staff required to take care of spectators, probably no or reduced medical emergency staff on site … They probably don’t expect to get enough spectators to cover those additional costs in a better venue. But if so it’s a very short-term reasoning.
And why should ROS, Higgins, Williams, Selby … speak out? Some of them tried, and got fined as well as criticised by fans. The only one who could maybe succeed but won’t speak against the “establishment” is Murphy …
And I added something to the post… a comment by Rob Milkins, and Brendan Moore’s reaction
I would think you’ve answered your own question, Monique. Forcing players to “compete in front of nobody, with no support, no atmosphere” isn’t doing snooker any good. It’s highly unsatisfactory for both players and spectators, and it’s another reason why more players would seriously consider crossing over to other cue sports. If that’s not a good reason to make themselves heard, I don’t know what would be one. Of course, doing so reasonably, good manners and all, not getting snooker into even more disrepute, would be the way to do it.
I was very happy to see Kenna complete a 64-break: the worst thing women do is not score enough, but go for safety after a 20/30-something break. It might be due to poor positional play, as well as to the knowledge that they will most likely have another chance on the women’s tour, but it is usually not the case on the main tour. Which is why I always feel the women’s tour has a bad effect on them. On the other hand, reading some of the egregious, sexist and misogynist comments yesterday while the match was going on, I can’t blame women not wanting to take snooker on.
Since only 32 players will be at the main venue at the UK, I find it weird that the organizers son’t think there would be interest in the so-called qualifying stage. It makes a very depressing venue. How much do they really save compared to the previous years when all the rounds were played in front of an audience? WST did great keeping snooker afloat during the pandemic, but they got too enthusiastic about spectatorless rounds.
I would have gone to the UK Qualifiers, which is just after my upcoming work contract finishes. It would have been a great event.