This is WST report on day 2 at the 2023 International Championship:
Ford Edges Moody In Late Night Battle
World number 21 Tom Ford defeated WSF Junior Champion Stan Moody 6-4 with the clock just shy of midnight to make the final stages of the International Championship.
The qualifying round in Sheffield runs until Saturday this week, with all winners going through to Tianjin in China in November.
Leicester’s Ford had trailed tour rookie Moody 2-0 in the early stages, but turned the match around in his favour to come through with a hard fought victory. He crafted breaks of 72, 70 and 50 en route to the win.
Anthony McGill secured his spot in the final stages thanks to a 6-3 defeat of Alfie Burden. The pair were locked level at 3-3, but Scotland’s McGill took three on the bounce to ensure his progression.
Joe Perry’s difficult start to the season continued with a 6-3 loss at the hands of Dylan Emery. The Welshman top scored with 96 during this afternoon’s match.
Former UK Championship and Masters winner Matthew Stevens qualified courtesy of a 6-4 win over Lyu Hongyu, while Thepchaiya Un-Nooh eased to a 6-1 victory over Andrew Higginson.
As so often, a number of matches are missing from this report, most notably Cao Yupeng 6-0 win over Ashley Hugill. This is a tournament played in China, Cao is the only Chinese player who managed to qualify yesterday and he doesn’t deserve as much as one mention in the report. Sanderson Lam is another player who went through and is currently having a very good start of the season. Sanderson is from Chinese descend.
In general, Chinese players have always struggled for results in the qualifiers for their “home” tournaments. They probably feel added pressure. Those qualifiers should be scrapped, or played at or near the main venue, the week before the event proper. The fans would be able to watch “their” players “live”, and there is a higher probability that the “players on form” make it through to the venue as opposed to the “players on form a month before the event” make it through to the venue.
Also “forgotten” are David Gilbert 6-0 win over James Cahill, Stuart Carrington 6-4 win over Xu Si and David Grace 6-2 win over Jenson Kendrick.
After his defeat, Joe Perry, on twitter, admitted that he’s really struggling with the mental side of the game at the moment and expressed his hope to get over his issues in the near future. Indeed he didn’t look happy at all out there.
Ronnie O'Sullivan 
Well we now even have qualifiers for the Welsh Open, played in Leicester. The obsession with qualifying events comes from top players resenting having to share facilities with lower players, in a multi-table venue. As always, the top players get what they want, and most of the money too.
I don’t think that comment is entirely fair Lewis. The top players are not the main factor in this. The broadcasters and venue managers are the ones who want the top players at the venue, and venues able to accommodate 128 players, 127 matches, of a decent length over 7 days … there aren’t many. We have seen it at the UK championship. The BBC refuses to broadcast the first round. And the first round is a “squeeze” with players in the outside room and 4 tables barely fitting in the main arena.
The Home Nations managed it for 6 years. Yes, they moved to 4 tables partly because of the streaming services, not the broadcasters specifically, who were showing only 1 or 2 tables in any case. But some top players had indeed criticised the choice of venues, such as ‘leisure centres’. Qualifiers are still held at some of those venues, but usually the top players are exempted. The UK Championship is a bit different, with a return to tiered draws clearly requiring qualification rounds.
The tiered draws were the norm when I started following snooker and I personally believe that it’s a much better system than the current one if you need qualifiers at all. Most of the current top players came through that system – with qualifiers in Pontins… more often than not – and I believe it’s one of the reasons for their apparent superior longevity. I think that Judd Trump was the last of the current top players to reach the top 16 through that system. Yes, it was a lot of matches, but they weren’t thrown to the wolves in round one. The UK and the World now I think have it right, with tiered qualifiers played right ahead of the main event. And it’s not “unfair protection” because the top players come in cold, against opponents who have already at least two wins under their belt and decent prize money secured.
Also, yes some of the top players complained about the leisure centres and with good reasons. You don’t need some random guy asking you for selfies, when you try to have a small bite and a tea just before your match. You don’t need to be insulted on your way to the arena by some old git unhappy that you are in his line of thoughts when he tries to play bowls (that happened to Willo). And usually the food on offer was terrible too… BTW some low ranked players complained as well … only the media never reported it.
I certainly appreciate that there is streaming for every table, not just for the broadcasters’ choices. And 4 tables squeezed into the arena already make it too crowded, no matter how good it is that one can look at two tables at the same time. I think it is also good that the qualifiers are streamed, even though the place looks rather uninspiring and cramped.
I thought Moody was quite good at yesterday’s match, while Ford did not play particularly well. But he is also tiny and young, and still did a lot better in cueing and potting than any of the 20-something women. Perry’s struggles saddened me: he had such a great season just two years ago.