First day of the 2023 UK Championship Qualifiers
Yesterday was the first day of the 2023 UK Championship qualifiers and here are the reports by WST
Nutcharut Beats Duffy In UK Qualifiers
Mink Nutcharut scored her best win as a professional as she beat Adam Duffy 6-3 in the first qualifying round of the MrQ UK Championship.
Thailand’s Nutcharut goes through to face Michael White in the second round of the qualifiers in Leicester and she needs three more wins to reach the final stages in York, which begin on November 25th.
Nutcharut, age 24, turned pro in 2022 after winning the World Women’s Championship for the first time. In her debut season she partnered Neil Robertson to victory at the World Mixed Doubles, and beat Mitchell Mann in the first round of the Northern Ireland Open. Today she out-played world number 97 Duffy to earn her first win in a Triple Crown event.
After losing the opening frame, she built a 3-1 lead with a top break of 60. Duffy pulled one back before Nutcharut took the next two for 5-2. In frame eight, she missed the final black which would have clinched a 6-2 success. But she kept her composure at the end of the next frame, potting pink and black to seal the result.
“I am very happy and excited,” said Nutcharut. “In the last frame the pressure was on and my heart was beating fast. The last black would usually be easy but the pressure made if difficult. I have ben practising with a lot of good players in Sheffield so I felt confident. I don’t know if I can win another match, I will just enjoy it,”
Marco Fu, who was runner-up in this tournament in 2008, edged out Michael Holt 6-5 in a high quality tussle. Holt made breaks of 91, 117, 70, 56 and 125 but still finished on the wrong side of the scoreline to Hong Kong’s Fu, who compiled runs of 77, 82 and a 71 in the decider. He now meets Ben Mertens.
China’s Xing Zihao top scored with 104 in a 6-2 defeat of Jimmy White.
Evening sessions
Sky’s The Limit For Sykes
Up-and-coming amateur Oliver Sykes won a match in a pro tournament for the first time with an superb 6-1 victory over experienced Alife Burden in the first qualifying round of the MrQ UK Championship.
Currently ranked number one on the English Junior Tour, 17-year-old Sykes is tipped as a star of the future, and he showed his potential today as he beat Burden with top breaks of 54, 56 and 57. He goes through to face Jamie Clarke in the second round and needs three more wins to reach the final stages in York.
“To beat a player as good as Alfie in a big tournament is incredible,” said Sykes, from Hampshire. “I stayed composed throughout the whole match and enjoyed the experience. Getting on to the tour is my main ambition and there are a lot of big amateur tournaments like the WSF Championships coming up. I’m giving 100 per cent to every event.”
Three other amateurs scored impressive wins as Robbie McGuigan saw off Fergal O’Brien 6-2 with a top break of 103, Ryan Davies beat Anton Kazakov 6-1 and Duane Jones knocked out Muhammad Asif 6-1.
Stan Moody top scored with 103 in a 6-3 win over Filips Kalnins, while China’s Jiang Jun made a 139 as he beat Rebecca Kenna 6-0. Ryan Thomerson made a 108 as he edged out Reanne Evans 6-5, taking a 48-minute deciding frame on the colours.
In a match which finished just after 1am, Sean O’Sullivan beat Baipat Siripaporn 6-5.
All the detailed results are on snooker.or as always.
Yesterday’s results clearly show why the tired system is a much better one for the young players and female players that the brutal random draw. Several of the best amateurs won their match. Mink won her match and two of the three other women on tour – Reanne and Baipat – forced their opponents to play the full distance to beat them. This experience is much more positive – for the women AND for the young amateurs in general – than a procession of heavy defeats against players ranked much higher than them. Yesterday results show that the women on tour are at or no far away from the level of the male young players. Yes, they are older – although Mink and Baipat are only in their early 20th – but playing on the women’s tour is not the ideal development path once they reach a certain level. Results like those they got yesterday may hopefully encourage them, and other aspiring girls, to play more in the available pro-am events even if the field is almost entirely male AND send the message to the male amateurs that the women are on push-overs and their place is not “behind the bar”.
The Marco Fu v Michael Holt match was a high quality affair and absolutely not the kind of match you expect in the first round of a tiered qualifying event.
Mark Allen joined Judd Trump in the 2023 Champion of Champions Final
Allen To Meet Trump In Final
Mark Allen set up a final showdown with Judd Trump as he overcame John Higgins 6-2 in the semi-final of the Cazoo Champion of Champions.
Seeking his first title since January’s World Grand Prix, Allen pulled away from 2-2 to take the last four frames in Bolton. It promises to be an exciting best-of-19 final on Sunday against World Number 2 Trump, with the winner scooping this year’s prize of £150,000.
Northern Ireland’s Allen, who won this title in 2020, said: “I’m excited to be playing Judd, he’s the best in the world at the moment but I have a good record against him.
“I am going to enjoy it, I didn’t come her to finish second, and I will have to play really well to beat Judd, but I know I can beat him – and so does he.
“If you had told me three or four weeks ago I’d be in this position I would have laughed because I was in a bad place, but I have been working hard on the right things and my confidence has come back.”
Allen made breaks of 73 and 91 before the interval tonight, while Higgins knocked in 65 and 68. But world number four Allen then dominated, firing runs of 102 and 77 as he swept to victory.
No comment from me here, as I watched the 2023 UK qualifiers …
The 2023 Women Snooker Eden Masters has reached the knockout stage
You can follow that tounament, and all the side events, here.
Ronnie O'Sullivan 
Although the women did well, the matches were awful. It’s worth mentioning that Adam Duffy’s house was destroyed by a recent flood in Chesterfield, which might explain his terrible performance.
I only saw the decider of Thomerson vs. Evans. The potting was awful, but I think the safety game from Reanne was brilliant, excellent really in terms of having the pace of the table.
She got very unlucky a few times that Thomerson could escape with nothing to go for for her.
Mink’s match was certainly not of high quality, but seeing how women are just capable of losing from winning positions, it’s still a pleasant outcome.
The tiered draw is definitely the better way for new pros (not necessarily young) and the women. However, I do believe women should earn their place on the main tour via open gender events rather than being the best of their very small pool of players.
Same with the age categories as well.
To showcase the women, the best way would be to stream the women’s events, even if they are low standard amateur events. That’s the way to get more women playing.
Will there be streaming from the Women’s Masters this weekend? No.
Is that because it clashes with the Champion of Champions?
Very possibly about the clash. The US women’s tournament was streamed earlier this season and had commentary with players joining the commentary team. Mink did particularly well in that role. I remember the Women’s World being streamed a few years back when played at the Northern Snooker Centre. And the Africa women’s championship was streamed on Facebook, just like the men’s championship. I was surprised BTW how positive the comments were on the associated chat. When women event are streamed on FB in the UK, the chat is usually awful: hate, contempt, disparaging comments … you name it. But that time, at the Africa champs, despite this happening in a muslim majority country, the comments were positive and encouraging. For your idea to work it would be absolutely essential that the stream associated chat is not filled with hatred and contempt. That would be 100% counter-productive.
I was very happy about Mink’s victory, especially that it was a proper match, best of 11. However I don’t see how streaming women’s tournaments could attract anyone to snooker. It’s just so disappointingly low standard that seeing that and the main tour would highlight how much worse women are. Even if the chats are controlled, it’s undeniable. There are very few exceptions, such was the Mink-OnYee final at the US Open. Of course they both have been on the pro tour, so it must have helped. Simply playing on the women’s tour clearly hurts their development. I didn’t see Baipat, but if she made it to a decider in her first year as a pro and after that unfortunate pairing with Trump at the CoC, maybe there is some hope for her.
There are many “awful” matches at this stage of such an important tournament. The ones involving the women were certainly not worse than a lot of others involving two male players. As I write, I’ watching Martin O’Donnell v Jack Borwick… and it’s absolutely horrific. The thing is, the pros are under huge pressure and the young amateurs are not used to the conditions and being on stream. The problem is not with those players, it’s with us fans watching mainly the top guys and forgetting how hard this game is.
Before WWS became a qualifying tour, a lot of women’s events were streamed. We were told that they didn’t want to stream as the quality wasn’t high enough. Peculiar.
They have started to show a few of the latter end of events but really need to forget about any clash with WST. Totally irrelevant.
If they do stream events the chat doesn’t need to be enabled. Keep the idiots at bay 🙂
The two biggest names in the Women’s Masters have withdrawn, because of their participation in the UK Championship. Also, several other top women are playing in Qatar in the IBSF Women’s World Championship. It makes a mockery of the event.