Yesterday, Reanne Evans did beat Bai Yulu by 4-1 in the Final to win the Women Snooker UK Championship for the 12th time. This goes with 12 Women World Championships as well.
Reanne Evans has won the Taom UK Women’s Snooker Championship for a record-extending 12th time following a 4-1 victory against Bai Yulu in the final in Leeds.
The former world number one maintained her dominance of a tournament that she has now won on its previous four stagings (2019, 2021, 2022 and 2023) and has won 12 times from 15 final appearances since her debut in 2002. Victory for Evans will also see her climb one place to number two in the official world rankings ahead of Ng On Yee.
The 36th staging of the prestigious event saw 45 players from 11 countries contest the title across three days at the iconic Northern Snooker Centre, home to the event since 2015.
Seeded through to the last 16 as defending champion, Evans impressed throughout the knockout rounds as she defeated two-time ranking event winner Jamie Hunter (3-1), reigning world under-21 champion Anupama Ramachandran (3-1) and long-time rival Ng On Yee (4-1) to once again reach the title match.
There she would await rising star Bai Yulu in a repeat of May’s British Open final, after the 20-year-old successfully navigated the group stages before taking down Yee Ting Cheung (3-0) and three-time former UK champion Tessa Davidson (3-1), as well as Thai world champions Mink Nutcharut (3-2) and Baipat Siripaporn (4-2) to maintain her 100% record of reaching at least the final since she joined the tour earlier this year.
Having won both her previous meetings against Evans in 2023, Bai was looking to claim a hat-trick of victories against the Englishwoman but it was Evans who started the stronger with breaks of 31 and 35 taking the 37-year-old to a 2-0 lead.
Bai would claim the third to bring herself back into contention, but Evans – who had impressed throughout the final day en route to the final – added further breaks of 41 and 30 during what would prove to be the final two frames to earn her first win against Bai and secure an unmatched 12th UK crown.
The highest break of the weekend was a run of 79 compiled by Ng On Yee during the opening frame of her quarter-final win against Rebecca Kenna.
SIDE-TOURNAMENTS
There was a new winner in the Under-21 competition as India’s Natasha Chethan defeated Zoe Killington 1-0 to lift her first junior crown. Following wins against Sophie Nix and Laura Killington, the 15-year-old came out on top against new junior number one Zoe Killington in a shortened final to claim glory.
In the Seniors event it was the top two ranked Tessa Davidson and Mary Talbot-Deegan who progressed to the title match, which will be played at the next UK-based ranking event the Eden Masters due to time constraints in Leeds.
Talbot-Deegan would, however, secure at least one title from the weekend as she defeated Chloe Payne 2-0 to win the Challenge Cup tournament for players who did not reach the last 16. Two years on from her return to competition in 2021, Talbot-Deegan saw off Maureen Rowland, Pui Ying Chu, Sarah Dunn and Yee Ting Cheung to reach the final, before scoring a comfortable victory against her young opponent to take the trophy.
World Women’s Snooker would like to thank event sponsors Taom Billiards and the Northern Snooker Centre for their support of the event once again in 2023.
Yesterday was the last day of the 2023 International Championship Qualifiers. Only six matches were player, but somehow WST managed to “forget” two of them in their report, including the one won by a Chinese player, Pang Junxu. Pang beat Zak Surety by 6-3. The other omission was Daniel Wells 6-2 win over Liam Highfield.
Walden Set For Tianjin
Saturday 23 Sep 2023 08:09PM
Ricky Walden, who won the International Championship in 2014, booked his place in this year’s event with a 6-1 thrashing of Jun Jiang.
Three-time ranking event winner Walden will be among a strong field heading for Tianjin in November. He knocked in breaks of 88 and 75 today in a comfortable victory.
Scott Donaldson top scored with 125 in a 6-4 defeat of Louis Heathcote while Crucible quarter-finalist Jak Jones beat Aaron Hill 6-2 with top runs of 99, 96, 88 and 124. Oliver Lines came from 3-0 down to beat Lukas Kleckers 6-4, making breaks of 76, 69, 65 and 94.
… and it should be Jiang Jun not Jun Jiang. Chinese players have been around for a long time. It’s 20 years since Ding Junhui turned pro. Ding Junhui not Junhui Ding. You would expect them to know it by now, that the family name comes first. But no … they just don’t care I suppose.
It’s another painful defeat for Lukas Kleckers who was 3-0 up. This kind of things seem to happen to him too often to be just hard luck. Lukas seems to struggle to close matches up. Maybe he should see someone to help with the mental side of this sport. He’s obviously good enough technically.
Tomorrow, the 2023 British Open will start. It’s an ITV event but it will be shown on Eurosport/Discovery in mainland Europe. We have some brutal matches in store tomorrow:
John Higgins rattled in two centuries and three more breaks over 50 as he beat Manasawin Phetmalaikul 6-1 in the qualifying round for the International Championship.
Four time Crucible king Higgins can look forward to a trip to Tianjin in China in November for the £825,000 world ranking event. Runs of 50, 51, 115, 137 and 57 helped the Scot to an emphatic win over Thailand’s Phetmalaikul.
Crucible semi-finalist Si Jiahui edged out Julien Leclercq 6-5 in a dramatic finish. Shoot Out runner-up Leclercq made a 122 to level at 5-5 then led 56-0 in the decider, only for China’s Si to snatch it with a 68 clearance.
Shaun Murphy top scored with 88 in a 6-1 win over Andres Petrov while Joe O’Connor compiled runs of 131, 81 and 90 in a 6-1 defeat of Baipat Siripaporn.
Marco Fu enjoyed a 6-4 success against Robert Milkins, making breaks of 87 and 68 in the last two frames. John Astley potted blue and pink in the deciding frame to beat Jamie Clarke 6-5.
The Si Jiahui v Julien Leclercq match was a very good one on all accounts. Basically, experience made the difference here. Julien needs to learn when to rein his huge attacking instinct a bit – only just a bit – at critical moments.
Joe O’Connor easily dominated Baipat who really, really struggles with power shots and needs implements more often than not. She’s petite and frail. Joe however showed great sporting spirit. He applauded his opponent’s good shots and there were many. Some might see this as condescending, but it never felt that way to me. It was genuine. Joe maybe understands Baipat’s difficulties better than most as he isn’t particularly tall himself. Baipat in turn also showed her appreciation for her opponent’s performance. It was nice to see.
I didn’t see that match but it’s a good win for Marco Fu, and very a very encouraging one considering the eyes issues he’s been facing in recent years.
Chris Wakelin, who beat Dean Young by 6-0 is truly a “changed man” since winning the Shoot-out. He finished the match with breaks of 130, 96, 141 and 86. Not too shabby!
Dominic Dale beat Oliver Brown by 6-3 and Ali Carter beat Allan Taylor by 6-2.
The last match to finish was Neil Robertson 6-4 win over his fellow country man Ryan Thomerson. The late finish is likely the reason why it’s not reported on. That match was surprisingly close. In the final frame, Neil missed the 14th red in a maximum attempt.
WST baffling decision process …
Yesterday, Iulian Boiko shared this on facebook
I can only agree with Iulian here.
Once again WORLD Snooker showing that they are so, so UK centric and even mainly England centric actually.
Some of the big hitters were in action yesterday in Sheffield and here is the report by WST:
Top Seeds Secure Tianjin Spots
Four-time Crucible king Mark Selby eased to a 6-2 victory over Muhammad Asif in the qualifying round for the International Championship, on a good day for the top seeds as four other players ranked within the world’s top 16 all booked places in Tianjin in November.
Selby recovered from the loss of the opening frame to take six of the next seven, making top breaks of 75 and 102. Mark Williams fired runs of 118 and 112 during a 6-0 whitewash of Rebecca Kenna.
Jack Lisowski top scored with 86 in a 6-3 win over He Guoqiang, while Mark Allen compiled runs of 124 and 113 in a 6-2 defeat of Ma Hailong. Kyren Wilson saw off Adam Duffy 6-3 with a top run of 74.
Lyu Hoatian made an 84 in the decider to edge out David Lilley 6-5, while breaks of 138 and 134 helped Elliot Slessor beat Hammad Miah 6-2.
As usual some results are missing in the report: Fan Zhengyi beat Mostafa Dorgham by 6-2, and Jamie Jones beat Ashley Carty by 6-4. This last match finished well past midnight UK time.
I wouldn’t say that Mark Selby “eased” past Muhammad Asif. Yes the end result looks one-sided but Muhammad made Mark really work for it, particularly after the MSI.
He Guogiang showed good stuff in his match against Jack Lisowski. Both players had three breaks over 50. What made the difference was Jack’s superior safety game. He won all the close frames.
Willo’s match was more like a walk in the park than an actual match … unfortunately. It’s always nice to watch Willo in full flow, but he had very little opposition, especially before the MSI.
Probably the most exciting Amateur event in the calendar, the 900 is back with “Season 2”!
A lot of work, imagination and thoughts produces this truly fantastic, entertaining amateur competition.
Thank you Jason Francis!
The setup at the venue for the competition is quite something, with seats for spectators
The pundits and commentary team are first class!
And all the action is shown on YouTube SportyStuffTV channel, and if you missed anything, or if, like me, you are in a different time zone that makes it a really, really late night event, you can watch it all (again) here.
Really wort a watch is Marcos Dayo’s fantastic clearance on day 1. That’s as good as anything you will see in snooker. Well done Marcos.
This is how it started…
Now then … here is how it all unfolded:
Day 1
The line-up
The outcome
The Winner … Barry Pinches
Day 2
The line-up
The outcome
The Winner – Florian Nuessle
Day 3
The line-up
The outcome
Week 1 Winner – Josh Thomond
Congratulations Josh and unlucky Marcos who was a true star this week!
Quote of the week … “The Shirt” about the great Tony Knowles …
Liam Pullen made two centuries during a 6-4 defeat of former World Champion Graeme Dott in the qualifying round for the International Championship.
Tour rookie Pullen, age 18, goes through to the final stages of the world ranking event, to take place in Tianjin in China in November.
The teenager from Yorkshire compiled breaks of 119, 51 and 101 in taking a 4-1 lead. After sharing the next two, 2006 Crucible king Dott won frames eight and nine to close to 5-4, and he led 45-0 in the tenth. But Pulled clawed his way back and snatched it with a brown-to-black clearance to cross the winning line.
Stuart Bingham eased to a 6-0 win over Xing Zihao, while Jimmy Robertson top scored with 118 in a 6-2 success against Anton Kazakov. Noppon Saengkham rattled in runs of 74, 69, 80, 67, 117 and 123 during a 6-3 defeat of Victor Sarkis.
Gary Wilson needed just 81 minutes to beat Mohamed Ibrahim 6-0 with breaks of 103, 89, 64, 103 and 94.
It’s worth noting that Dott started the match in the worst possible way, losing frame 1 on the “three miss rule” and it’s hard to know if and how that affected him. Never mind that incident, this is an excellent result from the young man against one of the hardest “positive match-player” there is in the game.
As usual the above report leaves a lot of matches out. All the detailed results are available on snooker.org.
Sam Craigie beat Rory Thor by 6-1. That match was much closer than the scores suggest and Rory lost the last frame despite scoring a 55 break in it.
Zhang And beat Arnie Ursenbacher by 6-3 in a hard fought match. Both had a 50+ break in the first frame but it was Zhang who prevailed. Zhang lead 4-0 at the MSI but Arnie didn’t give up: he won three of the last five frames but it was too much to do, too late against a “reliable” opponent.
Not mentioned either is Xiao Guodong win over Ishpreet Singh Chada. Xiao had three breaks over 50 in that match whilst Ishpreet Singh had none. The Indian player however is really good, tactically sound. If he can start scoring a bit more heavily, he will become seriously dangerous.
It is strange that Hossein Vafaei 6-1 win over Reanne Evans isn’t mentioned. Hossein had two centuries and two other breaks over 50 in that match. Reanne had a 53 and a 77. The 53 came in frame 4, a frame she lost by 68-67 …
Also “forgotten” is Mark Davis’ excellent 6-4 win over Rod Lawler. “Dark Mavis” played really well in that match: he made breaks of 61, 66, 91, 89 and 56. “Rod the Plod” himself scored breaks of 68 and 113. When I use Rod’s nickname, it’s just a bit of teasing. I quite like him actually. Yes, he’s slow, very slow, but he’s never negative and his break building skills are excellent. Watching him play can be a bit of a “zen” exercice”. Rod is just slow … on and off the table, and he’s a very likeable character as well.
Ronnie O'Sullivan 