Month: June 2024

The 2024 Shanghai Masters – Draw and Format

Monique Snooker

WST has today published the draw and format for the 2024 Shanghai Masters

All of snooker’s top 16 are in the field for the 2024 Shanghai Masters which runs from July 15 to 21.

The historic tournament was first staged in 2007 and was a ranking event until 2017 before changing to an invitation event. Ronnie O’Sullivan will be aiming to lift the trophy for the fifth time in a row having won the title in 2017, 2018, 2019 and 2023. Last year he beat Luca Brecel 11-9 in the final.  

The line up includes all of the world’s top 16 players, plus the next four highest ranked Chinese players, as well as four wild cards. 

The top eight are seeded into the last 16, and O’Sullivan’s first match at the Grand Stage will be against either Zhang Anda or a wild card. World Champion Kyren Wilson will meet either Barry Hawkins or Zhou Yuelong, while Mark Williams could earn a clash with Judd Trump by winning his opening tie against a wild card. The draw for the wild cards will be made during the opening ceremony on July 14.

This is the draw

2024ShanghaiMastersDrawDownload

and this is the format:

2024ShanghaiMastersFormatDownload

ROCKET MAKES 143 IN FINAL

I don’t have a definite answer to Christian’s question in the comments section but, now that Bai is a professional, I would be surprised if she was allowed to play as a wildcard. That would set a very awkward precedent.

The 2024 Ranking CLS – Day 4

Monique Professional snooker, Professional snooker tournament

I didn’t see much of the action yesterday as life came in the way of snooker but, from what I could watch group 22 was probably the most interesting group in the tournament so far. All four players in that group are under 30 years old. All are extremely capable. Harvey Chandler, who replaced Craig Steadman, has been a pro for two years in 2018/19/20. He’s a very talented player, but not a very consistent one… to say the least. When playing well, he’s brilliant to watch. Harvey often travels to North Africa to play and promote the game. It was a very strange group, a very close group. Three players finished the day undefeated. Only Oliver lines lost … twice. This means that four of the six matches ended up in draws. The decisive factor was the 130 break that Joe O’Connor made during his first match, early in the afternoon, in only the second frame he played on the day, and the first he won.

Here is the report by WST:

Joe O’Connor made a crucial clearance in the last frame of the day to draw 2-2 with Aaron Hill and finish top of Group 22 at the BetVictor Championship League.

Leicester’s O’Connor goes through to the second group stage which starts on June 28th. In his first match of the day he made a break of 130 during a 2-2 draw with Harvey Chandler, and O’Connor followed up with a 3-1 victory over Oliver Lines. Meanwhile, Hill had identical results, which meant that the last match of the group would be decisive.

Ireland’s Hill led 2-1 and the contest was in the balance in the fourth frame until O’Connor, having trailed 38-32, made a vital break of 40. That left the pair tied on points, so the group was decided on the highest break, and O’Connor’s 130 eclipsed Hill’s best effort of 74. 

Michael White topped Group 23 to become the fourth Welshman this week to qualify for phase two, following success for Ryan Day, Mark Williams and Matthew Stevens. 

White made breaks of 83, 74 and 98 to beat Dean Young 3-0, then fired 122 and 94 in a 3-0 defeat of Ryan Davies. Stephen Maguire may have started the group favourite, but his hopes were dented by a 3-0 reverse against Davies, and a 2-2 draw in his last match against White wasn’t enough.

Results / Fixtures

Group 23 was dominated by Michael White who scored heavily. All the positions in the table were already set before the last match began, which is very unusual in this format. The last match in that group was a completely “dead” affair. A big factor leading to this unfortunate situation was Stephen Maguire’s 3-0 defeat at the hands of 22 years old amateur Ryan Davies in the first match he played in the afternoon. Mags scored just 25 points in that match. Seriously, what happened there? … and this is a genuine question as I didn’t see the match. Ryan is a very good amateur, a very heavy scorer on his day, but still ???

The 2024 Ranking CLS – Day 3

Monique Professional snooker, Professional snooker tournament

Here is WST report on day 3 at the 2024 Ranking CLS:

Matthew Stevens became the third Welshman in as many days to qualify for the second stage of the BetVictor Championship League as he topped Group 25 on Wednesday.

Building on the success of Ryan Day and Mark Williams earlier in the week, Stevens kept the Welsh flag flying in Leicester as he earned a spot in the next phase of the season’s opening ranking event.

The former UK and Masters champion, now playing his 31st season as a pro, opened with a 3-0 win over Haydon Pinhey then drew 2-2 with Farakh Ajaib. In his decisive last match, Stevens fired breaks of 97, 59 and 91 in a 3-1 win over Robbie Williams.

Ashley Carty finished top of Group 31, beating Mostafa Dorgham 3-0 with a top break of 67 and Simon Blackwell 3-1. The Yorkshire cueman then rounded off his day in style as he saw off Elliot Slessor 3-0 with a top run of 81.

Results / Fixtures

Farakh Ajaib is a baffling player. One moment he looks like top 16 material, the next he makes really silly mistakes. Very weird. Matthew Stevens played well but hasn’t made his peace with rest … yet. Maybe when he turns 90?

I saw very little of the other group but I’m happy for Ashley Carty who, after his “Crucible” breakthrough appeared to regress a bit (well a lot actually). He’s better than his ranking says and it showed yesterday.

An important update on the 2024/25 Professional Snooker Calendar

Monique Snooker

WST has today published the updated calendar for the 2024/25 season

The provisional WST calendar for the whole of the 2024/25 season is now available.

Please note that the World Grand Prix and World Open will be added to the calendar once dates and venues are confirmed. 

The Saudi Arabia Snooker Masters will now start on August 30th (rather than 31st as previously announced) and there will be no qualifying rounds as all 144 players will compete at the venue in Riyadh. Further details on this format will be announced shortly.

The qualifying rounds for the Xi’an Grand Prix, British Open and Wuhan Open will now take place from July 25th to August 3rd in Leicester. The BetVictor English Open updated qualifying dates are September 12th to 14th in Brentwood.

The schedule of held over matches for all events this season is also available.

For all ranking events in China, the held over matches will be the defending champion, World Champion, a promoter pick and local wild cards. The only exception to this is the Xi’an Grand Prix where there is no defending champion as it is a new event, so the held over matches are the world number one, World Champion, promoter pick and local wild cards. 

Wild card players from China will be drawn against WST tour players in round one, and not against each other in any pre-qualifier.

…

For the updated calendar, schedule of held over matches and the re-ranking points list (seeding cut-off points) click the links below.

PROVISIONAL 2024/25 CALENDAR

2024-25_provisionalCalendar-12June2024Download

HELD OVER MATCHES SCHEDULE

2024-25_HeldOverSchedule-12June2024Download

RE-RANKING SCHEDULE

2024-25_CutOffPoints-12June2024Download

One very important and welcome change in that calendar is that all 144 players involved will be at the main venue in Saudi Arabia. This is how it should be for ALL events played under a flat draw system, no matter where they are played.

The 2024 Ranking CLS – Day 2

Monique Snooker

Here is WST report on day 2 at the 2024 Ranking Championship League Snooker:

Mark Williams got his 33rd professional season underway with a fine display at the BetVictor Championship League as he topped Group Four to reach the second stage. 

Welshman Williams, who turns 50 next year, won the Tour Championship in April with one of his best performances in recent years, and is still ranked among the world’s top ten.

He opened today with a 2-2 draw against amateur Connor Benzey, making breaks of 90 and 99, then went on to beat Fergal Quinn 3-0 with a top run of 101 and David Grace 3-0 with breaks of 87 and 115.

Former Shoot Out champion Chris Wakelin finished top of Group 17 and he joins Williams in progressing to the second stage, which starts on June 28. A 3-0 defeat of Rory McLeod got Wakelin up and running, and he went on to beat Liam Pullen 3-0 before securing top spot with a 2-2 draw against Ian Burns. 

Results / Fixtures

Again I have replaced the WST link with the equivalent snooker.org link as the latter will stay valid over time.

The day didn’t start too well as it was confirmed that Bai Yulu had to withdraw because of travel issues. It’s a great shame because this would have been the perfect “introduction” for her with three matches guaranteed. She was replaced by Fergal Quinn.

The above report doesn’t do Connor Benzey justice. Connor who is 22 years old and an amateur ran “Willo” extremely close. So close that Mark HAD to win his last match to be certain to go through and even that may, on another day, not have been enough because the match between Mark and Connor had ended up in a draw, and a 3-1 win for Mark in his last match would have put them on the same amount of points and the same frame difference. On this occasion though it would have made no difference as Williams had the highest break of the two. David Grace on the other hand was well below par.

I saw very little of the other group but it seems that Ian Burns, who came second to Chris Wakelin, was in good scoring mode. In his first match of the day, a 3-0 win over Liam Pullen, he scored a 98 and a 113. The latter was a maximum attempt: Ian missed the 15th black. Amazingly, Liam Pullen himself missed on a maximum during his last match of the day, a 2-2 draw with Rory Mc Leod. Frame three was re-racked in that match, then Liam potted 13 reds with blacks … only to miss the 14th red.

The 2024 Ranking CLS – Day 1

Monique Professional snooker, Professional snooker tournament

Here is WST report on the first day of the 2024/25 season:

Ryan Day and Neil Robertson both progressed to the second group stage of the BetVictor Championship League ranking event as the 2024/25 season got underway in Leicester.

Results / Fixtures1

The opening tournament of the season runs until July 3rd. In the initial phase, 128 players are split into 32 groups of four, with those 32 group winners going through to the next round.

Drawn into Group 11, Day won his opening match against fellow Welshman and tour rookie Liam Davies, knocking in a top break of 61 in a 3-0 victory. He then drew 2-2 with Hammad Miah before ensuring top spot in the group with a fine display against Marco Fu, compiling runs of 125, 72 and 85 to win 3-0.

Australia’s Robertson needs a strong start to the season to climb back into the top 16 having dropped to 28th, and the early signs were good as he topped Group 21. After an opening 2-2 draw with Zach Richardson, former World Champion Robertson improved in a 3-0 defeat of Ka Wai Cheung then came from 1-0 down to beat Jamie Clarke 3-1 with top breaks of 70 and 93.

The action continues on Tuesday with Mark Williams among the quartet in Group 4, while Chris Wakelin is the highest ranked cueman in Group 17. 

The early signs weren’t that good for Neil actually: a draw against Zak Richardson, an amateur who eventually finished last of the group, wasn’t a great start. But Neil improved rapidly and by the end of the day, was playing really well. I was impressed with Ka Wai Cheung. The rookie finished joined second in the group, on par with the vastly experienced Jamie Clarke, with one win, one draw and one loss. He’s still very raw of course, he has a lot to learn tactically and strategically. But he’s potted some awesome balls and, when things didn’t go his way, his attitude was good. No panic, no recklessness.

I saw less of the other group. That Liam Davies is very, very talented is no “breaking news”. We have known that since he was a small kid. Ryan Day is a tremendous player when able to relax, and Hammad Miah is a very, very tough opponent when he puts his mind to it. This was a tough group. All the same, finishing last is a worrying result for Marco Fu. But, maybe, he was just back from Hong Kong and jet-lagged? 2

  1. Note that I replaced the original WST link with the snooker.org one because the latter will remain valid over time, unlike the original one. ↩︎
  2. It’s a genuine question … I don’t know when Marco arrived in the UK. ↩︎

Food for thoughts … 10 June 2024

Monique opinion

The first ranking event of the season starts in a few hours. The summer hiatus comes to an end and I want to share a few thoughts about some of the things that happened during the “break”.

A lot of exhibitions were organised during the late spring, both in Asia and in mainland Europe. More than I can remember ever before certainly. They were very well attended and some additional dates had to be added for the European “leg” such was the demand. They “sold out” in no time. WST seems to have relaxed the restrictions on those events quite a bit, which is good. . This is probably the result of the renegotiation of the players contract, under pressure of the players representatives. Giving more visibility to those exhibitions has certainly not caused the sport any damage, quite the opposite.

A number of snooker players were/are in China, playing in a Heyball event with a prize money worth over 200000 pounds for the winner. Amongst them, two former World Champions Stuart Bingham and Graeme Dott.

In recent days I have been watching a lot of the 2024 nine ball pool World Championship and I think snooker could learn from them. I did like the setup in Jeddah a lot. I also like the double elimination system, as it gives every player a guaranteed two matches. One of the players who lost his first match, made the most of his second chance and reached the SFs. The field is much younger than in snooker, and much, much more international. Events are organised all around the globe – no UK centrism here – with events coming in Hanoi, the USA and Germany in the summer. I which snooker was much more like that. Of course, pool is easier to learn at a basic level than snooker, the tables are smaller too. It’s cheaper and probably economically more profitable for clubs to invest in pool equipment rather than in snooker equipment. Even so, I think it would be worth to analyse the reasons behind their success … especially are they are not even shown on television, at least not in our part of the world.

Then the was this post on facebook by Tim Dunkley, one of the most respected coaches in the UK:

I WAS reminded this morning of what I said a year ago when eight past or present members of the Saturday morning junior leagues at Chandlers Ford Snooker Club were called up by England for the 2023 Home Internationals.

“We will never be able to repeat this achievement,” I declared.

How wrong can you be. This week eight past or present members of the Saturday morning junior leagues received invites for the 2024 Home Internationals.

All eight started their competitive careers in our Under-13 League. So for those players struggling to make a bridge hand or trying to hit the cue-ball in a straight line or even yet to pick up a cue for the first time, commitment and hard work could lead to you donning a waistcoat with a gold three-lions badge. It happened with these eight.

The Chandlers Ford SC Under-13 League runs from 9-11am every Saturday. The Under-19 League runs from 11am-1pm every Saturday. We also run junior competitions from 11am-3pm on every weekday during every school holiday.

Time now to prove that these eight were once beginners. Pictured are: Asten Sahota, Ellise Scott, Harry Wyatt, Oliver Sykes, O’Shay Scott, Riley Ellis, Ryan Spratt and William Thomson.

First of all, well done to Tim and his team: they do a great job to bring kids of both genders to snooker and have done that for many years. One name in that list caught my attention, I put it in bold. Ellise is a 13 years old girl. I checked the HIBSF site and there doesn’t seem to be a women event on the menu. So I can only suppose that Ellise has been deemed good enough to compete in the open event, on par with the boys belonging to the same age group. And it appears that another young girl will compete for Scotland: Sophie Nix. I’m not sure it’s happened before and it shows that, although there is still a lot of work to do to bring more girls to snooker and nurture their talent, the WWS tour has a real purpose and there are clubs and coaches ready to invest themselves to the task.

There are currently 125 players on tour. One more qualifying event is to be played in Australia in July. Invitational tour cards, if any, are yet to be announced.