WPBSA has shared these news regarding the Q-Tour

Belgium to host WPBSA Q Tour Europe Event Six

The Delta Moon Snooker Club in Mons, Belgium will host the sixth event of the WPBSA Q Tour Europe series on 10-12 January 2025.

The location is a change from the initially announced Zurich, Switzerland and the tournament will now take place on the same dates in Mons, Belgium – which previously staged a Q Tour event in October 2022.

Should any player have made non-refundable travel/accommodation bookings for the event in Zurich prior to this announcement, they are invited to contact us at info@wpbsa.com with evidence of their booking for any reimbursement to be considered.

Entry for the event remains open until 27 December 2024 at 12:00.

Updated Calendar

The updated remaining provisional Q Tour Europe dates are:

• Q Tour 4 – 8-10 November 2024 – Club 200, UK
• Q Tour 5 – 13-15 December 2024 – Vienna, AUSTRIA
• Q Tour 6 – 10-12 January 2025 – Delta Moon Club, Mons, BELGIUM
• Q Tour 7 – 7-9 February 2025 – Landywood Snooker Club, UK

All dates are provisional and subject to change.

I guess that many players will be happy with that change. Going to Belgium instead of Switzerland will probably be cheaper and with less administrative hassle too.

As for Ronnie …

Eurosport has published this piece.

RONNIE O’SULLIVAN SAYS HE IS IN DECLINE BEFORE INTERNATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP – ‘THERE’S NOT MUCH FUN IN IT AT THE MOMENT’

BY JONNY BRAY

Ronnie O’Sullivan is quite possibly the greatest player snooker has ever seen, but he believes he is not as good a he once was. The seven-time World Championship winner has not competed since the 2024 English Open in September. He has hinted that he could be back soon. The Rocket added that he wants to compete for pleasure rather than to win the top titles.

Ronnie O’Sullivan believes his skills with a snooker cue are waning after over three decades of brilliance. 

The 48-year-old did not take part in the 2024 Wuhan Open, having pulled out of the British Open in September shortly before his opening-round clash with Manasawin Phetmalaikul. 

O’Sullivan did hint that he could return for the 2024 International Championship in Nanjing, China.

However, he also cast doubt on his long-term future in the sport, suggesting that he has been in decline for a while. 

“If you go by other people, you can see that gradually they lose whatever they had,” he told The Independent. “That’s been happening for quite a while for me. 

“The thing that frustrates me is I’m not playing great. 

“Once that zip isn’t there, I don’t know, there’s not much fun in it at the moment.

“I’m enjoying just having time to myself, not having to practice, not having to be away. 

“Maybe I’ll play in the next one in November [International Championship]. 

“I’ll see, if I’m still enjoying not playing, then I won’t play. 

“I’ll delay it until I feel like it.”

O’Sullivan has won the World Championship seven times, most recently in 2022. 

His latest tournament appearance was at the English Open earlier this year, when he was eliminated in the last 64. 

‘The Rocket’ insists winning or losing does not matter to him, and that he much prefers the enjoyment that comes with playing well. 

However, he admitted he wished he was a more “results-driven” player. 

“I wish I was a bit more results-driven and win-driven, like Stephen Hendry and Steve Davis,” he added. 

“If you’re more like that, then you can go ‘Oh, I won – great.’ 

“I think for Hendry especially, it was all about winning. 

“They’re different animals.

“But I’m not, I’m much more like ‘Did I play a good game? Did I hit the ball well? Am I enjoying it? Am I feeling the buzz from it?’ 

“If I’m doing all that, I don’t need to win – you just can’t wait to get your cue out of your case.

“It becomes a bit more feeling-based and emotion-based.

“That’s probably not the best way to be. 

“In hindsight, I would have much rather been the other way, but you feel how you feel in your heart.”

So although Ronnie has not officially withdrawn from the 2024 Northern Ireland Open¹ I would be very surprised if he showed up and even the International Championship seems to be in serious doubt… 😞

Not great but as as he would put it himself “it is what it is…”

Oh… and a small piece of news …

There is a new Ronnie O’Sullivan snooker academy … in Saudi Arabia … it just opened and Nigel Bond has been appointed as the head coach there. Nigel is a really excellent coach.

Here is, in fact the full article by the Independent that “inspired” the ES :piece above

Ronnie O’Sullivan: ‘I wish I was more like Hendry and Davis’

Exclusive: The greatest snooker player of all time tells Luke Baker why he is still envious of his rivals, whether it’s possible to stop the decline he feels he’s in and where the sport’s next star is coming from

Luke Baker

Ronnie O’Sullivan’s most recent World Championship title, won so emotionally at the iconic Crucible Theatre in 2022, more or less ended the debate surrounding snooker’s greatest player of all time.

By claiming the world title for a seventh time, O’Sullivan equalled Stephen Hendry’s modern-era record, having already surpassed the Scot for most ranking titles (currently 41 and counting) and becoming the first man to make 1,000 century breaks in professional competition.

He never quite dominated snooker in the same way that Hendry did in the 1990s or Steve Davis had in the decade prior but has instead enjoyed a scarcely believable longevity at the very top. After all, this was a career that really burst into life when a 17-year-old snooker-obsessed teenager from Essex became the youngest-ever ranking event winner at the 1993 UK Championship and he’s still claiming titles in 2024 at the age of 48.

Throw in a captivating, swashbuckling, seemingly effortless style of play that means The Rocket’s reputation as a sporting genius has long since transcended snooker’s narrow confines, and GOAT status is undisputed. 

Yet as those who have followed his rollercoaster career, or watched his candid, raw 2023 documentary The Edge of Everything will be painfully aware, the almost endless trophies and triumphs haven’t always brought him happiness or satisfaction. Many a whitewash victory against an overmatched opponent has been followed by O’Sullivan slating his own performance for not quite reaching the impossibly perfect standards he demands of himself.

So perhaps it should come as no surprise that, in an exclusive interview with The Independent, he reveals that he yearns to be more like those who came before him.

“I wish I was a bit more results-driven and win-driven, like Stephen Hendry and Steve Davis,” says O’Sullivan. “If you’re more like that, then you can go ‘Oh, I won – great. I lost – p****d off. I just need to win next time.’ I think for Hendry especially, it was all about winning. They’re different animals.

“But I’m not, I’m much more like ‘Did I play a good game? Did I hit the ball well? Am I enjoying it? Am I feeling the buzz from it?’ If I’m doing all that, I don’t need to win – you just can’t wait to get your cue out of your case. It becomes a bit more feeling-based and emotion-based.

“That’s probably not the best way to be. In hindsight, I would have much rather been the other way. But you feel how you feel in your heart.”

It’s hard to imagine the athlete considered the greatest in any other sport longing to be more like their rivals. The idea of Michael Jordan wanting to channel Magic Johnson or Tiger Woods wishing he was more Phil Mickelson-esque is preposterous.

But O’Sullivan has never shied away from expressing what he feels at any given moment, even if it seems illogical to an outsider and inconsistent with what he said as recently as the previous day.

Despite 2024 having seen him win multiple tournaments and reach numerous other finals and semi-finals, the world No 5 has recently spoken about his belief that his snooker game is in decline and that he’s not the player he was a few years ago. It’s part of the reason he’s withdrawn from the British Open and Wuhan Open in recent weeks, with the upcoming Northern Ireland Open also likely to be skipped, and he is in no rush to set a definitive timeline for his return to the baize.

“If you go by other people, you can see that gradually they lose whatever they had,” he explains. “That’s been happening for quite a while for me. The thing that frustrates me is I’m not playing great. Once that zip isn’t there, I don’t know… there’s not much fun in it at the moment.

“I’m enjoying just having time to myself, not having to practice, not having to be away. Maybe I’ll play in the next one in November (International Championship in Nanjing, China]. I’ll see – if I’m still enjoying not playing, then I won’t play. I’ll delay it until I feel like it.”

Even a Ronnie O’Sullivan at 70 per cent could still compete at the top end of the snooker tour and he’s worked closely with renowned sports psychologist Dr Steve Peters over the years to help him through previous dips.

“I can always work with Steve – it’s whether I want to do that,” he adds. “Do I want to engage, invest that amount of time and energy into it? At the moment it’s definitely not something I want to do. Maybe in another three or six months but at the moment I’m enjoying doing whatever I want.

“I’ve won most of my tournaments not playing great. I know you don’t have to play well to win. I think I need to play better than I am now, though. I used to be able to play not great and win but I don’t think I can do that anymore. I think I’ve got to play well to have a chance of winning a tournament. The margins are a lot less for me, I suppose.

“At least I’m not sitting here saying that having not won a world title or not won a tournament. I’ve got plenty in the trophy cabinet. I’ve got no regrets.”

O’Sullivan is speaking as his third autobiography, Unbreakable, is released in paperback and insists that after those books, plus his documentary, he’s now finished producing memoirs.

He also dismisses a suggestion that he could follow in Hendry’s footsteps and start his own YouTube channel, a la the Scot’s popular Cue Tips where interviews a variety of guests while playing a frame of snooker against them.

“Nah. I don’t like meeting people,” laughs O’Sullivan. “I like people, I just don’t like meeting them… I see some of the people he interviews and I think ‘If you told me I had to go and talk to that guy…’ I don’t know them, I’d just be dreading it, so nah, I’m a more behind the scenes sort of person. That’s why you don’t hear much about me…”

The debate over where the next generation of snooker superstars are coming from has raged for years. With the sport’s biggest names almost all in their forties, there is an eagerness for the sport to find a younger crossover star.

With the decline of the previously thriving amateur snooker scene of the 1980s and 1990s that helped create the likes of O’Sullivan, John Higgins and Mark Williams, it is now harder for a British player to really hone their craft before entering the professional ranks.

The popularity of snooker in China has grown hugely over the past two decades. With multiple ranking events hosted there, 12 of the world’s top 50 players hail from the country. And although the long-promised Chinese revolution is yet to lead to their first world champion, O’Sullivan remains convinced that is where snooker’s centre of power will shift.

“They just put more into their academies and their youngsters and create an environment where they can become brilliant players,” he explains. “It’s a bit like the Kenyans with running – they all train together and then pick the three or four best to go to the Olympics. That’s what they do with snooker in China.

“That academy set-up is similar to the amateur snooker scene back in the Eighties and Nineties. Just being in that type of environment, you learned a lot from the other players. There was always healthy competition and rivalries – you see someone doing well and it drove you on to think ‘I’ll work harder’. They have that with the academy system, which I think is a great, great idea.

“It’s kind of impossible for the young players in the UK without that. Maybe one can come through? But it’s so much easier if you can surround yourself with other fantastic players. Watch, learn and pick up stuff. It’s being in that environment, it’s such a huge help.”

And if anyone knows what it takes to reach the very top, it’s the greatest snooker player of all time.

1. Or ay least it’s not been officially announced… yet ↩︎