Iulian Boiko has successfully defended his EBSA European Shootout Title here at the Vidamar Resort on the Algarve in Portugal. Boiko played Craig Steadman in the final and played very well to take the match.
The Shootout is so popular with the players and the atmosphere was excellent throughout. Iulian beat , Nicolas Mortreaux in the Semi-Final, with Steadman coming out on top against the 6 Reds Champion Florian Nüßle.
A special word of thanks to the many Referees who performed brilliantly all day, and a special mention to the Final Referee Victor Augusto.
Former World Women’s Snooker (WWS) champion and current world number one Mink Nutcharut has received the Commander (Third Class) of the Most Admirable Order of the Direkgunabhorn from The Secretariat of the Cabinet in Thailand earlier this week.
The Most Admirable Order of the Direkgunabhorn was established by King Bhumibol Adulyadej on 22 July 1991 to be bestowed upon those who have rendered devotional services to the Kingdom of Thailand. The title Direkgunabhorn roughly translates as “Noble Order of Abundance and Quality.”
The 24-year-old became the 13th different player to win the World Women’s Snooker Championship in February 2022 following a dramatic 6-5 victory against Wendy Jans in Sheffield sealed on the final black.
A year later, Nutcharut achieved the world number one ranking for the first time, becoming only the 12th player to reach the summit since 1983 and ending the 11-year hegemony of Reanne Evans and Ng On Yee.
Nutcharut has won eight world ranking event titles to date on the WWS Tour since her debut in 2017, including her second Australian Women’s Open title earlier this month. She also claimed the World Women’s Under-21 Championship back in 2018 and notably became the first female player to compile a verified maximum break during a practice match at the Hi-End Snooker Club back in 2019.
The Thai star has also competed on the professional World Snooker Tour since 2022 and a year later became only the second woman to compile a century break at the professional World Snooker Championship with a break of 100 against Dechawat Poomjaeng.
Nutcharut described herself as “happy and proud” to have received the award via her official Facebook page and everyone at WWS and WST would like to congratulate her on this recognition and celebrate her contribution to our sport in recent years.
The world ranking event runs from November 3rd to 10th and will be staged at the Nanjing Qinhuai District South New City National Fitness Center.
China’s Zhang Anda won the title last year, beating Tom Ford in the final. Zhang opens the defence of his title against Ishpreet Singh Chadha on the opening day. Ronnie O’Sullivan will be up against women’s world number one Mink Nutcharut, while China’s top player Ding Junhui faces Reanne Evans.
World Champion Kyren Wilson has been drawn against Mitchell Mann, while world number one Judd Trump meets Sanderson Lam.
Details of how to watch will be announced soon.
The ancient city of Nanjing is set to host a top-class snooker event for the first time, as the world’s top players gather on the banks of the Qinhuai River to compete for glory. To promote snooker, allowing citizens to deeply experience the charm of world-class snooker events and inject new vitality and momentum into the high-quality development of sports in Nanjing, the city of Nanjing has reached an agreement with the event IP owner, CCTVSE, to host this event for three consecutive years (2024-2026).
Austria will celebrate tonight as Florian Nüßle has won the EBSA European Championship 6:Reds Champion.
The skillful Austrian Cueist came from 3-1 down against England’s Stuart Watson to win the Final 5-3 with some devastating safety play and brilliant escape shots.
Florian dedicated his win to his family and friends, the Austrian Federation and his long time Coach PJ Nolan, the EBSA HEAD Coach.
The 6 Reds event here was played at a very high level and was enjoyed by everyone.
Florian will also compete in the EBSA Shootout and the European Men’s Team Event.
Congratulations Florian
Action continues today in Portugal with the shoot-out event.
I have corrected a mistake in the report. The original text claims that the runner was a guy called Shane Mason. I don’t know where that came from but I watched the match and Florian’s opponent was definitely Stuart Watson, one of the very best Seniors players ↩︎
Hong Kong will hold its first ranking event in 35 years, when it welcomes the top players on the planet for the World Grand Prix from March 4th to 9th in 2025.
The event is set to take place at the brand-new Kai Tak Sports Park, which is a state-of-the-art facility set to open next year. When completed, the park will be the largest integrated sports and entertainment landmark in Hong Kong.
The Grand Hall, Kai Tak Arena for the World Grand Prix will have a capacity of over 4,000, with the ambition to play host to snooker’s biggest ever live audience for a ranking tournament. The World Grand Prix is the opening event in the prestigious Players Series, where only the most successful 32 performers of the season will earn a place.
Prize money for the tournament will be boosted by a massive 84% compared to last year’s total fund, rising from £380,000 to £700,000. The top prize jumps from £100,000 to £180,000.
In 2022, the Hong Kong Masters saw the world’s best players congregate for a prestigious invitational event. Ronnie O’Sullivan defeated Marco Fu 6-4 in the final, which was played in front of a world record crowd of over 9,000 in the Hong Kong Coliseum. The only previous ranking event in the city was way back in 1989, when Mike Hallett defeated Dene O’Kane 9-8 in the final of the Hong Kong Open.
WST CEO Simon Brownell said: “We are hugely excited to be taking such a massive event to Hong Kong. This is a move which is in line with our strategy to have a greater distribution of snooker’s biggest tournaments around the world and further globalise the sport. Hong Kong is a territory and market of particular significance for us, and we are delighted to be utilising this new world class venue.
“Having a long-term ranking event in such a prominent global city is fantastic news for the tour. We were impressed by the levels of support at the Hong Kong Masters in 2022. The 9,000 fans in attendance for the final created a magical atmosphere. We would like to thank F Sports Promotions for bringing us back to Hong Kong and we look forward to working again with the Billiard Sports Council of Hong Kong China in this prestigious event.“
Further details including ticket information will be announced soon.
The World Open in Yushan will move one week earlier in the calendar, with dates to be confirmed shortly.
This is good news of course. Ronnie is on the poster, as defending champion but that doesn’t guarantee that he will be in the draw. However, given the very top heavy structure of the prize money distribution, the two semi-finals early in this season should be enough for him to qualify and this is typically the type of event that might motivate him.
Here are some images of the venue, shared by WST. I looks huge.
SAHIL NAYYAR WINS PAN AMERICAN OPEN SNOOKER CHAMPIONSHIP
Canada’s Sahil Nayyar has earned a two-year World Snooker Tour (WST) tour card starting from next season after he defeated Brazil’s Fabio Anderson Luersen 5-1 in the final of the 2024 Pan American Open Snooker Championship.
Pan American Billiards and Snooker Association (PABSA) staged the annual championship at La Bande O’ Coin, Saint-Lambert in Canada from 9-13 October and Nayyar came through a field of 62 cueists from Canada, USA and Brazil to secure the title.
As a result of his success in the prestigious event, the Canadian will be invited to compete on the professional tour from the start of the 2025/26 season.
Earlier in the week Luersen, who finished runner-up in the Open Championship, won the Pan American Seniors Championship and earned a place at the 2025 World Seniors Championship at the iconic Crucible Theatre in Sheffield.
Four victories from six matches were enough for eventual champion Nayyar to qualify from his initial seven-player group phase, before victories over American Tommy Kollins and fellow countryman Wei Gao saw the Canadian book his place in the quarter-finals.
From there, back-to-back whitewash victories over Andy McCloskey and Floyd Ziegler saw Nayyar storm into the final in style.
Recently crowned Pan American Seniors champion Luersen was his opponent after he had beaten former United States national champion Ajeya Prabhakar, 2021 Pan American champion Victor Sarkis and Canadian Gilles Boismenu to reach the title match.
Photos: PABSA
Breaks of 81 and 55 helped Nayyar charge into a 4-0 lead as he moved one frame away from glory in the best-of-nine frame final.
Luersen managed to avoid the whitewash with help from a break of 48 in frame five, but it was too little too late as Nayyar hit back with a break of 47 to get over the line and complete a 5-1 victory.
Congratulations Sahil Nayyar
It’s been a long time we had a Canadian player on the Main Tour.
Unless I’m mistaken the last Canadian to play on the Main Tour as a professional was Alain Robidoux ( pro from 1987 to 2004).
The last Canadian to play on the Main Tour, as a top-up was Alex Pagulayan. “The Lion” was born in the Philippines, but emigrated to Canada with his parents at the age of 13 and had become a Canadian Citizen in 2012. He is primarily a pool player, but in 2014 he played in the Q-School. He won seven matches in the Q-School, lost two. He reached the QFs in event 2. It wasn’t enough to qualify for the Main Tour, but it was enough to get invitations as a top-up. He played in the 2014 Australian Open, the 2014 Shanghai Masters and the 2014 International Championship. He didn’t win a match on the Main Tour.
EBSA Event in Portugal
The 6-reds competition is currently in his final stages, with the QFs underway.
Professional snooker returns to Belfast for the 2024 Northern Ireland Open on Sunday.
WST shared a piece about Neil Robertson who would become the first player to win all four “Home Nations” events should he triumph in Belfast in ten days time, on Sunday 27 October 2024.
The draw is available on snooker.org, in a format that I find much easier to understand than what World Snooker offers. At the time of writing, Ronnie is in the draw and scheduled to play Long Zehuang on Monday 21 October. IF Ronnie does indeed show up and play this will be a very tricky match. In the last event, the 2024 Wuhan Open,, we have seen how good a player Long is.
The draw for the qualifying rounds of the 2024 BetVictor Scottish Open is now available. CLICK HERE for the match schedule.
The qualifiers take place from October 28th to 30th in Sheffield, with winners going through to the final stages in Edinburgh in December.
Notable ties in the opening qualifying rounds include:
Gong Chenzhi v Antoni Kowalski Stan Moody v Iulian Boiko Ross Muir v Ken Doherty Bulcsu Revesz v Bai Yulu Jimmy White v Hatem Yassen
The final stages take place at the Meadowbank Centre in Edinburgh from December 9-15.
Quite frankly, the way WST presents this draw is not particularly easy to read, so here it is on snooker.org in a much “easier to read” presentation. Eddie on snooker.org has also worked his way to “building” the draw for the main event in December. For what it’s worth, Ronnie has entered the event and could face Anthony Hamilton, Xing Zihao or Manassawin Phetmalaikul in his opening match.
Craig’s victory earns him a place in the draw for the 2025 World Seniors Snooker Championship at the Crucible next May. There were 77 players in the Seniors field.
The Women field was much more modest with 22 players. It’s worth noting though that, en route to the title, Rebecca beat Wendy Jans by 4-1. Wendy Jans, from Belgium, has, for many years, been one of the very best female players in the World. Just look at her bio on Wikipedia. That’s some prize list !
The 6-reds championship is currently underway. The live scoring page is here. There are 71 players in the draw, with a host of known names. Notably Anton Kazakov, Florian Nüssle, Iulian Boiko and Brian Ochoiski are all playing in this one.
A number of matches are available live on YouTube. You will find them on Dariuz Goral account or looking up for EBSA. At least table 4 and table 6 are being streamed at the time of writing.
RONNIE O’SULLIVAN SNOOKER ACADEMY LAUNCHED IN RIYADH
Saudi Arabia, October 14th, 2024
His Excellency Turki Alalshikh, Chairman of the General Entertainment Authority (GEA), today announced the opening of the new Ronnie O’Sullivan Snooker Academy in Riyadh, a vital component in the strategy to grow the sport of snooker in Saudi Arabia and develop new talent.
This outstanding new facility in Boulevard City in the heart of Riyadh will be a training base for players where they can improve their skills in the best possible conditions. The Academy will have five snooker tables made by WST’s long term partner and the world’s leading table manufacturer Star Xingpai.
O’Sullivan himself, snooker’s greatest ever player, will make special trips to Riyadh to coach and foster aspiring talent. The Head Coach will be Nigel Bond, the former world number five and 1996 British Open champion, who will use his experience and knowledge of official WPBSA Coaching techniques.
His Excellency Turki Alalshikh, Chairman of the General Entertainment Authority, said: “Snooker is an exciting part of our vision for Riyadh Season and that is why we are proud to partner with Ronnie O’Sullivan, one of the most successful ever in this sport. It will give all aspiring players in Saudi Arabia access to an elite facility to learn and develop under world-class, experienced coaches, as well as Ronnie, as we look to continue to build on the growing interest in snooker.”
Speaking at the launch, O’Sullivan said: “This is a fantastic new facility and I am excited to be working here alongside the best talent in the Kingdom. In snooker, like most sports, there is no substitute for hard work, and this academy will give players an opportunity practise in a great environment. I would love to see tour players and even World Champions from Saudi Arabia one day, and it will give me great satisfaction to play a role in their development. It’s a pleasure to be working with HE Turki Alalshikh on our shared ambition to bring through new players and grow the sport in the region.”
Jason Ferguson, Chairman of snooker’s global governing body WPBSA, added: “The facilities at this new flagship academy are superb, emphasising the ambition of our partners to provide the best local talent with the opportunity to play in the right environment. And with our all-time greatest Ronnie O’Sullivan as a mentor, they will be inspired by the best. The Saudi Arabian Billiards and Snooker Federation and the GEA have our full support as we align with them on sustainable development. This partnership is long term, we want to build the sport of snooker in Saudi Arabia for decades, as we have done in China over the past 20 years, while providing the best young players with pathways to success.”
Snooker’s fan base is rapidly growing in Saudi Arabia, and the first professional tournaments in the Kingdom have been staged this year. In March, O’Sullivan won the Riyadh Season World Masters of Snooker, then in September, Judd Trump triumphed at the Saudi Arabia Snooker Masters world ranking event. Further announcements are coming soon as cue sports continue to thrive in the region.
This isn’t of course the first Ronnie O’ Sullivan snooker academy, as he opened one in Singapore a few years back. It had to be closed when the whole area it was situated in was “revamped” by an ambitious state approved/funded architectural project. It is however the first that is clearly and openly supported by WPBSA/WST as part of their strategy to develop snooker in new areas.1 Jason Ferguson was present at the opening.
And here is the official press release
Here are some pictures shared by various sources on social media, including WST themselves:
There was also two short video shared on twitter (the sound quality isn’t great I’ am afraid… )
Nigel Bond in an excellent coach and one who is truly dedicated to help developing the sport he still loves with a passion even if he isn’t able to play it at the level required to be competitive on the main tour. He’s extremely good with young people too.
If the said area is awash with money… all the best I suppose ↩︎
Stephen Lee turned 50 on Saturday, and yesterday, Sunday 13th of October 2024 his ban from the sport of snooker came to an end. Is he free to return to play? Not quite.
Stephen Lee turned 50 on Saturday, and he was able to celebrate the end of his 12-year ban from snooker for match fixing.
The former world number five was suspended in October of 2012 following reports of irregular betting patterns during a Premier League fixture with John Higgins.
A wider investigation followed before an independent tribunal found Lee guilty of fixing matches in 2008 and 2009, including a World Championship encounter at the Crucible Theatre.
The Englishman was handed a 12-year sentence in 2014, backdated to when his original suspension began two years earlier on his 38th birthday.
It was the most severe punishment handed to a player in the game’s history until last year’s Chinese match-fixing scandal saw Liang Wenbo and Li Hang given lifetime bans from the sport.
In theory, Lee is now free to return to competitive action from when his snooker ban ended on October 12th, 2024.
However, it’s unlikely that we’ll see him competing in any tournament sanctioned by or affiliated with the World Professional Billiard and Snooker Association (WPBSA) in the near future.
Lee owes the WPBSA £125,000 in legal fees related to the court cases and unsuccessful appeals from a decade ago.
When approached for comment, a spokesperson for the WPBSA told SnookerHQ.com: “Stephen Lee would need to reach a satisfactory agreement with the WPBSA over settlement of his costs before he could play.”
The unpaid fines will prevent Lee from participating on the Q Tour, Q School, and the WSF Championship – normal routes for amateur players to gain promotion back to the World Snooker Tour.
What has Stephen Lee said?
“I must get asked this weekly, daily, minutely,” Stephen Lee said about a possible comeback in 2022, as reported in The Mirror.
“I would like to say no, but I am still capable of playing. Let’s see what happens in two years. It’s not a no, and not a yes.”
“We can only just see what happens in a couple of years’ time. I have some exciting things coming up, and I’m also getting older.
“My eyes are getting worse, and I never had good eyes to start with. As you get older the determination and the fire goes.”
Yet it appears any of those small aspirations have since disappeared, with Lee confirming as much in a Facebook post in January this year.
“Not a chance of it my friend,” was Lee’s reply to a comment on the social media platform which encouraged him to complete the comeback.
“I struggle to break off nowadays. It’s down to my son now…”
Lee’s son Alfie is an aspiring amateur player who has competed in Q School and at the WSF Championship in 2023.
Stephen Lee after winning an APTC minor-ranking event in 2012. Photo credit: WST
What did Lee achieve in snooker?
When he was suspended in 2012, Stephen Lee was regarded as one of the best players in the world and had recently secured his fifth career ranking title.
The Englishman graduated to the pro tour in the same year as Ronnie O’Sullivan, John Higgins, and Mark Williams – the fabled Class of 1992.
He didn’t quite enjoy the same level of success as his contemporaries from that era, but his silky cue action was widely regarded as among the smoothest in history.
In addition to reaching the 2008 Masters final where he was denied Triple Crown glory by Mark Selby, Lee’s best finish at the World Championship was a semi-final appearance in 2003.
He won the Grand Prix twice (renamed the LG Cup in 2001), the Scottish Open, the Welsh Open, and the Players Tour Championship Grand Finals.
During the 2000/01 and 2003/04 snooker seasons, Lee was ranked as high as number five on the official world rankings list.
Why was Stephen Lee banned?
Lee had survived several investigations into suspicious betting patterns prior to the one that eventually banished him from the sport in 2014.
A tribunal ruled he deliberately lost matches against Ken Doherty, Neil Robertson, and Marco Fu at the 2008 Malta Cup.
He was also deemed to have agreed to lose the first frame against both Stephen Hendry and Mark King during matches played at the 2008 UK Championship.
Lee was additionally found guilty of influencing the outcome of matches against Mark Selby at the 2009 China Open and Ryan Day at the 2009 World Championship.
Since getting banned, the Trowbridge potter has had other run-ins with the law.
In 2014, Lee was fined by Swindon Magistrates’ Court for failing to deliver a cue he had sold online to the buyer.
Four years later, he appeared in court again for teaching snooker without a permit in Hong Kong.
For a period last year, the five-time tour title winner was one of the best potters on the planet, reclaiming his place in the top 10 as his smooth cue action helped rack up a string of impressive results.
But behind the scenes his world was unravelling, with a web of deceit finally exposed at a tribunal which heard he teamed up with his then manager, sponsor and a friend so they could profit from his cheating.
Lee, of Trowbridge, Wiltshire, was found guilty of deliberately throwing two matches at the 2008 Malta Cup and the opening frame of two games he went on to win at the UK Championship that year.
He agreed to lose by a particular score in another Malta Cup encounter, and pulled off the same trick in a match at both the 2009 China Open and World Championship.
If the offences had been committed more recently, he would have been given a mandatory life ban under a tougher disciplinary regime introduced after Barry Hearn took over as boss of the World Professional Billiards and Snooker Association (WPBSA).
Because his case has been heard under the rules as they stood when the matches took place, a lifetime suspension is not guaranteed, although the option will be available when his sentence is considered on 24 September.
Hearn maintains there is no place for cheats in the game, and he set up a dedicated integrity unit – headed by former detective chief superintendent Nigel Mawer, an expert in tackling sport match-fixing.
They are aware that any event with only two outcomes (a winner and loser) is potentially open to those who want to profit from wrongdoing via inside information.
Every match is monitored for unusual betting patterns on a range of markets, from frame winners to correct scores, with alarm bells sounded by punters placing unusually large wagers or a big-staking new account holder focused on one particular player.
“Match fixing is a growing concern, indeed a cancer in many sports, and must be eradicated,” said Adam Lewis QC, chairman of the independent tribunal which heard the Lee case over three days in Bristol.
World champion Ronnie O’Sullivan’s claim after the verdict that he has heard of other players throwing matches echoes comments that have floated around snooker for years.
If a player is willing to deliberately lose a frame or match, he can do so – veiling the act under a cloak of excuses, which could range from a mis-hit shot, pressure, nerves or being out of form.
Lee’s downfall shows this remains possible, whatever the safeguards, but also that those who cheat risk their careers.
While online gambling, and the ability to ‘lay’ or back against a particular outcome, has opened up the scope for more fixing, the trail of evidence from betting accounts, computers and phone calls can expose the cheat.
Whereas criminal cases, with the evidential ‘beyond reasonable doubt’ standard, are harder to prove, sport governing bodies can successfully bring cases within their own rules using the civil standard of proof – ‘the balance of probabilities’.
This is what did for Lee. He had been arrested by West Midlands Police in 2010 over the allegations, but the Crown Prosecution Service decided to drop the charges in October 2012.
When fresh suspicions surrounded a Premier League game against John Higgins, which Lee lost 4-2 and was not pursued to a hearing, World Snooker suspended the Wiltshire player and opened its own investigation.
The tribunal report into the Lee case said bets were placed by three groups of people, including his then sponsor Paul Jones – an independent financial adviser trading as Prosperity from Stourbridge in the West Midlands – who opened multiple betting accounts with various associates.
The second group were found to have been co-ordinated by his then manager Neil Clague, based on the Isle of Man, who placed almost identical bets. And the third was a friend called Ian MacDougall, from his hometown of Trowbridge.
They bet in unusually high amounts, on the internet and with high street bookmakers.
“Lee was in contact with the groups in the lead-up to the matches in question and afterwards,” said a WPBSA statement.
“In one case the person collected the successful bet and placed half of the winnings into Lee’s wife’s bank account.
“The total amount bet on these matches was in excess of £111,000 leading to winnings of over £97,000 for the persons placing the bets. It is not clear how much Lee benefited from their activity.”
Lee will have the chance to put forward mitigation, and can cite the fact he has been suspended for a year already and the allegations have hung over him since early 2010.
He has been in trouble before – testing positive for cannabis in 2001 after a routine drugs test at the Champions Cup in Brighton – although his father insisted it was the result of him being in a room with someone smoking the drug.
However, these fresh findings bring far more serious consequences and come just after a time when his career was on the up again.
He rose to fifth in the world from a ranking of 18 at the start of the 2011-12 season, and over two years pocketed a total of more than £200,000 in prize money from tour events alone.
Only last March, he won his first ranking tournament for six years, whitewashing then world champion Neil Robertson 4-0 to win the Players Tour Championship Grand Finals in Galway.
“It’s a cracking feeling. It makes all the hard work and travelling worthwhile,” said Lee at the time.
But despite making well over £2m from tournaments during his career, he was in financial trouble. The father-of-four, who married his long-time partner Laura in Florida in 2005, faced county court judgements for unpaid bills.
His camp protested innocence throughout and claimed the suspension effectively made him guilty before any evidence had been fully examined.
“He has worked incredibly hard. He is sick of all this stuff getting thrown at him and feels there are doubts about him every time he misses a ball,” said his most recent manager Adam Quigley around the time of his suspension.
Supporters bemoaned the length of time it took to bring the case, but the process was not helped by the player changing his lawyer three times.
Quite why he was in financial turmoil, or exactly what motivated his money-making misdemeanours, has not been made clear. When asked for his side of the story, he wanted to be paid for it.
During his suspension, which applies to tournaments sanctioned by World Snooker, he has still been playing the game for money at other events and exhibition matches.
In May, Lee – who will be 39 next month, a year to the day from his suspension – won the RKG Masters pro-am tournament in India, with his run including a 7-1 defeat of Michael Holt in the semi-finals.
But after 21 years as a professional, the chance of him adding to his tour titles now looks remote.
I was taking pictures at that fateful premier league match that triggered the whole investigation and, eventually, the ban. Although this match was not “retained” in the investigation eventually, there were no doubts in my mind, nor in Clive Everton’s1 mind that something was seriously amiss. Yet, bizarrely, when I watched it back on YouTube years later it wasn’t that obvious on the TV images. But it definitely was there and then in the arena. John Higgins who was his opponent must have sensed it as well. Judd Trump who was watching on TV called it on Twitter. The last minutes of the last frame in particular featured some bizarre shot selections and misses.
Anyway you can judge by yourself … the end of the match is still on YouTube
Why would Stephen Lee, who was earning decently from his snooker, need so much money? I don’t have an answer to that. There were rumours that he and his wife were drug addicts but that were rumours nothing more. It is true that Lee was prone to sweating profusely2 which can possibly be a symptom of withdrawal, but it could have a lot different causes of course. He wasn’t a particularly fit guy for a start…
Many want to see him back on tour. I’m not one of them.
Ronnie O'Sullivan 