Here is the short report shared by WST:
Slessor Seals Group Two
Elliot Slessor overcame fellow Newcastle cueman Gary Wilson 3-1 in the Group Two final at the BetVictor Championship League Invitational in Leicester.
The pair were competing alongside five other players seeking to prevail and earn a spot in the next phase, but it is 31-year-old Slessor who earned his place to return in February.
The group phase concluded this afternoon, with the top four players progressing to the semi-finals. Slessor scored wins over Wilson and Chris Wakelin and lost out against Jackson Page to finish third. Meanwhile Wilson beat Joe O’Connor 3-2 to finish top.
The semis saw Wilson beat O’Connor 3-1 and Slessor prevail 3-0 against Thailand’s Noppon Saengkham.
Wilson one the opening frame of the title match, but a spectacular three frame blitz saw Slessor swoop. Breaks of 108, 57 and 138 gave him three on the bounce and the win.
All the detailed results are available on snooker.org
Group 3 will start today, with Si Jiahui, Xiao Guodong and Antoni Kowalski joining Gary Wilson, Chris Wakelin, Yuan Sijun and Joe O’Connor in Groyp 3.
Meanwhile, the 2026 German Masters qualifiers got underway yesterday, with the lowest ranked players needing to win three best of 9 matches to get to the venue. The results for that competition can be found here on snooker.org.
The two women involved yesterday, Mink and Reanne, were beaten heavily, both lost by 5-0!
The more this goes on, the less I’m convinced that it’s promoting snooker for women and that it will possibly attract young girls to the sport, or convince their parents to support them if they want to embrace the sport. From comments I see on social media, it only feeds the already existing prejudices against women in snooker. It certainly doesn’t help their confidence either.
The usual discourse from WPBSA is that there is “no reason” why girls wouldn’t be as good at snooker as boys, and, of course, Bai Yulu was nominated by the CBSA on merit, not because of her gender. But statistically boys/men do have a better eye-hand coordination than women/girls, and they are taller and stronger. Every mother or teacher who deals with young kids of both genders sees it, right from the early months in life. These differences are almost certainly inherited from millennia of slow evolution in primitive societies where men were the providers/hunters and women the ones caring for the young and elderly. A good eye-hand coordination is an essential attribute needed to succeed as an efficient hunter, it’s not that important to be a good carer1. Of course “statistically” is saying nothing about any particular individual but it is meaningful at the scale of an entire population.
- Other qualities are more prevalent in women – patience, resilience, empathy, linguistic skills – and they are just as valuable than the more “male” attributes. ↩︎
Ronnie O'Sullivan 
Ronnie appears to be in Ireland practising for the Masters:
https://www.totallysnookered.com/sport/snooker/tournaments/masters/irish-bootcamp-for-ronnie-osullivan-as-he-prepares-for-record-extending-masters-title-tilt-5464752
Yes, I saw that too. Fingers crossed.
Should we see women playing in top events? Probably yes. Should we see senior players, such as Jimmy White? There still seems to be a demand. Should we see players from new countries, to help promote the game? Again, yes there are really important benefits.
The problem is that the ‘tour card’ system is exclusive, or at least pretends to be. Even this week, there are several ‘amateurs’ topping up the German Masters draw. We are also seeing a number of top players reducing their schedule. It’s no longer the case that every event comprises the same 128 ‘professional’ players every time.
Unfortunately, everyone is so used to the 128-player model, that they can’t see any alternative. Nobody: no player or anyone in the media has questioned it at all: it’s a total failure of imagination.
We should have a much more varied tournament landscape, and indeed women could play in SOME top events, but not ALL. And in the meantime they would have the time to play in WWS events. Bai Yulu had a gap of just 1 day between her WWS win in Bangkok and the WST International Championship in Nanjing, where she was scheduled to play two best-of-11 matches on the opening day.
Maybe this is indeed not a good way to promote snooker for women, and for sure, Mink and her performance is truly disappointing. Especially, because she wanted to be at the main tour. I don’t feel that strong about Evans: she after all was socialize in the women’s tour and it’s not so easy to overcome that. But then the only answer seems to be that snooker is not for women, or at least not in a competitive way. Because really, why would anyone take up snooker or support a daughter to do so, if the best and only outcome of their efforts is this depressing place called the women’s tour?
The WWS tour will improve. I’ve been to the last two World Championships, and the venue and organisation there was better than most of the WST ‘ranking’ tournaments in the UK.
The venue might improve, but as long as the “competition” remains of the same low standard and people celebrate a 145 as the highest break for women (in a losing match btw) and they poke balls and a 50+ break is something to applaud, the prospect is not too inviting.
Replying to kingjoyful06fab220f8:
Well, you say that, but in the early 1980’s they used to applaud 50 breaks, and a 100 break got a standing ovation. It didn’t stop snooker from becoming a top sport in the UK. Then, each decade since we have seen the standard rise considerably. Bai Yulu is already roughly the level of a top-16 player in the 1980’s.
But we live in the present and it’s not very inviting to tell women/girls they can be like top men in the 1980s. And I’m s big fan of Bai Yulu, but she is all alone and it’s very disheartening to read how wonderful she is winning many women’s tournaments in a row, because it pinpoints the lack of competition there and also it would be so good if she could win matches on the main tour.
Ok, call a group of the CL Snooker an event! Because: Csilla……………………Elliot Slessor won a snooker event! Yes!!!
Lol, and most likely this will be one of the pinnacles if his career. I just hope he didn’t throw any tantrum this time.