From Tehran to Darlington via the Iranian army, Soheil Vahedi wants the Crucible to be the next stop on his unique snooker journey
Soheil Vahedi has forged a unique path in his snooker career (Picture: Getty Images)
Snooker has taken Soheil Vahedi from growing up in Tehran to a new life in Darlington, with his unique journey including an 18-month stint in the Iranian army along the way.
The 31-year-old has battled the odds to make it onto the professional tour and now he is set-up in his new home, he is ready to put all the adversity he has experienced in his career to good use.
Certainly not the most glamorous of destinations, but Darlington has managed to attract not only the man from Tehran, but also the only Brazilian on tour, Igor Figueiredo, making the County Durham town an unlikely cosmopolitan hub, at least in snooker terms.
Vahedi explains that for players ranked outside the top 100, Darlington makes a lot of sense, even if it doesn’t mean a lot of fun.
‘I spent all of lockdown here in Darlington, I’ve been here full-time about four or five months.’ Vahedi told Metro.co.uk.
‘I didn’t play for two months, but now I’m practicing eight hours a day. ‘Most of the time me and Igor are here. It’s because Darlington is a bit cheaper than London or Sheffield, the cost of living is less which is good for us lower-ranked players and the academy is good.
‘I still pay about £1000 a month in all expenses and rent, so it’s still expensive, but cheaper than other places.
‘But there’s nothing in Darlington to have fun, it’s not a great town to live in. I haven’t seen much of it really, but I haven’t heard from local boys that there’s so much going off here.
‘I was told by a few players that Q House Academy is a nice place to practice. When I came here we had a full house – Thepchaiya, Xhao Guodong and Zhou Yuelong – but since COVID 19 came out of nowhere, they all went.
‘Some of them may come back here, but maybe not, they may go to Ding’s academy in Sheffield, only time will tell. I’m sure they will be replaced by other players, hopefully, because the owner here has put a lot of money into the club to improve the academy.
’ Soheil’s winding journey has also taken him through Glasgow, where he practiced with Anthony McGill and developed huge respect for four-time world champion John Higgins.
‘I was in Glasgow previously,’ he explained. ‘I didn’t have many players to practice with. For a while I was practicing with Anthony [McGill] but then he got that unit with Stevie [Maguire] and John Higgins and since then he’s been with them.
‘John Higgins was nice to me a few times to practice with me and I enjoyed his company, he’s a lovely man and I enjoyed practicing with him.
‘Some times he took me down to Barnsley for matches, and one time we drew each other, he gave me a lift down, bashed me up and then he bought me a train ticket home [Higgins beat Vahedi 5-0 in the 2019 German Masters qualifiers].
‘He’s an absolutely brilliant guy, people who don’t know him as close as I did wouldn’t know he’s as nice as he is.’
Vahedi has battled the odds to make it as a pro (Picture: NurPhoto via Getty Images)
Now in the UK full-time and settled here with his wife, Vahedi expects to make more inroads on the world rankings and improve on his current position of 103.
The stress of travelling between Iran and the UK has been removed, but he still feels overseas players are at a disadvantage, with the British focus of the tour suiting local players.
‘I’ve been in the UK about seven months now, full-time,’ Soheil explained. ‘But last season I was here for six or seven months without going back to Iran. Then I went over for our wedding, with the engagement and everything, I had to go over and with all the rush and hassle before a wedding I had to come to the UK twice, so it was pretty tough, but now I’ve got my wife here it’s making it a bit easier.
‘There are so many players in so many academies that haven’t got their families or their better halves with them and not having a nice time in the UK. They don’t know what they’re eating, they’re up late at night, they’re all over the place. That’s one of the reasons some of the lower ranked players are struggling because they’re not living properly, or how they’re used to in their own home.
‘People are absolutely clueless about it. They just watch snooker and think, “why is he not performing?” But they don’t know what’s happening in our lives. Because they don’t know, they tend to judge us, but since my wife came here and I started a new life, I have improved.
‘Some people know it, some people don’t, but it’s easy to sit in front of the tele and judge technique, your head’s not right, this and that, he’s not going to make it…but they don’t know what’s happening. We’re trying our hardest to hit our peak but it’s very, very difficult.
‘For somebody like me coming from Iran, it makes it 10 times harder to play snooker, compared to a British player. They’ve got their family, their own food, they know the rules of the country. Some wont even have rent because they stay with their parents, they’ve got somebody beside them all the time. I didn’t have that, so for us, it’s three or four times more difficult to play snooker than 80% of the tour.’
It is not just life on tour that is trickier for overseas players, but their grounding in the game is very different to those growing up in the UK, as Vahedi explains.
‘When I was growing up. 20 years ago, I was practising in this club on this table. It was an Iranian table, so the condition was bad. ‘Say the middle bags, if you wanted to stun a red in, it would come out because the pockets were so bad. But if you wanted to play it slow you had to have played golf before snooker because you had to aim maybe five inches from the pocket to curve into it.
‘That’s how I grew up. Some players from the UK start on a Star table, with a coach, a proper cue. I was playing with a club cue for five years. They don’t realise how blessed they are.
‘We’ve done it the hard way. Maybe that kept us going, doing it the hard way, because when it’s easy you get lazy. I’m proud of doing it the hard way and I’m giving it my best to play as well as I can. Hopefully good things will happen in the future.
’ It has taken years of dedication for Vahedi just to have his professional status, and the hard work stems from a deep love of the game which came about almost entirely by chance, when a young Soheil first discovered snooker.
‘I was playing football in a park for eight or 10 hours a day,’ he explained.
‘We lost a match and had to sit and wait for a turn. A friend said there’s a billiards club round the corner. I asked him what billiards was because I hadn’t even heard the word before. We went and I saw the table with balls and pockets and as soon as I saw it I felt there was something about it.
‘Within a week I’d stopped playing football and I was in the club watching for 12 hours a day. Because I didn’t have support I had to watch until I got my pocket money which maybe bought me two hours in a month on the table.
‘Some of the older players could see I loved the game and then showed some talent so I would partner them in doubles snooker. When I partnered them they would tell me what shot to play and, I didn’t have a clue what I was doing, because I didn’t really know the rules.
‘It was loser pays for the lights and winner stays on, and I wanted to practice so much. Maybe 10 groups of two were waiting for the table one day and we were on for about eight hours and didn’t lose. There was the best player in the club and he chose me as a partner, he told me what to do and I would just do it. I think I was 13 then.’
Vahedi started to show some serious promise, reaching the final of the World Amateur Under-21 Championship in 2009 in his home country, but his progress was slowed in 2012 when he had to fulfil his national service in the Iranian army, A character-building experience, Vahedi felt it was harming his snooker career at the time, but has taken the positives from the steep learning curve he found himself on.
‘It was eight years ago for 18 months,’ Soheil said. ‘You go to educational part of it, the first two or three months. You learn how to work with guns, putting it together, learning to shoot, how to march, life in difficult situations in the desert.
‘It was so cold, sleeping in a tent. During a war you might have to spend a few nights in a desert because you’re running from the enemy. It was a very difficult 18 months, it taught me a lot of things but it also wasted my life as well. As a snooker player, I’m doing that to serve my country, performing for Iran as a flag bearer.
‘That wasn’t the case for us. Before I went there I had three semi-finals, one in the World Games, IBSF, Under-21 World Championship. With all that, I still had to serve, everyone serves the same way. You learn to be humble like that. You learn to be the same with everyone.
‘In your home, everything is done by your mama. You don’t do anything. You can’t even unscrew a screw with a screwdriver because you don’t know. But in the army, the first day you get there there’s a load of iron, screws and screwdrivers and they say “that’s your bed” and if you want to sleep in it you have to make it. They leave you and say “good luck”. I had to think how to put the thing together. Then you think about what you’ve done in your life. Your parents have been so kind to you that you never have to do anything like that.
‘I think it did help with snooker because when you’re in there it’s a tough life. You cherish every second of being on the table, winning matches and getting pleasure out of it, You realise how blessed you are to be a snooker player, have the talent, go to different countries, travel the world. You realise you’re very lucky, you value your life more after being in there.
‘In the middle of the desert, in a tent, -15 degrees and you haven’t got a blanket. You can light a candle for 10 minutes or so. You sleep like that, I remember turning over and being frozen, because it’s so cold you have to stay still for eight hours or whatever.
‘On tour I’ve seen it all. I’ve seen players complain about a bed not being big enough. I’m like “what are you talking about? Put your head down and stop talking.” They haven’t seen difficult times in life, that’s why they start moaning.’
Vahedi has, so far, only shown flashes of his talents in the pro game, with a run to the fourth round of the Welsh Open this year one of the highlights as he knocked out Thepchaiya un-Nooh and Jack Lisowski before losing to Ronnie O’Sullivan.
His next task is to become the first Iranian to qualify for the World Championship at the Crucible, something he is battling the other Iranian pro, Hossein Vafaei, to achieve.
The results have not come yet, but with his settled life in the North East and hours of practice behind him, he is confident they will arrive in Sheffield this month.
‘In a way it’s a new journey now, but I’ve got experience, that’s the difference,’ he said. ‘I’ve got the game and the experience, I just need a click, that moment that changes everything and I’m working very hard for that moment. Hopefully it happens one day.
‘I’m very confident. I practice for eight hours a day. 9.30am-6pm, with an hour for lunch. Sometimes solo, sometimes match practice. I’m very, very confident, I know it’ll be difficult, but I’ve got a chance. Play well in the first two qualifiers and you’re sharp and ready for the third and fourth.
‘It’s going to be difficult in quarantine, in the hotels, not allowed to go out, but having the snooker back is good enough for me.’
I’m wishing Soheil the best in Sheffield next week. He won’t have it easy. His first opponent will be Alan Taylor, a former pro. Alan has played on the Challenge Tour this season and has qualified for the play-offs. This means that he will have at least one competitive match at the EIS under his belt before facing Soheil. It certainly puts Alan at an advantage.
Soheil is absolutely right about the British players being helped by the current structure of the tour, a structure that practically forces players to be UK based. Living as an expat is never easy, especially if you’re not well-off and, in this piece, Soheil explains exactly why.
Ronnie O’Sullivan explains why he can’t watch his own matches
Ronnie O’Sullivan says he struggles to watch his own matches back, because he can be so critical of his own cue action.
The Rocket is incredibly harsh on himself, saying that he has felt suicidal after winning matches, because he was still so disappointed with how he played.
His work with sports psychologist Dr Steve Peters has helped him overcome this crippling self analysis, but it still stops the five-time world champion from watching himself play at times.
O’Sullivan hates to see minor and often insignificant changes to his cue action, which he knows are inevitable, but are still a source of frustration.
‘I’ve got about 50 cue actions,’ O’Sullivan told Stephen Hendry on Instagram. ‘I’m a lot better now than I used to be, but I’ve had a nightmare.
‘I can’t even watch myself play sometimes because I watch it and think, “I don’t like that, I don’t like this.”
‘I’ve had so many different cue actions, I think it’s just part and parcel, you’re always tweaking about.
‘Sometimes when you change, no one would even notice, it’s just you. Moving this finger or that finger, go a bit more square on, go a bit shorter.
‘Although you think you’ve made a change, you probably haven’t, it’s more psychological.’
The futility of feeling down about his cue action is proved by O’Sullivan feeling he played badly in a near perfect performance against Ali Carter in 2007.
The Rocket beat the Captain 5-2 in the Northern Ireland Trophy, making five centuries, including a maximum 147.
It was a performance that the majority of professionals in history could not repeat, but Ronnie was unhappy afterwards.
‘I played Ali Carter I think I made five centuries in a best of nine, one of them’s a 147 and afterwards I just felt I wasn’t cueing that well.
‘I wasn’t! But for some reason they just went in that day.
’ O’Sullivan is back in action at the World Championship, which begins on 31 July, as he looks to win his first ranking event of a season which has been quiet by his high standards.
He may have had a slow and steady season and not won the World Championship since 2013, but the 44-year-old goes into the tournament as second favourite with the event sponsors, Betfred, only behind reigning champion Judd Trump.
Ronnie is a perfectionist through and through and it has often been his undoing.
That said, I remember that match in 2007 very well. Ronnie was crucified by fans and media afterwards because he wasn’t happy with his performance. And yet, he was right. He may have had five centuries in that match, including a 147, but he wasn’t creating opportunities for himself. His long potting wasn’t great at all and he had to rely on his opponents mistakes to get in. Once in the balls he was OK, Ali gave him those opportunities. The next day, Fergal O’Brien played a much tighter game and beat him.
That Ronnie is second favourite this year doesn’t make sense. Neil Robertson and Shaun Murphy, both had a much better season so far and should definitively be ahead of him. But they aren’t and that’s part of Ronnie’s problem. He has always a lot of expectations on his shoulders even when nothing actually justifies them. It doesn’t help him.
Let’s start with the bad news, and, if confirmed it’s VERY bad news.
Apparently, the China govt has published an advice/recommendation/law – I’m not sure how to name this – on July 6 that basically means that there will be no International sporting event of any kind allowed in China, hence no snooker tournaments in China until 2021 the earliest.
Here is the source:
I don’t understand any Chinese but I have no reason to doubt this is genuine.
That means that the idea to have a string of Chinese ranking events at the start of the next season is as good as ruled out, and there would be no Shanghai Masters either. This may hit the game hard, because the Chinese events are actually more lucrative in general than the European ones. It’s a big loss of revenues for the payers. It could probably impact the perception and broadcasting of snooker in China as well, and with it the financial support China gives to the sport.
If this decision is extended further in 2021, it could be a disaster. If not, then, WST will probably have to rethink the calendar, pushing events that are usually played early in the season, after the new year. It will probably also have an impact on the Champion of Champions criteria.
And them we have another David Hendon and Michael McMullan podcast. They answer fans’ questions – there are some interesting ones – then turn to discussing the “Crucible Curse” and why it’s no curse.
davehendon · Snooker Scene Podcast episode 115 – Be Here Now
At the time of writing the draw for the World Championship Qualifiers is yet to be announced. My guess is that there are quite a few “non-entries” and WST is still busy contacting amateur players to fill the draw, whilst making sure that they will actually be able to attend.
Meanwhile, some images of the practice tables being installed in the “Bubble Hotel” were shared on social media:
Other than that Phil Haigh has published another article about Ronnie and here is the link.
The content is nothing new really. Ronnie shares how, in the past, his own perfectionism and expectations have held him back and even driven to depression. It’s something he has spoken, and written, about before in other interviews and his his biographies.
here is the most relevant excerpt:
‘I just want to be the best that I can be,’ O’Sullivan told Stephen Hendry on Instagram.
‘I’ve played tournaments, played terrible, but won, then felt suicidal! ‘But I’ve lost matches, played really well and thought, “Yeah! I can’t wait for the next tournament!”
‘For me it was about how I played, and that’s the wrong way to be and that’s why I’ve changed.
‘It’s about getting through, getting the job done, live to fight another day.
‘Once the penny dropped, working with Steve Peters, it’s very hard to go back to how I was pre-Steve Peters.
‘I was all over the gaff really. Yeah I’d win tournaments if I was on it, but if I wasn’t I had no chance really.
‘Whereas now, I’ve won so many tournaments where I’ve gone into it feeling like I’m playing absolutely terrible. Because I’ve had the right mindset I’ve worked my way into it, got to the quarters, started to fly and then won other tournaments off the back of it.
‘That wouldn’t have happened pre-Steve Peters. I’m a much better winning machine than I was.’
Phil also quotes Steve Peters speaking on the BBC about his work with Ronnie back in 2013
‘When Ronnie approached me he expressed what he wanted to do with his emotions, his mind, his thinking and the frustrations of why he couldn’t do that,’ Peters said.
‘I see people, when I work with them, as students really. All I’m there to do is to give them the equipment to deal with their minds, to work with it the way they want to work with it. Ronnie’s been an amazing student.
‘I work with a model, which is called the Chimp Model. It’s a simple way of understanding how they mind works and what the rules are.
‘When you walk out there to play snooker, inevitably the chimp will kick off and say “I don’t want to be here at all, this is going to be threatening.” Who knows what it’ll say? It’s about learning what your particular emotions are going to do to you.
‘Then behind that there’s a back-up system that I call “The Computer” which is try to understand the belief systems you’re holding when you go in there and what are your values.
‘We all feel pressure under certain circumstances and Ronnie’s saying he’s learned how to deal with it now, rather than just succumb to it and react to it.
‘It’s a learning process. He’s much better this year than he was last year [2012], he’s making improvements so long may it continue.’
Ronnie was also in contact with Steve Peters, during the CLS aka the”Covid Classic”. Hopefully, Steve Peters will be able to help him coping with the unusual conditions during the coming World Championship.
Ronnie O’Sullivan is set to participate in his 27th straight World Championship as he chases a sixth title that would see him equal the Crucible hauls of Steve Davis and Ray Reardon.
It will be a serious business for O’Sullivan and the rest of snooker’s leading players with the game’s most coveted trophy and a £500,000 first prize on the line in Sheffield when the delayed tournament begins on Friday 31 July.
O’Sullivan has plenty of memories since first appearing at the Crucible as a teenager in 1993, but can also still enjoy the lighter side of the sport as a fan.
The five-times world champion – who is seeded sixth at this year’s event – recalls watching a match between then defending world champion John Parrott and Tony Knowles in 1992 when Parrott benefited from a blunder by legendary referee Len Ganley on his way to a 13-4 win in the last 16.
“One of my favourite moments was a match between John Parrott and Tony Knowles. I remember watching it on the box,” said O’Sullivan.
“John Parrott was in a snooker on the brown. He missed it, and the referee said: ‘foul four, and a miss’. Tony Knowles has said to the referee: ‘Yeah, put the white back’.
“Parrott suddenly gets down to pot the brown, blue, pink and black to clear up. Knowlsey is going mad. He is saying to the referee: ‘He couldn’t see that brown.’
“Poor Knowlsey. He was getting out of his chair, and was fuming. But it was funny to watch.”
It might be perceived as a bit mean to find that incident funny, but, myself, I have witnessed Tony Kowles getting quite worked up about something related to snooker and he got so passionate about it, despite the fact that nobody was disagreeing with him in that particular case, that indeed, it became actually funny.
Regarding the above incident, what puzzles me most is the fact that John Parrott must have known that the white had not been correctly replaced, and said nothing. Unless, of course, Tony’s perception of the situation was wrong from the start. That’s possible because, a player sat in his chair at the Crucible, certainly does not have the best view on the table.
Ronnie O’Sullivan admits he will always regret engaging with boxing trash talk before his World Championship semi-final with Stephen Hendry in 2002.
Ahead of his Crucible clash with seven-times world champion Hendry 18 years ago, O’Sullivan infamously said he would like to send his opponent “back to his sad little life in Scotland”.
It is a moment the Essex player always regrets – he later apologised to Hendry – but believes his close friendship with former world featherweight champion boxer Prince Naseem Hamed did not help before getting inside the ropes with his fellow 36-times ranking winner.
“I wonder – rightly – whether he’s been listening to a certain Sheffield boxer with a penchant for shooting his mouth off,” said Hendry in his autobiography Me and the Table.
“In the last couple of seasons, my pal Prince Naseem has visibly switched his loyalties from me to Ronnie, and the latter has been spotted hanging out with Naz’s entourage. So it’s not surprising there’s a bit of fighting talk.”
The pre-match barbs backfired on O’Sullivan as he lost 17-13 to a fired up Hendry in the semi-finals, who also admitted it is the only grudge match he ever played at the iconic Sheffield venue.
Hendry rolled in breaks of 125, 124, 122, 113, 100, 81, 73, 65, 63, 59, 58, 55 and 53 as he won five of the last six frames to progress to the final, punching the air in completing victory.
“That was terrible. I blamed myself for that,” said O’Sullivan.
“It should never have happened. But I’m also blaming Naz for getting me so revved up. He said to me the day before the match: ‘You should be more like this, or more like that.’
“It was okay for Naz because he was a boxer, but I’m a snooker player. You have to respect your opponent. In boxing, they like that sort of trash talk to sell tickets. It wasn’t really me. I was easily led. When I said it, and when it came out, I was gutted.
It is something I will always regret for the rest of my life. Stephen was my hero, and still is. I never a meant a word of it. I’ve told Stephen that, and apologised to him. I have a lot of time for Stephen, and he accepted my apology. We’re good mates now – we have a solid friendship.
“It was a big mistake on my part.”
It was indeed a very bad idea and it backfired big time. It also led to quite heated – and colourful – discussions between fans of both players on forums and message boards, notably on BBC 606, long after the players themselves had patched things up!
Two days ago David Hendon published this podcast on his soundcloud channel:
davehendon · Snooker Scene Podcast episode 114 – World Championship Predictions
David Hendon and Michael McMullan first reflect on Stephen Maguire’s Tour Championship win, as well as on his career so far.
They then turn their attention to the 2020 World Championship seeds and discuss who they fancy to reach the one table setup. Looking at each quarter, they each give their opinion on the chances each player has to get the the semi finals, why, and, in case they pick a different player to go through, they push the debate further until they find an agreement.
Judd Trump (1) / Qualifier Yan Bingtao (16) / Qualifier Stephen Maguire (9) / Qualifier Kyren Wilson (8) / Qualifier
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John Higgins (5) / Qualifier David Gilbert (12) / Qualifier Jack Lisowski (13) / Qualifier Mark Allen (4) / Qualifier
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Mark Williams (3) / Qualifier Stuart Bingham (14) / Qualifier Ding Junhui (11) / Qualifier Ronnie O’Sullivan (6) / Qualifier
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Mark Selby (7) / Qualifier Shaun Murphy (10) / Qualifier Barry Hawkins (15) / Qualifier Neil Robertson (2) / Qualifier
In the first quarter, they both picked Judd Trump. Looking at his season as a whole, it’s a logical choice. However, he didn’t play well neither in the Championship League, nor in the Tour Championship. In the latter, his postmatch interview very much reminded me of the Judd Trump of the past. At the Crucible, a huge weight of expectations and the attention of the media will be on him. There are reasons why a first time champion has never defended successfully. Actually, I wouldn’t be surprised if he lost on the first day. If we look back at the last decade, we had three first time World Champions: 2010, Neil Robertson, 2014, Mark Selby and 2015, Stuart Bingham. As defending Champions, Neil and Stuart lost in the first round, Mark Selby, who went on to win three times in four consecutive years, lost in the last 16. That’s how hard it is. My pick in that quarter would be Stephen Maguire. I don’t think pressure will be an issue in the early rounds, and he certainly is the man on form.
In the second quarter, they picked Mark Allen, and I agree. Michael McMullan makes him the favourite to win the tournament. I’m not sure about that. Mark often seems to run out of steam in the latter stages. The reason for that, in my opinion at least, is that Mark isn’t physically fit enough. The World Championship is am endurance test, mentally and physically. I’m certain that Mark has the game to be a World Champion but I’m not sure that he currently has the required stamina.
In the third quarter, Michael went for Stuart Bingham and David for Ronnie. Eventually they settled on Ronnie, but are not expecting him to go much further. Stuart and Ding are in that quarter and they had a similar season in that both won a “major” – Ding won the UK Championship, Stuart won the Masters – but didn’t do much else. Ronnie had a poor season as compared to the previous ones, but he still won the Shanghai Masters and made the final of the Northern Ireland Open. He won 77.78% of his matches so far this season. As a comparison Ding has won 67.44%, Stuart has won 57.58%, Selby despite winning two ranking tournaments is at 66.28%, Mark Allen at 69.49%, Neil Robertson at 72.86%, Shaun Murphy at 75.76% … Judd Trump, winning six ranking events, is at 82.61%. So clearly Ronnie isn’t playing badly, but he hasn’t played enough which has put him under huge pressure and, at times, it showed. To me, IF Ronnie was to reach the one table setup, he would a good chance to win the event. But he will be under pressure in the early rounds. Also, I’m not sure that he will cope with the “Bubble” conditions. He struggled in Milton Keynes and it was a much shorter event. During one of his instagram chats with Hendry, he admitted being several time on the phone with Steve Peters whilst there.
The last quarter, with Mark Selby, Neil Robertson and Shaun Murphy is loaded. They settled on Mark Selby, and Mark is also David’s pick to win the event. I’m not sure I understand why, other than the fact that, mentally, Mark is probably the best equipped for the very long formats. His form however has not really been there recently.
The World Snooker Championship is losing entrants but not through lack of effort to solve problems
Zhao Xintong has reportedly chosen not to play in the World Championship this year (Picture: VCG via Getty Images)
The 2020 World Snooker Championship is going to be a unique event and one that some players are opting out of competing in, but that is not through a lack of effort from tournament organisers.
The rescheduled main event of the snooker season will run from 31 July – 16 August at the Crucible in Sheffield, with the qualifiers taking place from 21-28 July at the English Institute of Sport in the same city.
While there are a plethora of concerns about a World Championship with no fans in attendance and keeping players, staff and officials safe amid the coronavirus pandemic, there has been a serious worry that international players will not be able to compete.
It appears that a number of Chinese players will not be playing, with the South China Morning Post reporting that Zhou Yuelong, Xiao Guodong, and Zhao Xintong are three of ‘at least 10’ players from China who will not be travelling to South Yorkshire.
World number 10 Ding Junhui is expected to return from China for the event, while the likes of Yan Bingtao and Liang Wenbo are already in the UK so will compete.
Safety concerns regarding COVID-19 have put off some players returning to the UK, while the 14-day travel quarantine for arrivals from abroad is also a problem. Flights are much less regular than in normal times, and more expensive, but they are running.
WPBSA chairman Jason Ferguson insists that no player is unable to play in the event, some are opting to out of their own personal choice, and every effort has been made to allow them to play in Sheffield.
‘We’ve been in contact with every single player,’ Ferguson told Metro.co.uk. ‘We’ve put in place travel and financial support for all players to help them get back to the UK, support for visas and everything.
‘Some of them are thinking, “shall we or shan’t we” but our job is to present the opportunity for every single player to get here. On that we’ve not failed.
‘We’re doing more than ever before on a very individual basis, chasing them to see if they’ve got paperwork sorted etc. We are on top of it.
‘It’s down to personal choice, and we respect that choice, if it’s down to family reasons or safety reasons, that’s down to the players.
‘We don’t want to lose any, we want a full contingent, but if we get a few gaps we will fill up through the normal channels.
’ While it is more than understandable that some players do not want to risk travel to the UK at this time, the safest environment possible is being created for those that do.
Any players arriving in the country before 7 July can quarantine in a residential address, while those arriving after that will quarantine in a designated hotel. They will be tested for COVID-19 before entering and then stay there up to and including qualifying.
There will be practice tables available and secure transfers to and from the venue when they play.
UK champion Ding Junhui is expected to be in Sheffield, where he owns a house (Picture: Getty Images)
Ferguson also made it clear that the entry deadline for the World Championship is not until 6 July, so any players that are considering not playing, or have already decided not to, can still change their minds and help would be in place to get them to the UK to play.
Little is ideal about this year’s World Championship, and undoubtedly playing in it is much trickier for international players than those based in the UK.
Everything possible is being done to accommodate the overseas players, though, with WST and the WPBSA attempting to make the very best of a bad situation.
Tournament organisers in China are confident that events will be back up and running there in the near future, with the possibility of a string of Chinese events being held early next season.
While little could make up for a player missing out on the World Championship, China and its players, along with players from Thailand, mainland Europe and elsewhere, are in no means being forgotten about by snooker’s decision-makers.
The “bold italic” has been added by me.
That’s a very impressive effort by the governing body. They are clearly doing everything in their power to get everyone involved. Being from mainland Europe myself, I was afraid that non UK players would be left on their own devices in this unprecedented situation and would be unable to attend for any number of reasons. I want the World Tour to really be a “World” tour and not a somehow “extended” UK tour and I’m very happy to read the above.
About the bits I highlighted …
Like many, I assumed that if players were withdrawing, the first round would simply be made shorter. Apparently, this is not the case: “if we get a few gaps we will fill up through the normal channels”. If I understand this correctly, quite a number of Q-school top-ups might get an invitation…
Jason Ferguson is clearly trying his best to get all players on board. His “public” offer to concretely help those who would wish to change their mind is as unprecedented as the situation we are in: “so any players that are considering not playing, or have already decided not to, can still change their minds and help would be in place to get them to the UK to play”
And it’s reassuring to read that tournament organisers in China aren’t throwing the towel at snooker, but on the contrary are working to have it up and running there asap. I sincerely hope that, this time, those events will be run with all 128 players at the venues. It would be the sensible thing to do, avoiding difficult rounds trips from and back to China and it would definitely be fairer on Chinese players, who, for years now, have been forced to travel to UK to qualify for their home events.
Ding Junhui will lead a 10-member China legion to the snooker World Championships in England next month, but at least 10 more of the mainland entourage will not join as the pandemic continues to be a massive concern in the UK.
Reports in the mainland said Ding, who is still looking for his first world title after twice reaching the final, has already booked his ticket to England, where he will need to go through a 14-day quarantine before the July 31-August 16 tournament kicks off at the Crucible Theatre in Sheffield.
The world No 10 will leave Shanghai next week and will be joined by the talented Yan Bingtao, the world No 16 as the two Chinese players in the main draw that features top 16 players.
However, the next three highest ranking players from China have all turned their back on the major including Zhou Yuelong (world No 22), Xiao Guodong (world No 28) and Zhao Xintong (world No 29), although they would have been placed in the qualifiers to compete for the remaining 16 slots in the main draw.
Ding, Zhou and Xiao, along with other Chinese professionals, fled England in mid-March after organisers decided the 2020 world event would be postponed from April to July due to the pandemic.
Ding finally touched down in Shenyang in northern China after five previous plane ticket bookings had been cancelled. Zhou and Xiao made it back to China through Hong Kong and Shanghai respectively as thousands of Chinese and Hong Kong residents rushed home to avoid the coronavirus outbreak in England.
Zhou, who warned his fellow countrymen the threat of the pandemic during the Gibraltar Open in March, said he was fortunate to arrive in Hong Kong the day before all arrivals from England would require a 14-day quarantine. He then went through the Shenzhen Bay Port before returning to his home in Sichuan.
Other Chinese players that will start in the qualifiers are Lyu Haotian, Liang Wenbo, Lu Ning, Luo Honghao, Tian Pengfei, Fan Zhengyi, Chen Feilong and Si Jiahui, according to reports in the mainland.
Hong Kong No 1 Marco Fu Ka-chun decided not to take part in the tournament this year because of the epidemic. The world No 50 is still troubled by the eye problems that almost ended his career two years ago.
The Hong Kong Billiard Sport Control Council, meanwhile, said their two other players – Ng On-yee and Andy Lee Chun-wai – had yet to decide if they would take part in the qualifiers. The Hong Kong Sports Institute, where the two players are based, has warned that players should not go to England if the 14-day quarantine still applies.
Ng made it to the qualifiers as one of the top three players on the women’s tour while Lee, who has a ranking of 102, will start in the first qualifying round that consists of the 48 players ranked between 81 and 128.
Again I have put some interesting parts in “bold italic”
The article mentions the problems Ding had to go back home. He wasn’t the worst affected though. Some players had to go through a 14 days quarantine when arriving in China, before being allowed to get on a domestic flight towards their final destination – their home – only to be quarantined again for another 14 days upon arrival in their home region. It’s easy to forget that China is vast as a continent and the virus didn’t affect all areas at the same time, nor the same way. It’s understandable that those who went through that aren’t too keen to repeat the experience.
Some people are NOW calling for the World Championship to be cancelled. That would be ridiculous after so much effort, and considerable resources, have been devoted to get it up and running. I was in favour of not playing the event, and extending the season up to May 2021, resuming it gradually with more modest events. No relegations, no Q-School. I still think it would have been the best option. But that was only an option at the start of the lockdown, before all those efforts had been made, it’s no more an option now.
After the CLS and Tour Championship, I’m reasonably confident about the World Championship, qualifiers included. I’m still very concerned about the Q-School …
Ronnie O'Sullivan 