Amateur Snooker News
Robbie McGuigan wins the 2024 EBSA Championship in Sarajevo and earns a two year Tout card (EBSA report)
Robbie McGuigan European Champion
Posted on , updated on by Derek Kiely
Northern Ireland’s Robbie McGuigan is the 2024 European Champion in Sarajevo following an incredible Final where he beat Craig Steadman 5-4.
McGuigan just 19 years of age will now become a Professional Player on the WST in the 2024 – 2025 Season after winning a two year Main Tour Card.
The final could have gone either way and the two players were level no fewer than four times until in yet another deciding frame and McGuigan kept his nerve to pot the final couple of Reds to win the title.
BIH President Senad Pehlivanovic and EBSA President Maxime Cassis with the new Champion
Final Referee from Bosnia and Herzegovina Almedin Hodzic and Final Marker Catalin Cojoc from Moldova
Robbie also received a New Titanium Cue from the Newest EBSA Sponsor ‘little monster’ presented by EBSA General Secretary Simon Smith and EBSA President Maxime Cassis.
Runner Up and Silver Medal winner Craig Steadman
Bronze Medal winner Florian Nuessle from Austria
Congratulations Robbie!
About this competition, a player from England was reflecting on Facebook that, a few years back, when facing an amateur from mainland Europe, the UK players almost always won easily, but things have changed radically. That’s good news to me! All the results are available on snooker.org.
Lei Peifan has regained his tour card by winning the 2024 Asia-Pacific Open Championship (Report by WPBSA)
Lei Peifan came from 5-3 down to defeat Vinnie Calabrese 6-5 in the final of the Asia Pacific Open Championship to earn a return to the World Snooker Tour after a one-year absence.
The 20-year-old Chinese player came through a strong field of 90 cueists at the Mounties Club in Mount Pritchard, Australia to regain his professional status less than twelve months after dropping of the tour at the end of the 2022/23 campaign.
Both Lei and fellow eventual finalist Calabrese stormed through the initial group phase with a clean sweep of victories and an aggregrate frame score of 11-1.
Victories over Adam Waller and Chi Kin Yeung early in the knockout phase saw Lei lose just one further frame as he set up a mouthwatering quarter-final contest with fellow countryman and former WSF champion Luo Honghao.
Lei was able to overcome his toughest opponent thus far as he defeated Luo 4-2, before booking his place in the title match with a 5-2 victory over Hong Kong China’s Wan Nansen Sin Man.
Former professional and recent Q Tour Asia Pacific event winner Calabrese would be his opponent in the final as he lost just four frames in his four knockout matches en route to a meeting with Lei – comfortably defeating fellow Australian Shaun Dalitz 5-1 in the last four.
Calabrese had been in fine form throughout the event, including firing in four centuries and a further sixteen breaks of 50 and over, and he moved to the verge of claiming the Asia Pacific Open Championship title when he moved 5-3 ahead in a race to six.
Lei held his nerve, however, to claim three consecutive frames and dramatically secure both the championship crown and a two-year World Snooker Tour card for the 2024/25 and 2025/26 seasons.
Photos courtesy of the Asia Pacific Snooker & Billiards Federation
Congratulations Lei Peifan
Ronnie News
According to Weibo, Ronnie traveled to Xinchang, Shaoxing yesterday to participate in the filming of a film named “Lovely Home”. At the scene Ronnie admitted that this was a completely new experience for him. He also met many fans.
The film, named “Lovely Home” is produced by the Xinchang County Tourism Group and features a scene where the main protagonist competes with the World Billiards best player. The crew invited Ronnie, the current number one, to Xinchang Stadium for the filming. From what transpired, the film is written and directed by Chen Tianyi – who was born in Xinchang – and stars some famous actors such as He Saifei and Zhang Chenguang. The film is a “family drama” about billiards.
Here are some images shared on Weibo:
And, yes, Ronnie travels by train… he often does actually. He finds it more relaxing than dricving.
Today, Ronnie is playing an exhibition in Hong Kong
I haven’t found much about the outcome yet, but some images were shared on Weibo, as well as news about spectators being unhappy with the organisers about the seating…