Yesterday evening, Neil Robertson won the CLS Group 4 – Report by WST
Neil Robertson’s form continued to trend in the right direction, after claiming victory with a 3-2 defeat of Kyren Wilson in Group 4 final at the Championship League Snooker Invitational in Leicester.
Wilson, who had reached the play-offs by defeating Robertson earlier in the group, beat John Higgins 3-1 in the semi-final. Robertson earned his place in the final thanks to a 3-0 win over Barry Hawkins.
The Thunder from Down Under fired in a break of 54 in the decider against Wilson to secure victory and his place in the Winners’ Group.
After experiencing a dry spell of form across the year, group victory comes at the perfect time for Robertson heading into the business end of the season.
“I think with some of the matches I’ve played this week, I’ve been unplayable at times. The long balls have been absolutely fantastic and I’ve changed my approach a little as to how I’m playing them,” said Robertson.
“I’m going back to how I used to play many years ago. I’ve been backing myself to hit the centre of the white and my long potting has never been better, with my scoring fantastic as well.
“Barry (Hawkins) only had maybe five shots in the semi-final, while Kyren (Wilson) and I threw the kitchen sink at each other. The last frame was unbelievable, he just tried to do a bit too much with the safety shot and I could make a good 50 break.
“When you get to the final and you’ve already played a couple of groups, you want to advance to the Winners’ Group so it’s nice to head back to Cambridge and get a bit of practice in before the Welsh Open.”
Group 5 gets underway from 11am on Friday, with Joe Perry, Fan Zhengyi and David Gilbert joining the competition. Fans are able to view the action on Matchroom.live in the United Kingdom.
Neil seems to be back, close to his best. His confidence certainly is back. 😂
It was obvious that Mark Selby was struggling badly at times during the last month. Now, he has opened up about the difficulties his family is facing (report by WST).
SELBY REVEALS WIFE VIKKI’S CANCER SCARE
Mark Selby admits he was “completely blown apart” when wife Vikki was diagnosed with breast cancer last year, though thankfully she is now recovering.
In an interview with the Metro, four-time World Champion Selby reveals that the couple found out in January 2023 that Vikki had cancer. She had a course of radiotherapy, and the results of recent tests have given them optimism.
“She had a mammogram and ultrasound a few weeks ago and that all looked good,” said 40-year-old Selby. “They gave her an MRI as well and we’re waiting on the results of that. Fingers crossed that comes back ok and then it’s another year until we get a scan again.
“‘She’s been stronger than me throughout it, for sure. When it was first announced I was completely blown apart. Obviously with how my mental health was before anyway, that multiplied it. She’s been the one supporting me! It should be the other way round, but people say that, it always seems to be the person going through it that’s the strongest.
“Vikki was going through radiotherapy while I was playing at the Crucible so in a way it did take my focus off the tournament. I was playing and thinking, ‘If I get beat, so what?’ I said to Vikki that I wanted to be with her going through the radiotherapy but she was saying, ‘Look it’s only 20 minutes every day.’ I wanted to be there to support her, going through it, but she wanted me to play.”
It has been an awful time for the family as Vikki’s best friend Nina Webb passed away from the same disease last month at the age of just 44. Inevitably these circumstances have tested Selby’s own mental health, which he bravely spoke about two years ago.
The world number five said this week: “I’m always going to get lapses. When I was working with the doctor, who’s helped me no end, he said it will never go away, you will get moments when it comes back, it’s just about dealing with them. I know how to deal with them better now. I used to switch myself off, lock myself away and not do anything. I thought that was the right thing, but I actually needed to do the opposite.
“Playing does help because it gives me a purpose, I’m doing it for Vikki and [daughter] Sofia, to put food on the table, so I’ve got a drive to keep going for them.”
I’m wishing Vikki and the whole family the best possible outcome and a long future together. I have met Vikki several times, she’s a kind but very strong lady. She’s the pilar of the family.
Sometimes when a player underperforms, fans are quick to accuse them of laziness, or worse, of cheating. We do not know what they live through privately, we should remember that. And, because they are kind of “public figures” doesn’t give us a right to know everything private happening to them. We should always respect their privacy and refrain from judging.
I have just learned that one of my snooker friends, John Mc Bride, is terminally ill. He’s suffering from pancreatic cancer. He has got months to live, at best. He too has a family, a wife, Cathy, and two young sons. One of their friends has set up a fundraising to help the family facing the medical costs.
Finally, the 2024 WSF Championship continues today, with the round of 64. You can follow the event here. There is also one table streamed on the WPBSA Youtube channel.
Also, starting today, is the 2024 CLS Group 5. I’m not sure why the above article states that you can watch it on Matchroom.live “in the UK”. I can watch it in Greece as well … with a subscription of course.
The 2024 WSF Championship is currently underway in Golem, Albania. In fact it has been underway for several days. There were 211 players in the draw, spread over 43 groups. Two players from each group were due to progress to the knock-out stage. The last group matches were played earlier today. The knock-out stage starts this evening. You will, as always, find all the detailed information on snooker.org.
This is a mammoth tournament and it yields only one tour card but it has a much more international field than the Q-school, probably because it’s organised differently. Most players will reside at the hotel where the tournament happens, it’s a more compact tournament, with 13 tables in operation, and everyone entering was guaranteed to play minimum three matches.
I won’t even try to give you a summary of what happened earlier this week. It’s impossible. There were probably around 500 matches played… instead here come some “personal interest” inspired thoughts
There were only four female players in the draw: On Yee Ng and So Man Yan from Hong Kong, Narantuya Bayarsaikhan from Mongolia, and Corina Maracine from Romania. From those four, only Narantuya Bayarsaikhan qualified. She came second in a group dominated by Barry Pinches. Unfortunately she has withdrawn from the knockout stage and… well I find that quite puzzling. Why??? On Yee won two of her four matches in a group dominated by Paul Deaville, one of the favourites in this tournament. She came third in her group of five. So Man Yan won only one match. She’s a capable player, tactically sound but she doesn’t score heavily enough when at the table. Corina won nothing and that came as no surprise to me. She’s a nice girl and was a regular in the PTCs but I can’t remember her winning a match ever. I always wondered why she actually entered but then maybe she just loves to be there, to be part of it and to meet the other players. Why not, if she can afford it?
I was pleased to see Luo Honghao in the draw. He was the inaugural WSF champion. He dropped off the main tour and later found himself in some difficulties with the Chinese authorities. I wondered if we would see him ever again. He didn’t qualify though. This morning he was first in his group, but he lost his last match today, by 3-0, and that meant that he finished third in his group. It’s a shame.
I was also pleased to see Wang Yuchen in the draw. When I went to Yixing in 2012 for the APTC Event 2, he was one of the young Chinese players involved. He was 14 years old at the time and quite different from the other Chinese “snooker kids”. He was well educated and fluent in English, a one off in that group in fact. He was playing for China at the time but he had told me that his father is from Hong Kong and insisted that he should get a good formal education in addition to his snooker training. He’s now playing for Hong Kong. He won his group.
You can watch a lot of the action on Youtube, on the WPBSA channel.
Bulcsú Révész has won the 2024 WSF Junior Championship, held in Golem, Albania, to become the first snooker professional from Hungary. Bulcsú is only just 17 years old, he was born on January 1, 2007.
Congratulations Bulcsú!
Bulcsú beat Gong Chenzhi by 5-3 in the Final, and also scored the highest break of the tournament, a 130, in frame 3 of that final match. Some feat!
The event had a truly international field: 77 players from 23 different nationalities! Remarkably, Gong Chenzhi was the only player from China in the field. Also worth noting that, although the UK and Ireland accounted for nearly 40% of the field, and many Brits seem to think that they have the best amateurs, only one of their players, Oliver Sykes, reached the semi-finals. The fourth semi-finalist was a young lad from Pakistan, Hamza Ilyas. This shows that there are many excellent young players outside the UK, rarely seen or spoken about. Here is one more big reason for WST/WPBSA to seriously try to “break” the UK centric nature of the current organisation of the sport … if they have real ambitions to develop snooker world wide that is…
… I can only suppose that someone, a regular on this blog, is dancing and celebrating ! 😊
Bulcsu Revesz defeated Gong Chenzhi 5-3 in the final of the WSF Junior Championship to secure his status as Hungary’s first ever main tour professional.
Revesz becomes the fifth winner of the WSF Junior Championship, following Stan Moody’s victory last year in Sydney, Australia, and makes history for Hungarian snooker by becoming the first player from the country to earn a World Snooker Tour card.
He won the opening frame of the contest with a break of 60 before winning back-to-back frames, featuring a stunning 130 clearance, to move 3-1 ahead at the mid-session interval.
Gong battled back and drew level at 3-3 by taking a dramatic sixth frame on the black. The Hungarian held his nerve, however, to take the final two frames of the contest to win the WSF Junior title and earn a two-year World Snooker Tour card as a result.
Both players headed into the title match in fine form having dropped just four frames apiece in the knockout stages so far. The two had met in the group stages, however, in a match that saw Revesz win 3-1.
The Hungarian got off to a flying start with a break of 60 to take the opening frame and looked in command in frame two as he opened up a 44 point advantage. However, Gong was unphased and fired in a half-century of his own to level the game at 1-1.
A stunning break of 130, the highest of the tournament, followed from Revesz and he doubled his advantage by taking frame to lead 3-1 at the mid-session interval.
Gong took the first after the break to reduce the deficit before levelling the score in dramatic fashion in a seemingly pivotal sixth frame which came down to the colours.
Revesz was just a mid-range pink away from moving 4-2 ahead, but missed the pot and Gong calmly knocked in the two remaining balls to instead restore parity at 3-3.
The Hungarian refused the let the the disappointment of the previous frame effect him, however, as he took a hard-fought seventh frame to move one away from the title.
The drama reached its peak in frame eight as it once again went down to the colours, but this time Revesz made no mistake as potted the final few balls to secure victory before turning to the crowd with his arms aloft in delight.
Post-match Bulcsu reflected: “It’s just amazing, I didn’t expect anything before the tournament but I felt like I was getting better and better and before the final I just knew I was going to win.
“I missed the pink to go 4-2 up and so at 3-3 I was on the floor. I don’t know how, but I won the seventh frame and then I was back in the saddle again.
“I think I am going to have so many messages because every Hungarian player was supporting meet which is a brilliant feeling. I hope everyone is so happy and I hope this can inspire more players in Hungary. I have enjoyed playing since the age of eight and I still love it.
“To stay on tour after the first two years is my first goal. To be in the top 64 I will have to play even better than I have this week, but I know I can do it. I am looking forward to it.”
Whilst the qualifiers for the 2024 Welsh Open are under way, WPBSa has published some important information regarding the qualifying routes leading to tour cards for next season.
The World Snooker Federation (WSF) Championships take place at the Grand Blue Fafa Resort in Golem, Albania between 29 January and 11 February 2024.
The winners of both the WSF Junior Championship and WSF Championship will earn two-year tour cards for the World Snooker Tour from the start of the 2024/25 season.
Please find important information about the events below:
WSF JUNIOR CHAMPIONSHIP
The tournament, won last year by Stan Moody, takes place between 29 January and 2 February.
The provisional format for both competitions is as follows:
All group matches will be the best of 5 frames.
The top two players in each group will progress to the knockout rounds
All knockout rounds up to and including the semi-finals will be the best of 7 frames.
The final will be the best of 9 frames.
VENUE
Both events will take place at Grand Blue Fafa Resort in Golem, Albania. The full address for the venue can be found below:
Grand Blue Fafa Resort Rruga Kompleksit 1000 Golem Albania
CONTACT
Should you have any questions or concerns then you can contact us directly via our website or social media platforms.
In total 211 players have entered the main event which is quite impressive. All the names you would expect to find there, and more, are in, including Tony Knowles 😮. Maybe less expected is Luo Hong Hao. I wonder if he will be able to make it this time.
There are some women in the main draw too, most notably On Yee and So Man Yan from Hong Kong. It probably helps that there is a Women Snooker event, the 2024 Albanian Women’s Open, happening at the same dates, at the same venue.
Qualification Criteria Set For Q Tour Global Play-Off
The World Professional Billiards and Snooker Association (WPBSA) is pleased to confirm how the field of 24 players for this season’s newly relaunched Global Q Tour Play-Off will be completed.
The prestigious event will be held alongside the EBSA European Championships in Bosnia & Herzegovina from 13-15 March 2024 and for the first time will see three places on the World Snooker Tour from the start of the 2024/25 season contested
It can now be confirmed that 18 players from the Q Tour UK/Europe Rankings will qualify for the playoff, an increase of two from the minimum of 16 previously announced at the start of the season.
They will be joined by two players from each of the Middle East, Asia-Pacific and Americas series’ who will complete the 24-player line-up in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
With events still to be played across the globe, there is still plenty to play for. Here is a round-up of the current state of play:
Success in the three of the six Q Tour UK/Europe events already held this season means that Michael Holt has an unassailable lead at the top of the rankings and has already secured his World Snooker Tour card for the 2024/25 season.
There is still plenty to play for, however, with 18 places at the Global Play-Off available for those ranked 2nd to 19th.
Previous event winners Liam Davies, Umut Dikme and Antoni Kowalski are automatically guaranteed qualification, but for players further down the list, it will no doubt be a nervy weekend in Leeds as just 1,000 points separate the players ranked between 11th and 28th in the current ranking list.
Iran’s Amir Sarkhosh dominated the first two events of the Middle East series, winning back-to-back events in January with final victories over Habib Humood (4-0) and Mohamed Shehab (4-3) to secure his place at the Global Play-Off regardless of what happened in the third event.
A first round exit for Sarkhosh in event three meant there would be a new winner in Abu Dhabi and it was Shehab, who had led 3-0 at one stage in the final of event two before being defeated by the Iranian, who made amends by beating Yazan Alhaddad in the final and securing the second available spot in Bosnia & Herzegovina.
Canadian Vito Puopolo currently sits in poll position in the Americas ranking list following a victory in the first event in Toronto.
Puopolo, who played at the Crucible Theatre in last year’s World Seniors Championship, beat Matt Fifield, Charlie Brown and Alan Whitfield to set up a final with fellow countryman Jason Williams.
He had dropped just a single frame en route to the final and Puopolo was once again dominant in the title match, storming into a 4-0 lead and ultimately overcoming Williams 5-1 to secure the event one crown.
Puopolo and Williams currently sit in the qualifying places for the Global Play-Off but with events still to come in the USA and Brazil, it remains all to play for.
It remains tight at the top of the Q Tour Asia-Pacific ranking list with the top two places being held by players who picked up maximum points in one of the two events held so far, and zero points in the other.
Event one took place in New Zealand in September and October and it was Rob Redgrove who defeated Adam Shaw in a final frame decider to secure the event one title and an early lead in the race to Bosnia & Herzegovina.
Former main tour professional Vinnie Calabrese was the champion of the second event, held in Sydney. Calabrese stormed through an impressive field of 111 players to lift the title – beating Steve Mifsud 6-3 in the final.
Redgrove and Calabrese currently occupy the top two places in the ranking list, but with the third event still to be played later this week, nobody in this region is yet guaranteed qualification for the Global Play-Off.
There weren’t that many surprises – outcome or scores – but there were some big ones:
Liu Hongyu beat Jamie Clarke by 5-1. We know by now that Liu is very good, but the score is still surprising. Liu needed several snookers in the sixth frame, including at least one on the pink.
Ryan Day beat Andrew Higginson by 5-4 from 4-1 down.
Mark Selby was seriously pushed by the 19 years old rookie Xing Zihao. Mark won by 5-3, making two centuries, including a 130 in frame 5 … the 800th century of his career.
Jenson Kendrick beat Anthony Hamilton by 5-3 in a match that featured a break over 50 in every frame bar the first. Ants is never easy to beat and I’m glad that Jenson gets something out of his professional experience this season. His first year was terrible and it must have been hard to take, especially as he became a father for the first time. After his win this week he came on social media with a picture of himself and his baby…
Sean O’Sullivan beat Xiao Guodong by 5-1. I didn’t see the match but … Xiao made the only century of the match in frame 1, then lost all the close next five.
Ishpreet Singh Chadha beat Stuart Bingham by 5-3. A very good result for the Indian player.
Lukas Kleckers beat Jack Lisowski by 5-2. I’m very happy for Lukas and for the German fans who will have the opportunity to watch him play. The less I say about Jack the better.
Ashley Hugill beat Anthony McGill by 5-1. Ashley is a very solid all-rounder but I can’t help wondering about Anthony’s motivation in qualifiers.
There were also some very close battles
Aaron Hill beat Joe O’Connor by 5-4
Joe Perry beat Martin O’Donnell by 5-4
Noppon Saengkham beat Himanshu Jain by 5-4
Ben Woollaston beat Ben Mertens by 5-4. That was hard fought. I like them both and I went through mixed feelings throughout that match!
Adam Duffy beat Mark Davis by 5-4 … and I’m truly sorry for Mark’s biggest fan who is German 😢
Also …
David Lilley beat Scott Donaldson by 5-3 in the last match of the day. A match that finished one hour and 15 minutes after all the other ones. Both players have an AST over 30 seconds, but their shot time, towards the end, was more often than not over 45 seconds. Sorry but that’s preposterous. I know it’s important to them, I know they are under pressure but I’m also convinced that starting to ponder every shot for too long isn’t helpful. It’s mentally exhausting and rarely leads to the best decision.
And finally …
Mark Williams withdrew from the event to play exhibitions in Finland in front of big enthusiast crowds. Good on him. It was kept very quiet by WST though. No fuss at all, no big words, no threats to be thrown out of the game … I found out because only when Iulian Boiko replaced him and because there were pictures on social media. Yet these exhibitions were conflicting with one of WST events, didn’t they? No consistency here from the governing body and you have to wonder why. I don’t want to bring Willo any problems – maybe he asked permission and got it, maybe the fact that Robin Hull was involved in the organisation helped – and you know my stance: players being self-employed should be free to take the best offers, it’s for WST to come up with them if they want the best players in their events. It’s that simple. The hard capitalist that is Barry Hearn should know that better than anyone. But still … it only makes me wonder even more about the real reasons why WST got so worked up about the Macau one …
Yesterday, Michael Holt won his third Q-Tour event of this season, and, whatever happens from here is sure to top the Q-Tour order of merit, and regain his professional status next season.
Holt Wins Thriller in Sofia to Seal Main Tour Return
Michael Holt has defeated Alfie Davies 5-4 to win the sixth event of the Q Tour UK/Europe season at the National Snooker Academy in Sofia, Bulgaria and in doing so guarantee his return to the World Snooker Tour from the start of the 2024/25 season.
With three titles won from six contested so far, the former Shoot Out champion now cannot be caught in the Q Tour Rankings with one event still to be played in Leeds next month, after his closest challenger Liam Davies fell at the quarter-final stages earlier today.
Success for the popular Holt ensures that he will return to the top table in our sport with a fresh two-year tour card from the start of next season, following an absence of two years after he was relegated at the end of the 2021/22 campaign.
Having reached the final day with wins against Bratislav Krastev and Chris Totten on Saturday, he added victories against Yu Kiu Chang and Matthew Glasby to reach the title match in Sofia. Holt was bidding to become the first player to win back-to-back Q Tour events since the launch of the Tour in 2021 and to seal the number one ranking with an event to spare.
Awaiting him was 23-year-old Welsh talent Alfie Davies, who enjoyed a breakthrough weekend with wins against Halim Hussain, Simon Dent, Iulian Boiko, second ranked Liam Davies and Harvey Chandler to reach his maiden Q Tour final.
Level at 2-2 at the interval, it was Davies who looked the more likely winner as he quickly added the next two frames to move two away from the title at 4-2. It was Holt, however, who would find an extra gear when he needed it most, with breaks of 140 and 128 the highlight of a three-frame surge that took him to the title and a return to the professional game.
“I think Alfie played a bit better than me,” said Holt. “I just battled and then from 4-2 down it was backs to the wall time and I thought go out and go for this, trust yourself and they all seemed to go in – apart from I nearly lost to go 4-4 – but in the last frame to pot a great long red like that and win the frame, I’m chuffed.
“It was a disaster dropping off [the World Snooker Tour] but this year I have reset, set my stall out to get back on and I was more focused to get back on inside, so yeah I’m really pleased. To do it with one to go, especially having missed the first one, I’m chuffed to bits with that.
“I’m proud of myself because it has been tough not being on the Tour. I tell myself, I tell anyone in this position, this isn’t the mountain. I’m just at base camp. The mountain is the rankings, I know that, I’m obviously going to have to play more and dedicate more time to it, which I’m excited to do because I have missed it.
“I’m going to work really hard but my main goal is just to enjoy it. The biggest tragedy of my first 23-year stint is that I didn’t enjoy it as much as I should have. So I think dropping off, although it was a disaster at the time, it might work out to be a good thing, but you never know. My main goal is to enjoy it and to play like I can and if I can do that I have got a chance against anyone.”
The 2024 German Masters qualifiers are currently underway in Sheffield. I’ll probably only post about that at the end of this week, unless something really out of the ordinary happens.
Meanwhile here are some interesting snooker news published by WST and WPBSA in recent days.
Gary Wilson’s victory at the BetVictor Scottish Open saw him come from a lowly 61st place on the one-year ranking list to jump to tenth and earn a place at next month’s World Grand Prix in Leicester.
Wilson went into the tournament in Edinburgh knowing he had to at least reach the semi-finals to climb into the top 32, and he went two steps further by winning his second ranking title and £80,000.
The field of 32 players is now confirmed for the World Grand Prix to run from January 15 to 21 at the Morningside Arena, the first event in the 2024 Players Series. The first round draw is below and the format will be announced soon …
Judd Trump v Jamie Jones Lyu Hoatian v Chris Wakelin Mark Selby v Yuan Sijun Ali Carter v Wu Yize Barry Hawkins v Cao Yupeng John Higgins v Shaun Murphy Hossein Vafaei v Matthew Selt Mark Williams v Thepchaiya Un-Nooh Zhang Anda v Dominic Dale Mark Allen v Jack Lisowski Noppon Saengkham v Xiao Guodong Ding Junhui v Ricky Walden Tom Ford v Jordan Brown Gary Wilson v David Gilbert Zhou Yuelong v Stephen Maguire Ronnie O’Sullivan v Pang Junxu
Saengkham’s run to the final earned him £35,000, boosting him from 20th to 11th. After the World Grand Prix, there will be just two ranking events before the line-up of 16 players is confirmed for the Players Championship in Telford in February.
Big names to miss out on Leicester include Kyren Wilson and Luca Brecel, who both needed just one more win in Edinburgh, but fell at the last 16 and last 32 stage respectively.
Wilson moves up to third place in the BetVictor Series rankings, albeit still £114,000 behind runaway leader Judd Trump. There are just two counting events to go: the BetVictor German Masters and BetVictor Welsh Open, so Trump could wrap up the £150,000 bonus if no one gets within £80,000 of him by the end of the tournament in Berlin.
On the official two-year list, Wilson jumps from 20th to 17th while Saengkham is up from 26th to 22nd. Ronnie O’Sullivan will go into 2024 as the world number one with a lead of £113,500 over Trump. This list will now be used for seeding for the 2024 BetVictor Welsh Open and the 2024 World Open.
It’s early days in the Race to the Crucible, with six ranking events still to go, but Wilson has boosted his hopes of a place at the Theatre of Dreams, climbing to 13th, while Saengkham is among the chasing pack in 20th. Robert Milkins is in 16th spot, with Barry Hawkins just behind him, while former champion Neil Robertson is in 30th place, £116,000 behind Milkins.
Neil Robertson is currently in Australia, having a good time and playing exhibitions. I’m not sure that home sickness alone can explain his current dip of form and it’s hard to believe that he will very probably need to qualify for the Crucible but that’s how it is.
Global Q Tour Playoff to Be Held in Bosnia and Herzegovina
The World Professional Billiards and Snooker Association (WPBSA) has announced that the newly expanded WPBSA Q Tour Global Playoff will be held in Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina, from 13-15 March 2024.
To be played at the Hotel Hills alongside the European Championships organised by the European Billiards and Snooker Association (EBSA), the relaunched Playoff will see three players earn a two-year World Snooker Tour card from the start of the 2024/25 season.
THE FIELD
The event will be contested by 24 players who will need to win three matches to secure a professional tour card.
This will include a minimum of 16 players from the Q Tour UK/Europe Series, with Liam Davies, Michael Holt, Umut Dikme and Antoni Kowalski already guaranteed to qualify as event winners so far this season – unless one of them were to claim the automatic tour card for finishing in top spot.
They will be joined by up to eight players from regional Q Tour events held around the world. To date, Q Tours in the Americas, Asia-Pacific and Middle East Regions have already been announced, with outstanding performers based upon regional ranking lists set to qualify for the Global Playoff.
THE FORMAT
The three-day event will comprise three sections of eight players, to play quarter-finals, semi-finals and ultimately final qualification matches. These will be played under and expanded long format of best of 9, 11 and ultimately 19 frame matches respectively, to provide the ultimate test for aspiring professionals.
The Playoff will also carry a prize fund of almost £20,000 for the first time, with each of the 24 players guaranteed to earn prize money from the event.
“THE VERY BEST CONDITIONS”
Jason Ferguson, WPBSA Chairman said: “We are delighted to announce that this prestigious new Playoff will be held alongside the EBSA European Championships in Sarajevo next spring.
“The announcement of Q Tour Global last July has received a fantastic response from amateur players around the world and already this season we have seen record entry numbers as players aim to earn their place on the professional tour.
“Open to players of all nationalities, gender and ability, the WPBSA Q Tour is a truly inclusive and open tour, with more players able to compete internationally than ever before with the introduction of Q Tour Series’ in the Americas, Asia-Pacific and Middle East regions this season.
“I would like to thank our friends at the EBSA who I know will strive to deliver the very best conditions for the players in what are hugely important matches and I look forward to seeing who will emerge victorious from what promises to be a wonderful event.”
Maxime Cassis, EBSA President said: “On behalf of the EBSA I am delighted to be able to cooperate with the WPBSA to host this major event which will see three amateur players turn professional for the start of the 2024/25 season.
“Combined with the two players to be claimed by the winners of our European Championship and European Under-21 Championship tournament, this means that there will now be five players who will join the World Snooker Tour following this historic event in Bosnia and Herzegovina.”
There are some interesting infos in this announcement.
I have always been puzzled by how closely WPBSA worked with the English amateur snooker bodies but not so much other national and international bodies. This joint even is a step in the right direction.
The new format for the play-off, with proper, longer matches is a welcome move, as is the increased prize money.
I want to hope that these changes are paving the way to a true secondary tour and to a more truly international tour. By the latter, I also mean, a tour where the majority of events will be played outside the UK, and outside Englangd in particular and that goes for qualifiers – if any – as well. You know my stance: there should be no qualifiers for any flat-draw event.
Ronnie O'Sullivan 