Yesterday – 18 November 2023 – on the baize

November 19, 2023 Monique Amateur, Professional snooker tournament Amateur, Professional snooker, Snooker

First day of the 2023 UK Championship Qualifiers

Yesterday was the first day of the 2023 UK Championship qualifiers and here are the reports by WST

Nutcharut Beats Duffy In UK Qualifiers

Mink Nutcharut scored her best win as a professional as she beat Adam Duffy 6-3 in the first qualifying round of the MrQ UK Championship.

Thailand’s Nutcharut goes through to face Michael White in the second round of the qualifiers in Leicester and she needs three more wins to reach the final stages in York, which begin on November 25th.

Nutcharut, age 24, turned pro in 2022 after winning the World Women’s Championship for the first time. In her debut season she partnered Neil Robertson to victory at the World Mixed Doubles, and beat Mitchell Mann in the first round of the Northern Ireland Open. Today she out-played world number 97 Duffy to earn her first win in a Triple Crown event.

After losing the opening frame, she built a 3-1 lead with a top break of 60. Duffy pulled one back before Nutcharut took the next two for 5-2. In frame eight, she missed the final black which would have clinched a 6-2 success. But she kept her composure at the end of the next frame, potting pink and black to seal the result.

“I am very happy and excited,” said Nutcharut. “In the last frame the pressure was on and my heart was beating fast. The last black would usually be easy but the pressure made if difficult. I have ben practising with a lot of good players in Sheffield so I felt confident. I don’t know if I can win another match, I will just enjoy it,”

Marco Fu, who was runner-up in this tournament in 2008, edged out Michael Holt 6-5 in a high quality tussle. Holt made breaks of 91, 117, 70, 56 and 125 but still finished on the wrong side of the scoreline to Hong Kong’s Fu, who compiled runs of 77, 82 and a 71 in the decider. He now meets Ben Mertens.

China’s Xing Zihao top scored with 104 in a 6-2 defeat of Jimmy White.

Evening sessions

Sky’s The Limit For Sykes

Up-and-coming amateur Oliver Sykes won a match in a pro tournament for the first time with an superb 6-1 victory over experienced Alife Burden in the first qualifying round of the MrQ UK Championship.

Currently ranked number one on the English Junior Tour, 17-year-old Sykes is tipped as a star of the future, and he showed his potential today as he beat Burden with top breaks of 54, 56 and 57. He goes through to face Jamie Clarke in the second round and needs three more wins to reach the final stages in York.

“To beat a player as good as Alfie in a big tournament is incredible,” said Sykes, from Hampshire. “I stayed composed throughout the whole match and enjoyed the experience. Getting on to the tour is my main ambition and there are a lot of big amateur tournaments like the WSF Championships coming up. I’m giving 100 per cent to every event.”

Three other amateurs scored impressive wins as Robbie McGuigan saw off Fergal O’Brien 6-2 with a top break of 103, Ryan Davies beat Anton Kazakov 6-1 and Duane Jones knocked out Muhammad Asif 6-1.

Stan Moody top scored with 103 in a 6-3 win over Filips Kalnins, while China’s Jiang Jun made a 139 as he beat Rebecca Kenna 6-0. Ryan Thomerson made a 108 as he edged out Reanne Evans 6-5, taking a 48-minute deciding frame on the colours.

In a match which finished just after 1am, Sean O’Sullivan beat Baipat Siripaporn 6-5.

All the detailed results are on snooker.or as always.

Yesterday’s results clearly show why the tired system is a much better one for the young players and female players that the brutal random draw. Several of the best amateurs won their match. Mink won her match and two of the three other women on tour – Reanne and Baipat – forced their opponents to play the full distance to beat them. This experience is much more positive – for the women AND for the young amateurs in general – than a procession of heavy defeats against players ranked much higher than them. Yesterday results show that the women on tour are at or no far away from the level of the male young players. Yes, they are older – although Mink and Baipat are only in their early 20th – but playing on the women’s tour is not the ideal development path once they reach a certain level. Results like those they got yesterday may hopefully encourage them, and other aspiring girls, to play more in the available pro-am events even if the field is almost entirely male AND send the message to the male amateurs that the women are on push-overs and their place is not “behind the bar”.

The Marco Fu v Michael Holt match was a high quality affair and absolutely not the kind of match you expect in the first round of a tiered qualifying event.

Mark Allen joined Judd Trump in the 2023 Champion of Champions Final

Allen To Meet Trump In Final

Mark Allen set up a final showdown with Judd Trump as he overcame John Higgins 6-2 in the semi-final of the Cazoo Champion of Champions.

Seeking his first title since January’s World Grand Prix, Allen pulled away from 2-2 to take the last four frames in Bolton. It promises to be an exciting best-of-19 final on Sunday against World Number 2 Trump, with the winner scooping this year’s prize of £150,000.

Northern Ireland’s Allen, who won this title in 2020, said: “I’m excited to be playing Judd, he’s the best in the world at the moment but I have a good record against him.

“I am going to enjoy it, I didn’t come her to finish second, and I will have to play really well to beat Judd, but I know I can beat him – and so does he.

“If you had told me three or four weeks ago I’d be in this position I would have laughed because I was in a bad place, but I have been working hard on the right things and my confidence has come back.”

Allen made breaks of 73 and 91 before the interval tonight, while Higgins knocked in 65 and 68. But world number four Allen then dominated, firing runs of 102 and 77 as he swept to victory.

No comment from me here, as I watched the 2023 UK qualifiers …

The 2023 Women Snooker Eden Masters has reached the knockout stage

You can follow that tounament, and all the side events, here.

The 2023 Champion of Champions – Day 5 … and more

November 18, 2023 Monique Professional snooker tournament Professional snooker

I will confess that I abandoned watching the first semi-final in Bolton yesterday at the MSI, not because I didn’t want to watch Judd – he was playing very well – but because at that point it looked like this would end on a 6-0 score without any opposition from Barry Hawkins. Barry looked totally out of sorts, his potting was not great, his safety game was poor and nothing worked for him. We have a two hours difference with the UK where I am, the day before I had stayed up very late, I was tired and … I simply had enough of it.

Of course, Barry played better and fought back as soon as I hit the sack… typical! 🙃

Anyway … here is the report shared on the event official website:

Judd Trump has eyes on second Champion of Champions title after beating Barry Hawkins 6-3

JUDD TRUMP was made to fight for his place in Sunday’s final of the Cazoo Champion of Champions after racing into a 5-0 lead.

Needing just one more frame in the best of 11 semi-final, Trump was pegged back by Barry Hawkins who won three straight frames of his own.

The Hawk was unable to maintain the revival, however, and Trump closed out the next to seal the match 6-3.

Trump is one win away from his second Champion of Champions title, and this year’s prize of £150,000. He will face the winner of Saturday’s semi-final between Mark Allen and John Higgins.

“I had to stay patient to get over the line,” said Trump. “It got a bit nervy after the interval but it was important to keep my head out there.

“There can be times when it gets tough, but if you have a two or three frame advantage you have to remember you are still the favourite. You forget what has gone before and take each frame one at a time.

“This is an event that suits me – the dress code, the format, everything plays into my hands and I feel relaxed in this event and at home with the format. I feel like it brings out the best in me.”

Sunday will be Trump’s fifth final of the season – and we are barely at the halfway point. It will also be his third consecutive Champion of Champions final.

It was safety first at the start of the match and it was nearly 20 minutes before the first red and colour combination was potted, by Trump. The frame was then determined by who capitalised on his opponent’s mistakes, and Trump edged it on the black.

The World Number 2 won the second frame with a break of 69 and went slightly better to win the third with a break of 71.

Hawkins’ safety play was below par, and he found himself 4-0 down at the break.

Ace in the Pack Trump almost landed the first century of the semi-final in the first frame after the break – missing when he was on 99, but he still moved to within one frame of victory. In the four frames that followed the opener, Hawk scored just 32 points in total.

The Hawk made him wait by finally winning a frame to make it 5-1, and he followed up by taking the next two.

Trump, the pre-tournament favourite, finally clipped The Hawk’s wings to close it out, but Hawkins still went home with a £30,000 prize.

… in other news …

This was Jason Francis reaction to the “double 147” prize announcement

I’m 100% with Jason on this…

And Nick Metcalfe’s reaction after watching Ronnie’s documentary

The 2023 UK Championship starts tomorrow … with an announcement and some sponsor’s concerns …

November 17, 2023 Monique News, Talking point, Tour News News, Talking point, Tour

The first “Triple Crown” of this season starts tomorrow …

The title sponsor is MrQ … an online Casino and i-gaming platform that is not exactly “clean” judging by this article

Commission agrees £691,000 regulatory settlement with MrQ

20th September 2023 | By Zak Thomas-Akoo

20th September 2023

The GB Gambling Commission agreed a £690,947 (€798,643/ $853,793) regulatory settlement with MrQ operator Lindar Media for anti-money laundering (AML) and social responsibility breaches.

The Commission began its regulatory review of MrQ after it made a compliance assessment in September 2022.

The review found failings in the online bingo and igaming operator’s processes for stopping money laundering and protecting people from being harmed by gambling.

It also found that Lindar Media had breached several of its Licence Conditions and Codes of Practice (LCCP). These ranged from AML to social responsibility failings.

The Commission said that, based on these failures and considering the operator’s actions since the assessment, it had agreed a £690,947 regulatory settlement with Lindar Media. This money will be directed to social responsible causes.

Findings of the compliance assessment

The GC outlined the specific failings it had found in Lindar Media’s compliance assessment. These included weaknesses in its implementation of AML policies, procedures and controls.

The regulator also discovered shortcomings in its responsible gambling policies, procedures, controls and practices. It highlighted failures that extended to its reporting as to when key events took place.

Other deficiencies included Lindar’s head of regulatory compliance taking additional management posts without Commission approval.

The operator also did not advertise its products in a socially responsible way. Finally, it failed to make its required research, prevention and treatment contributions to an organisation supporting those harmed by gambling.

“You win some, you lose some”

Responding to the regulatory settlement, Lindar Media said that the breaches happened during a time of growth for the business and that safer gambling policies had been improved since the time of the failures.

“My focus since 2022 has been centred around maturing the day-to-day operations through the development of the senior leadership team,” said Lindar Media chief executive Savvas Fellas.

“We’ve implemented scalable processes that provide consistency as we grow and built technology-driven models that underpin compliance and safer gambling promises to our players; all of which are aligned with our mission of offering progressive, value entertainment – with delight and transparency,” he added.

Money laundering and terrorist financing failures

Licence condition 12.1.1(1) says licence holders must assess their money laundering and terrorist financing (ML and TF) risk.

The Commission said MrQ failed to have an appropriate assessment for these risks. This was because it did not assess risk relating to customers, their means of payment, or additional inherent and emerging risks.

The ML and TF assessment also did not address key risk factors. These include customers associating with higher risk countries, along with a disproportionate spend relative to their wealth and business arrangements taking place in unusual circumstances.

Other risks not accounted for related to a customer being the beneficiary of a life insurance policy as well as when a customer is a foreign national applying for residence in return for transfers of capital.

The Commission also said Lindar breached licence condition 12.1.1(2) which outlines the operator’s responsibility for putting in place ML and TF controls.

Lindar failed to have appropriate measures in place. This included the company’s practice of automatically assigning a “low” level of ML risk to new customers.

The Commission said that, at this point, there would be not enough information to give them a rating. It assessed there was an over-reliance on financial triggers to identify and maintain ML risks.

The Commission also noted that financial thresholds for ML were too high, thereby allowing customers to deposit and lose more than £10,000. The regulator said this “did not appear to be sufficiently risk-based”.

MrQ’s social responsibility breaches

MrQ’s licence condition 15.2.1(4) makes clear licensees must notify the Commission within five working days after a key event takes place.

The operator did not inform the Commission promptly when its head of regulatory compliance left the position in June 2022. As such, the regulator found that the business was in breach of the licence condition between 20 June and September 2022.

The online bingo business also failed to comply with paragraphs 1a, 1b and 2 of the Social Responsibility Codes of Practice 3.4.1 (Customer Interaction).

These rules outline how licensees must interact with customers in a manner that minimise the risk of customers experiencing harms associated with gambling.

Lindar Media failed to identify customers at risk of experiencing gambling harms. Its financial and safer gambling triggers “were not always effective”, especially when dealing with customers depositing at a high velocity.

Disproportionate spend relative to personal circumstances was not considered until large amounts of money had been lost. When MrQ did consider personal circumstances, it did so using County Court judgements and bankruptcy data which was not always effective.

MrQ’s advertising failures

The Commission criticised the company for allowing its agents to use cartoon imagery to advertise the business. This is because of its appeal to children.

Cartoon characters portrayed in the adverts included Spiderman, King Kong, Piggy Bank Bills and The Doghouse Megaways. The Commission did note that when Lindar became aware of the ads, it had removed them.

Surely such association is much more damaging to the sport’s image, and hence its future, than a handful of top players opting out of a rather minor event in favour of an unstreamed exhibition in China, earning some money whilst sparing themselves a tiring back and forth trip across several time zones…

Never mind …

Other than that, WST also came up with this announcement …

£147,000 Bonus Offered For Triple Crown Maximums

Any player making two maximum breaks during this season’s Triple Crown Series will be rewarded with a massive £147,000 bonus.

This new initiative applies to the 2023 MrQ UK Championship, the 2024 Masters and the 2024 Cazoo World Championship. A player who makes two maximums (either a 147 or 155) in either the qualifying rounds or the final stages of those three tournaments will earn the huge bonus.

WST Chairman Steve Dawson said: “There is nothing quite as exhilarating in snooker as a maximum break, those moments bring us to the edge of our seats. And we’re making that achievement all the more special this season during our Triple Crown events.

“We’d love to see at least one player make a 147 at the MrQ UK Championship which would give them two more tournaments to chase the bonus. Last season we saw maximums from Kyren Wilson and Mark Selby at the Crucible – imagine the thrill if there was an extra £147,000 on the line!

“The skill level in snooker now is higher than ever and we expect this new prize will give the players extra motivation to go for maximum breaks.”

The bonus would be awarded in addition to the high break prizes for the individual events.

Up to three players could win this bonus, for example if three different players each made two 147s then they would each win £147,000. Or if one player made six maximums then he would bank £441,000!

The counting events are:

MrQ UK Championship. November 18-23 (qualifying rounds) and November 25 to December 3
The Masters. January 7-14.
Cazoo World Championship. April 8-17 (qualifying rounds) and April 20 to May 6.

Looks great he? Well the snooker.org team had a good look at the stats. In the history of the game so far, a player having 2 maximum breaks in the course of those three events happened only once, in 2007/08 when Ronnie had one against Mark Selby in the 2007 UK Championship semi-finals, and another one in the last 16 of the 2008 World Championship against Mark Williams. In total there was never more than three maximums made during those three events combined in a season, and, other than Ronnie’s “double”, they were always made by three different players. So, this, in my eyes is just a publicity coup, as WST probably looked at the stats and know that the “risk” they are taking is very, very small … No player in their right mind will take the risk to go for a maximum in the second most important ranking tournament of the season, unless, maybe, if they are so far behind that they have forfeited any serious hope to win the match in progress.

2023 Champion of Champions – Day 4 and other news

November 17, 2023November 17, 2023 Monique Professional snooker tournament Professional snooker

Yesterday Judd Trump became the fourth and last man to book his spot in the semi-finals in Bolton.

Here is the report shared on the event official website:

Judd Trump the Ace in the Pack as he beats Shaun Murphy in thriller to reach Cazoo Champion of Champions semi-finals

Judd Trump showed why he is known as the Ace in the Pack as he came from 2-0 and 3-1 down to beat Shaun Murphy 6-4 and book his place in the Cazoo Champion of Champions semi-finals.

The World Number 2 demonstrated why was the pre-tournament favourite, playing a positional shot in the seventh frame which he rated among his top three best ever shots, as he potted the yellow and opened up a red at the same time.

Trump had to fight for his win to set up a semi-final showdown with Barry Hawkins on Friday night, unlike his earlier Group 3 opener in which he brushed aside Baipat Siripaporn 4-0.

Murphy delivered an early masterclass as he raced into a 2-0 lead. After Trump hit the first break, The Magician potted a long red and took the frame with a break of 107.

It was more than 20 minutes before Trump potted his first ball, and Murphy took his chance again to win the second frame 90-5.

The best of 11 Group final was looking ominous until Murphy missed a straightforward red in the next frame which allowed Trump to pull one back with a clearance of 73. But Murphy won a safety battle to lead 3-1 at the break.

Trump showed why he was the man to beat as he won the next two frames to level the match. He then played some of the best positional snooker in the business – including that yellow – to come from behind and edge the frame to lead for the first time.

Trump went from strength to strength and came back in the next frame from needing snookers to win it on the black and move to within one frame of victory.

This was the most exciting of the four Group finals and Murphy refused to give up, and he came from behind to win the ninth frame and reduce Trump’s lead to 5-4.

That was the end of the fightback, however, as Trump booked his fifth successive Champion of Champions final with a closing 107 break.

“I didn’t feel great out there, I felt a bit nervy, a bit rusty, but I managed to produce some good clearances and just dig in and turn it around,” said Trump. “I have played a few good shots in my time but in terms of position, that yellow is in the top three, but I will let everyone judge it on social media.

“When they go in, it gives you the inspiration to go on and do well in the tournament.”

Trump had safely negotiated the potential banana skin of facing Thailand’s rank outsider Siripaporn earlier in the day.

It was always going to be a tough ask for the women’s World Champion, in her first year on the world tour, facing the man with three ranking tournaments under his belt.

Although she made some impressive pots, it was a routine 4-0 win for 2021 Champion of Champion Trump, whose highlight was closing the match with a final frame break of 115.

The other Group match was not as close as predicted, as Murphy made the most of some mistakes from Tyneside Terror Gary Wilson to ease through 4-1 in the best of seven format.

Murphy also closed out the match with a century, notching a 107 break in the fifth frame.

The winner of the Trump-Hawkins semi-final will face either Mark Allen or John Higgins in Sunday’s final, as they meet in the other semi on Saturday night.

There is no doubt that Judd has evolved a lot both as a player and a person over the last years. There was a time when he came across as pretty arrogant, in my eyes at least, would complain about bad luck whenever he lost, and go for stupid shots when things weren’t going his way: in short … the typical spoiled brat attitude. He was only young and supremely talented which can be a bad combination at times! He has matured a lot … and well, like a fine wine. He now has the complete game, without losing his attacking nous. He’s a lot more considerate when talking about his rivals and “bad luck” quotes are a thing of the past.

As for Shaun Murphy … there were shot choices yesterday making me wonder about his thought process.

In other news…

The 2023 IBSF Championships are still underway in Doha, Qatar. This time, I didn’t find the usual website, with all the draws and results as well as the videos. Yes, it’s presentation was outdated and rather ugly, but it had everything.

However you will find some articles and news here.

There are also results and news to be found on their Facebook page

Check videos – including live streaming – and results on Dariuz Goral YouTube channel

(Big thanks to Lewis for reminding me this one!)

And the most extraordinary news came from Facebook where Peter Williams shared that yesterday afternoon, Ray Reardon, aged 91, made a 100 break on the “tight table” in his club!

2023 Champion of Champions – Day 3

November 16, 2023November 16, 2023 Monique Professional snooker tournament Professional snooker

It was John Higgins who emerged the winner on day 3 in Bolton and here is the report shared on the event official website:

Heroic Higgins books place in Cazoo Champion of Champions semi-finals with win over Ding Junhui

JOHN HIGGINS produced the best snooker of the Cazoo Champion of Champions so far to storm into the semi-finals.

The Wizard of Wishaw swept aside Ding Junhui 6-1 in the Group 1 final at Bolton’s Toughsheet Stadium, to set up a tournament semi-final against Mark Allen on Saturday night.

The snooker was of the highest quality and Higgins had the crowd buzzing in the opening frame as he edged towards a maximum 147 break.

At 48-years-old, he would have been the oldest man in snooker history to make a maximum, but his bid came undone when he was on 96 and the 13^th red rattled in the jaws of a pocket.

Ding, nicknamed Enter The Dragon, hit back immediately with a 106 break to level the match, before Higgins regained the lead with a break of 83.

Higgins, who has been a professional for 31 years, didn’t look back after that as he reeled off the next four frames with breaks of 80 or higher to book his third Champion of Champions semi-final appearance.

Higgins, who lost only one frame all day, said: “I felt good out there today and I really enjoyed it. It’s a brilliant venue and I can’t wait to come back on Saturday.

“Me and Mark always have great matches. Last time he pipped me 9-8 in the Northern Ireland final so maybe I owe him one back. I can’t wait to play him.”

Higgins was firing on all cylinders from Wednesday’s first break, beating Chris Wakelin 4-0 in the Group 1 opener as he opened with a 70 and never looked back.

Wakelin, who had not beaten Higgins in three attempts, looked out-of-sorts in his first appearance at the Champion of Champions, and never recovered from missing an important pink in the second frame.

The other best of seven frames Group match was the battle of the two Chinese stars, with man of the moment, Zhang Anda, looking to book a clash against his idol, Scotsman Higgins.

Arriving on the back of his weekend International Championship victory, he fought back brilliantly from 3-0 down to level against Ding – who was a last-minute replacement for Ronnie O’Sullivan.

However, he was finally beaten in a thrilling decider on the final black.

This report doesn’t do justice to one of the best, and most extraordinary best of 7 match you can ever see. Indeed the match between Zhang Anda and Ding Junhui delivered huge drama and, in particular, one absolutely superb clearance by Zhang Anda.

Here it is, shared by Matchroom Multisport on their YouTube Channel:

There was a huge crowd in attendance, likely attracted by the prospect to watch Ronnie. The fans were served an absolute treat and showed their appreciation with a standing ovation and the end of the match. Both players were chased for autographs. They deserved it! Zhang could have suffered a “hang-over” after winning his first ranking tittle, Ding had to fly from China at the very last moment. All credits to them both.

Alan McManus and Neal Foulds were lost for words in the studio after the match.

Yes, Higgins won the group, playing very well, but Ding was probably very tired in that match, after the thrill of the afternoon and the long last minute trip. Zhang also had traveled late after his triumph in Tianjin. What the Chinese lads produced was something very special. Congratulations to them.

2023 UK Championship Draws and Formats

November 15, 2023 Monique Professional snooker tournament Professional snooker

WST has now published the draws and formats for the 2023 UK Championship, both qualifiers and main event:

Allen To Start Defence On Opening Day In York

The draw for the MrQ UK Championship in York has been made, with Mark Allen to begin the defence of his title on the opening afternoon on Saturday November 25.

The tournament runs from November 25 to December 3 at the York Barbican. The schedule for top 16 seeds has now been announced:

Saturday November 25
1pm
Mark Allen v qualifier
Mark Williams v qualifier

7pm
Kyren Wilson v qualifier
Tom Ford v qualifier

Sunday November 26
1pm
Luca Brecel v qualifier
Zhang Anda v qualifier

7pm
Shaun Murphy v qualifier
Ali Carter v qualifier

Monday November 27
1pm
Judd Trump v qualifier
Barry Hawkins v qualifier

7pm
Mark Selby v qualifier
Jack Lisowski v qualifier

Tuesday November 28
1pm
Ronnie O’Sullivan v qualifier
John Higgins v qualifier

7pm
Neil Robertson v qualifier
Robert Milkins v qualifier

CLICK HERE FOR THE FINAL STAGES DRAW

CLICK HERE FOR THE FINAL STAGES FORMAT

…

Northern Ireland’s Allen beat Ding Junhui 10-7 in the final at the Barbican last year to win the title for the first time. This year’s event promises to be a classic, with many all-time greats in the field as well as in-form Zhang Anda and Tom Ford who have leapt into the top 16 for the first time.

The 16 seeds will be joined by 16 players who come through the qualifying rounds in Leicester, which run from November 18 to 23. Star names among the 128 players heading for the qualifiers include three-time UK Champion Ding, Stephen Maguire, Stuart Bingham, Hossein Vafaei, Ryan Day, Si Jiahui, Jimmy White and Ken Doherty.

CLICK HERE FOR THE QUALIFIERS DRAW

CLICK HERE FOR THE QUALIFIERS FORMAT

…

Or watch the drama unfold during all six days of the qualifying rounds, from November 18th to 23rd, live on discovery+ or the Eurosport App (depending on your location), as well as the last four days on WST’s Facebook and YouTube channels.

The last two days of the qualifying event, on November 22nd and 23rd, will be ‘Judgement Day’ as players battle for coveted places in the final stages. The random draw for the final stages will be made on Thursday 23^rd.

First of all, I’m glad to see Ronnie’s name in the draw. I wasn’t sure he would enter it but of course this is one of the “triple crown” events in a city he likes and that surely helps.

Next, this is a format I like. The lowest ranked players are not immediately facing a top player and get more winnable matches to start with. Of course, they have to win more matches to get to the venue, but they have the opportunity to get some useful experience, ranking points and money before facing the big boys. Also, it’s longer matches, which allows more time to settle.

2023 Champion of Champions – Day 2

November 15, 2023 Monique Professional snooker tournament Professional snooker

Yesterday Barry Hawkins booked his lace in the semi-finals with a convincing display.

Here is the report shared on the event official website:

DOMINANT DAY FOR BARRY HAWKINS WHO SOARS INTO CAZOO CHAMPION OF CHAMPIONS SEMI-FINALS

BARRY HAWKINS blew away the opposition on Tuesday as he stormed into his first Cazoo Champion of Champions semi-final.

“The Hawk” followed up his 4-0 victory over World Champion Luca Brecel in the afternoon Group 2 opener by soaring past Robert Milkins 6-2 in the evening.

Hawkins was too clinical for “The Milkman”, who had pulled of a shock in the afternoon with a solid 4-2 triumph over veteran Mark Williams.

Victory for Hawkins, 44, in the best of 11 tie set up a possible semi showdown with Judd Trump on Friday, assuming the tournament favourite comes through Group 3 on Thursday.

“I’m delighted to get through that group because all the groups here are tough with tournament winners,” said Hawkins. “I know Judd is the man of the moment and probably favourite to get through, but they are all great players in the other group. It’s a short format in the first match so it could be anyone who gets through.

“I’m playing again on Friday, and I am sticking around because it is too far for me to go home and travel back on Thursday, ready to play Friday. I’ll get some practice here and there and just chill.”

After scoring two centuries on his way to the Group final, Hawkins didn’t have it all his own way as he had to come back from needing two snookers to take the opening frame 56-52, but he never looked back as he took the next three frames to lead 4-0 at the interval.

Hawkins lost his first frame of the day when the players returned, but claimed the next, before Milkins pulled another one back with a break of 81. The fightback ended there, however, as his in-form opponent won the next frame to wrap up victory.

Earlier in the day it was a miserable fifth appearance in this tournament for “Belgian Bullet” Brecel as Hawkins opened and closed their match by breaking through the ton barrier.

He won the opening frame with a break of 128, and the fourth with a break of 108 in the best of seven tie.

The other semi-final was a war of attrition as Milkins won the first and third frames against Williams but was pegged back each time, before pulling away from “The Welsh Potting Machine”.

Wednesday’s Group 1 action at Bolton’s Toughsheet Stadium will take place without Ronnie O’Sullivan, after “The Rocket” withdrew from the tournament on Tuesday morning and was replaced by China’s Ding Junhui.

The group contains another Chinese star and snooker’s man of the moment, Zhang Anda, fresh from his weekend triumph in the International Championship.

Luca Brecel was utterly awful yesterday, as he has been since the start of the season … when he actually played. It’s been the pattern ever since I’ve known him as a junior. Every time he has a huge success, he goes walkabout… Disappointing but unsurprising.

Milkins played well in beating Willo, but was poor, really poor, against Hawkins before the MSI. He had lost the lengthy first frame, when really he should have won it, and that appeared to affect him. His body language was negative and his concentration had gone. He improved after the interval but he had left himself too much to do.