Day 10 at the 2023 Ranking CLS

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Here is the report by WST

Success For Milkins And Craigie

Robert Milkins and Sam Craigie progressed to the second stage of BetVictor Championship League Snooker – Ranking Edition at the Morningside Arena, Leicester

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Click here for the results and schedule

Milkins, who finished top of the BetVictor Series rankings last season and scooped the huge £150,000 bonus, got the new campaign underway in his group alongside Dominic Dale, Muhammad Asif and Alex Taubman.

Dale proved to be the biggest threat to Milkins, winning his first first two matches against Asif and Taubman which meant he needed only a draw in the final match against Milkins, who had beaten Taubman 3-0 but drawn 2-2 with Asif. It was Gloucester’s Milkins who secured top spot with a 3-0 victory over Dale.

He said: “I am pleased to get through at the start of the season. I am bewildered by my game. I thought I was playing ok but I miscued 12 times today. I think that’s lack of practice, I’ve not put enough time in. Last season was amazing, I couldn’t have wished for anything better.”

Sam Craigie progressed through Group 23, finishing ahead of Fan Zhengyi, Fergal O’Brien and debutant Ahmed Aly Elsayed. Having beaten O’Brien and Elsayed 3-0, Craigie needed only a draw in his last match against Fan, and the 2-2 scoreline was enough.

Craigie said: “I had a few good breaks, but I have to find some more consistency going forwards. I should have got into the top 32 last season, but after the UK Championship (where he reached the quarter-finals), I fell away. I am not sure why that is but I have a chance to put it right.”

World Championship semi-finalist Si Jiahui begins his season in Group 25 ton Saturday with Mark Joyce, Mohamed Ibrahim, and Haydon Pinhey live on Table 1. Matthew Selt enters in Group 20 alongside James Cahill, Andres Petrov, and Sydney Wilson live on Table 2.

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There wasn’t much at all between Fan and Craigie. Both were unbeaten but neither was at their best, this being the first day of their season. The fact that Craigie played Fergal O’Brien in Fergal’s first match may well be what made the difference. Fergal was probably a bit cold. He is one of the hardest opponents you can get on tour. He gives you nothing, really nothing at all. We had a prime example of that yesterday: he needed snookers in frame 3 during his match against Ahmed Aly. He got the points he needed. Then, still 24 behind on the green, hence with 25 on the table, he snookered Aly and received 48 foul points from that snooker… tell me about being ruthless. Off the table the Ferginator is one of the nicest and funniest guy you may wish to meet … and a good mover too!

The other group was never in doubt despite Milkins’ miscue fest. Asif is a very decent player but he isn’t scoring enough. Alex Taubman is a good amateur, and played in many PTCs years ago. I’m not sure how much he plays nowadays. Even back then, he never really reached the required level to be successful professionally. He wasn’t far away but not quite there.

In other news … this

Everything surprised me here. Kozoom mainly deals with 3-cushions billiards and Dotty is the last I expected to travel to China to play some variant of pool! Also interesting is the mention that there were enough international players to be able to “separate” the two groups in the first round, making sure of a strong international representation in the next round. This is a clever way to “market” the product outside its “native” China.

Day 9 at the 2023 Ranking CLS

Monique Professional snooker tournament

Yesterday at the 2023 ranking CLS we saw Chinese players shine…

Here is the report by WST:

Pang And Long Secure Top Spots

Pang Junxu and Long Zehuang topped their respective groups at the BetVictor Championship League – Ranking event at the Morningside Arena in Leicester.

Coming through the CBSA China Tour, Long settled into life on the professional circuit well, with victory over the five-time ranking event winner Ali Carter and a draw against Jackson Page to start strongly in group 7.

Page’s second match saw him secure three points against Ryan Davies, meaning he had to beat Carter 3-0 in his final match to overcome Long, who beat Davies 3-0. Page could only manage a 2-2 draw with Carter and finished second in the group.

Group 24 promised to deliver plenty with the likes of Pang, Wu Yize, Stan Moody, and Hammad Miah all vying for a spot in Winners’ Week.

China’s Pang stepped up in his opening match to quickly dispatch Moody 3-0. He continued on that trajectory with a win against Miah and set up a group decider against compatriot Wu to close out the evening session. Pang ended the day with three wins from three, defeating Wu 3-1 in the final match.

Robert Milkins enters in Group 8 tomorrow alongside Dominic Dale, Muhammad Asif, and Alex Taubman, whilst Fan Zhengyi, Sam Craigie, Fergal O’Brien, and Ahmed Elsayed line-up in Group 23.

Pang winning his group, with Wu coming second is exactly what I expected. Just as I expected Moody to achieve very little. It’s only normal, he’s very young, very “green” and it’s a huge step up to go from the amateur to the pro game. I now hope that the expectations about young Stan will be brought down to a realistic level so that he can develop without unneeded extra pressure.

Long really impressed me. It took him two frames to get used to the conditions. After that he was just dominant. It was his first day competing as a pro and he won his group in style.

Ali Carter struggled all day. He was not amused and made it clear for all to see … much to the amusement of a certain commentator and a few fans..

2023/24 Tour Qualifiers News … and Ronnie unsurprising news

Monique Professional snooker tournament, Tour News ,

Let’s start with Ronnie … although the official Championship League Snooker site still shows Ronnie in Group 1 draw, the WST score system now has him replaced by Michael Holt. So, it’s 99,99% certain that he has withdrawn from the event, which, TBH, isn’t a big surprise.

Another poster boy gone…

Now, regarding the qualifiers…

Although I didn’t see any reaction on social media to the post I shared this morning regarding the UK Championship qualifiers, they deemed it necessary to clarify things by putting this on their site:

Come To Our Qualifying Events This Season!

During the 2023/24 season, the following qualifying events will be open to fans:

International Championship Qualifiers, September 18-23, Sheffield
BetVictor Northern Ireland Open Qualifiers, October 17-20, Sheffield
UK Championship Qualifiers, November 18-23, Leicester Morningside Arena
BetVictor German Masters Qualifiers, December 18-22, Sheffield
BetVictor Welsh Open Qualifiers and Six Red World Championship Qualifiers, January 22-28, Barnsley
Cazoo World Championship Qualifiers, April 8-17, Sheffield

Nearer the time of each event, details will be announced on how to buy tickets or gain access.

As in previous seasons, our intention is to give fans access where this is possible. Qualifying rounds are a fantastic way to enjoy live snooker with outstanding value for money. The quality of snooker is extraordinary and the strength in depth on our tour has never been greater. And at all qualifying events you can see a wide range of players on a single day.

We hope to see you at our qualifying events this season.

The good news clearly is that the UK Championship qualifiers will be open to fans.

However, as things stand for now, qualifiers to be played before mid-September will apparently not be open to fans. That includes the 2023 British Open qualifiers, the 2023 European Masters qualifiers, the 2023 Wuhan Open qualifiers and the 2023 English Open qualifiers.

Day 8 at the 2023 Ranking CLS and more bad news

Monique Professional snooker tournament

Here is what happened yesterday in Leicester

Zhou And Jones Make Winners’ Week

Zhou Yuelong and Jak Jones earned their places in the second phase of the BetVictor Championship League ranking event in Leicester, topping their respective groups.

Click here for the results and schedule

In group 17, China’s Zhou began with a 3-0 whitewash victory over Scottish amateur Chris Totten, rounding the win off with a century run of 105 in the third. However, the three-time ranking event finalist’s progression was put under threat after he suffered 3-0 reverse against Oliver Brown in his second match.

Brown was defeated 3-1 by Ashley Hugill and drew 2-2 with Totten. That was enough for him to secure second place and meant that a win for Zhou in his final match against Hugill would see him top the group. Zhou obliged with breaks of 77, 75 and 50 to run out a 3-0 victor.

Welshman Jones ended last season superbly with a run to the quarter-finals of the World Championship on his Crucible debut. He continued to impress in group 26, but was held to a 2-2 draw in his opening match against Dean Young. He followed that up with a 3-0 whitewash win over Rebecca Kenna to set up a group decider against Jamie Jones. It was Jak Jones who prevailed 3-1 to top the group and make the next stage.

I’m not sure who writes those reports but they should do better …

“Welshman Jones ended last season superbly …”. Which Jones? There were two of them, both Welsh, Jak and Jamie. Of course given the context you understand it’s Jak but is typing those three letters to make the text more easily understandable too much to ask?

Anyway… yesterday wasn’t the best day for me, with all sorts of (minor) inconveniences and power cuts. I did see only bits and pieces of the action. What I did see though was Bex Kenna coming back from 2-0 down to force a draw against Dean Young. She hadn’t won a frame all day, and Dean didn’t gift it to her as the draw meant that he would finish third whilst a win would have given him a second place. It made no material difference for Bex, she would be last in the group no matter the outcome, but it made a 1000 pounds and ranking points difference for Dean. Bex nevertheless tried her best to the very end, and played for pride. Well done!

Today we have Ali Carter, Jackson Page, Long Zehuang and Ryan Davies on table 1, Wu Yize, Pang Junxu, Hammad Miah and Stan Moody on table 2.

In other bad news … this

Shame on you WST. This is the second most important tournament of the season. If it’s played with the same tiered format as last year, only 32 players will be at the main venue. All the others will compete in front of nobody, with no support, no atmosphere, no or little exposure. This will impact their opportunities to find a sponsor. This is dispiriting and another clear sign that snooker is NOT in a good place. No wonder more and more players look at other cue sports for opportunities. And we shouldn’t be surprised, nor should we blame the top boys who are nearing their 50th to give priority to lucrative exhibition events.

And about players looking at other cue sports… this conversation came up on twitter

Brendan has been a top referee in snooker for many years, but has now turned to pool…

2023 Ranking CLS – Day 7 … and some more from Shanghai

Monique Professional snooker tournament, Snooker exhibition ,

This is what happened yesterday in Leicester, as reported by WST … and if Matchroom.live is to be believed it happened in Gibraltar as well where , apparently, table 2 can be found 😎

Stevens And Hamilton Through

Matthew Stevens kicked off his 30th season as a professional by qualifying for the second stage of the BetVictor Championship League ranking edition at the Morningside Arena in Leicester on Tuesday.

Stevens, a former UK Championship and Masters winner, finished top of Group 15 after winning his opening two matches, leaving him in an unassailable position going into his final contest.

The Welshman opened his account with a 3-1 victory over Allan Taylor before a hard fought 3-0 win against Duane Jones, which culminated in Stevens claiming a 46-minute third frame on the black.

The top seed in the group, 2015 World Champion Stuart Bingham, had been held to a 2-2 draw by Jones before suffering a 3-1 defeat to Taylor, who highlighted his victory with a break of 129.

It meant Bingham was unable to win the group heading into his final encounter with Stevens, who went into the match safe in the knowledge he had already done enough to qualify. Bingham won 3-1 and finished third behind Taylor.

“I was a bit in and out today,” Stevens said. “I started well in my first match but I was lucky that Duane struggled against me and let me off the hook, which made the difference in the end. But all in all, I felt okay.

“We’ve got tournaments coming up so I’ll carry on playing now and try and put some graft in.”

Experience told in Group 28 as 52 year-old Anthony Hamilton secured qualification for the last 32 stage.

Hamilton, the 2017 German Masters champion, completed a 3-0 whitewash over Chinese tour debutant Xing Zihao by successfully obtaining the three snookers he needed in the last frame before winning it on a re-spotted black.

Hamilton, who had made a 116 break against Xing, added a second century, 110, during his 2-2 draw with Australian Ryan Thomerson. The group’s other results left the veteran needing just a point from his last match with Belgian Ben Mertens and he duly took a 2-0 lead before Mertens hit back to force a 2-2 draw, finishing off with a 131 total clearance.

I mainly watched table 2. The Sheriff was his reliable self – he’s always been a good scorer – and totally deserved to win the group. Ben Mertens probably celebrated with Luca Brecel until the day before yesterday … he was quite out-of-sorts. He produced a mixed bag of excellent pots and unexpected mistakes. He saved his best for last, but it was too late. Xing Zihao played better that I expected after Lewis’ comments. He’s obviously very young and not at all accustomed of the professional environment but he showed some really good stuff.

This what awaits us today:

Chris Totten is taking the last spot in Group 17 (table 1). The spot was still “TBA” when the draw was published and was probably destined for the Africa Champion, provided they could make it.

In other news… we finally know a bit more about the outcome(s) at the exhibition tournament in Shanghai, as this appeared on twitter

Here is the said clearance (obviously an amateur video)

And another one, probably recorded by the same person, showing Judd at the table … playing a fantastic last red

2023 Ranking CLS – Day 6

Monique Professional snooker tournament

After a two days hiatus, the 2023 ranking CLS was back yesterday … competing for attention with Wimbledon. Despite getting some help from the gods of rain, I’m not sure it worked 🤨

Here is the report shared by WST:

Woollaston And Xiao Top Groups

Ben Woollaston and Xiao Guodong both made it through to phase two of the BetVictor Championship League Snooker – Ranking Edition with fine performances at the Morningside Arena in Leicester on Monday.

Click here for the results and schedule

In Group 32, China’s Xiao opened with a 2-2 draw against Rory McLeod, and in his second match against Alexander Ursenbacher he was 1-0 behind, but hit back with breaks of 101, 123 and 50 to win 3-1. Xiao then rounded off his day with a 3-0 success against Martin Gould and he’ll be back for the next phase later this month.

Woollaston opened Group 16 with a comfortable 3-0 defeat of Liam Graham, highlighted by a break of 96 in frame three, and he was equally dominant in a 3-0 win over Peter Lines. The Leicester cueman still needed to avoid a 3-0 defeat in his last match of the day against Jimmy Robertson, and he was in danger at 2-0 down, but Woollaston crucially took frame three on the colours and added the fourth with a break of 73 for good measure to leave the result at 2-2.

The BetVictor Championship League is the first ranking event of the season and carries total prize money of £328,000. The eventual winner on July 21 will earn a place in the prestigious Champion of Champions event in Bolton from November 13-19.

Among the players in action this week are 2015 world champion Stuart Bingham, last season’s German Masters winner Ali Carter and reigning Welsh Open champion Robert Milkins.

Despite the tennis competition I watched most of the action yesterday. I was pleased to see Ben Woollaston playing well. He has struggled a lot with health issues in recent years. Xiao looked rusty in his first match but got rid of the cobwebs pretty quickly. Jimmy Robertson also struggled at the start of the day; he improved but too late and too little. Martin Gould, on the other hand was really poor.

I watched a lot of Liam Graham and I’m in two minds about what I saw. The young man has abilities and he is a fighter. That’s commendable and I liked that. On the other hand, he clearly has a lot to learn, which is normal, but I’m not sure he expected the level of opposition he had to face. He oozed frustration for most of the day and this I didn’t like, because I’m not sure this attitude will help him to learn what he has to learn and it’s a lot. I may be wrong – I hope I’m wrong – but I have the feeling that many young players, especially the young UK players, fresh from the amateur ranks, believe that they are much better than they actually are and it often backfires. Confidence is a good thing, but over-confidence isn’t. When mercilessly crushed by daily reality-checks over-confidence can be very destructive.

Anyway, this is today’s program

I will probably in the minority concentrating on table 2.

News from Shanghai, pictures, videos and an interview – 03.07.2023

Monique Interview, Snooker exhibition , ,

The exhibition tournament in Shanghai was played to a conclusion yesterday but I have no clue who won it, neither who played who, nor what the match scores were. It seems that the format was best of 11. I’m not sure if the final was longer.

Anyway…

Here is a short video showing Ronnie thumping in a fantastic final black

From what I understood, reading the comments on that video, this was during Ronnie’s match v Marco Fu, and to avoid going 3-0 down. Marco then won the next two frames to go 4-1 up, only for Ronnie to win five on the bounce for a 6-4 victory.

I also found a few pictures

One of those shows Ronnie being 3-0 up on Judd Rump, and at the table. And it’s nice to see Zhou Ying refereeing. Since she got married, she rarely referees outside China, if ever.

Thanks to Silvry who found the crucial information on Instagram: Ronnie won the event, beating Judd Trump by 6-5 in the Final.

And some off-math pictures shared by Robbie

And, while Ronnie was at the other side of the world, Stephen Hendry shared a video where Ronnie answers the fan’s questions, and they have a relaxed chat:

It’s really enjoyable.

Meanwhile, in Leicester, the 2023 ranking CLS week 2 is about to start and here is today’s program, as shred by WST:

WST can’t get a thing right at the moment it seems … unless Barry Pinches, who already qualified for stage two, is tasked to replace Alex Ursenbacher in the afternoon session.

PS… they realised their mistake and corrected it. Still … it’s careless 😏