Ronnie is in Chengdu, with Jason Francis and his friend Robin Huxley…
Here are some images from their trip and arrival, including some cultural and gastronomical stuff ..
Ronnie’s first match in Chengdu was against John Higgins. John beat him by 5-3. Ronnie, apparently wasn’t feeling too well and was 4-0 behind at the MSI, so it’s not that bad a result.
“Rocket” O’Sullivan appeared and became extremely popular
“Rocket” is coming! On May 18, Chengdu welcomed a number of big names in the snooker world. “Rocket” O’Sullivan, Higgins, Trump, and Zhang Anda all appeared at the Sichuan Provincial Stadium for a two-day exhibition match.
O’Sullivan vs. Higgins duel
O’Sullivan stuck out his tongue at his mistake
“Rocket” versus “Wizard”
The gathering of big names attracted fans from all over the country and even abroad to watch the game. In the afternoon, Trump and Zhang Anda had a duel, and the climax came in the evening, when the Scottish “Wizard” Higgins and “Rocket” O’Sullivan started a PK. In the second game, Higgins broke 100 in a single stroke and cleared the stage with one stroke, which was a feast for the eyes of the fans in the audience.
O’Sullivan
“Rocket” O’Sullivan is not feeling well today
“Rocket” O’Sullivan during the game
O’Sullivan felt bad today and ultimately lost 3-5. However, winning or losing this game is not important. In the last game, the two staged a wonderful snooker tug-of-war, and their exquisite stick skills made the fans hooked.
Higgins hits the ball
Higgins
Higgins shakes hands with fans
Today happens to be Higgins’s birthday. After the game, his wife, accompanied by the “Giant Panda”, gave him a birthday cake. All the fans sang “Happy birthday to you” to congratulate him on his 49th birthday. The scene Warm.
“Giant Panda” celebrates Higgins’ birthday
Tomorrow, the game will continue, Higgins will face Trump, and O’Sullivan will stage a “Ding Olympic Games” with Ding Junhui.
Happy birthday John Higgins!
And some more pictures shared on Weibo by fans at the event
Big thanks to Kalacs for sharing this article as well as the pictures! Especially as I have difficulties accessing Weibo at the moment and his help is even more precious than ever! Thank you!!!
he Billiard Sports Association of Thailand will host Asia and Oceania Q School 2024 from 22 May to 2 June 2024 at the BSAT Academy at Rajamangala National Stadium in Bangkok. There will be two tournaments and the two finalists from each event will earn a place on the World Snooker Tour for the 2024/25 and 2025/26 seasons.
Former pros Sunny Akani, Gao Yang, Himanshu Jain, Luo Honghao and Hamza Akbar will be among those battling for tour cards. For results and pictures follow the BSAT Facebook page HERE.
The World Professional Billiards & Snooker Association (WPBSA) has today announced an exciting expansion of the Q Tour Middle East series for the 2024/25 season.
The series will feature a trio of events in the region, with the first set to take place in Bahrain later this month before further events in the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia later in the year.
Last season saw a global expansion of the Q Tour for the first time with the incorporation of events in the Middle East, Americas and Asia-Pacific regions alongside the European series which has been held since 2021/22.
The Middle East series had notable success in its inaugural season as both Iran’s Amir Sarkhosh and Mohamed Shehab, from the UAE, secured two-year World Snooker Tour cards at March’s Global Play-Off in Bosnia & Herzegovina.
The full calendar for the 2024/25 Q Tour Middle East series can be found below. Further details on dates and venues will follow in due course.
Event 1: 21-23 May 2024 (Bahrain)
Event 2:19-21 July 2024 (Dubai, United Arab Emirates)
Event 3: October/November/ 2024 (Saudi Arabia)
The series will once again carry a ranking list with the top two players at the conclusion of the final event earning their places at the 2025 Q Tour Global Play-Off.
WPBSA Chairman Jason Ferguson said: “We are delighted to announce an expansion of the Q Tour Middle East series to now feature events in three countries.
“Snooker is seeing tremendous growth in the region with World Snooker Tour events staged in Saudi Arabia, the achievements of ranking event winner Hossein Vafaei in recent years and the success of the Q Tour Middle East series further highlighting this growth.
“We are hugely excited to be returning as we underline our commitment to the region. We would like to thank our partners for their ongoing support.”
Saudi Arabia Billiard & Snooker Federation President, Dr. Nasser Saab Al-Shammari said: “We are pleased to see the continued expansion of snooker in the Middle East and we hope that the continued success of the WPBSA Q Tour Middle East series will provide the pathway for our players and officials and inspire the next generation of snooker stars from the region to develop and compete with the world’s top stars.
“We would like to thank WPBSA Chairman Jason Ferguson and his team for their ongoing support as we continue our goal of growing snooker in the Middle East.”
Mr Monther Albasri of the Bahrain Billiards, Snooker & Darts Federation said: “We are pleased to support the growth of the game alongside the WPBSA by hosting the first event of the 2024/25 Q Tour Middle East Series.”
Mr Khalid Alkhaili from UAEFED added: “We are delighted to see an expansion to the Q Tour Middle East series. With our partnership with the WPBSA and CueSports, we aim to serve the game as one of the UAE government & Dubai Sports Council’s strategic plans.”
CueSports CEO Dr. Ahmed Alhashmi said: “There is no more exciting way to help players in the region than working together with the WPBSA to develop the Q Tour Middle East series and future plans.”
Further information about the 2024/25 Q Tour will be published in due course.
Any extension of snooker outside the UK is a good thing … but I wish similar efforts would be made to promote snooker in mainland Europe. Of course, I’m not naïve… countries in mainland Europe are not awash with money to throw into such initiatives … nor do they feel a great need to get involved in sports-washing. That said, the middle East players did very well on the Q-tour. But those guys are not young kids which shows two things : that snooker is played at a high level in the region for a long time, and that for it to continue and develop action is needed.
Also … without wanting to trigger controversy – Israël is geographically part of that region and has some very good players too. I just hope that they will not be prevented to compete in those events if they so wish. In IBSF events in the region, Israeli players had visas refused … and that was well before the current conflict started.
The much anticipated 2024 All Star Challenge in Hong Kong proved to be a rather disappointing event on many accounts. I already mentioned the overpriced tickets and the seating disaster.
Unfortunately there were even more issues …
Patsy Cheung and her family are huge fans of the sport and have, in the past, been involved in the staging of the General Cup. I know that for sure because they contacted me at the time, asking if I could help with pictures for the posters. Patsy has become close friend with some of the top players, notably Mark Williams, with whom she went out for dinner this week in Hong Kong. She posted pictures on her Facebook page..
Also on her page, she shared a post in Chinese that translates like this:
Me myself had wonderful two days with the super stars on and off the snooker table. But the event itself is terribly disappointing, not professional at all. As a close friend of Mark Williams, they claimed he was sick the 2nd day and skip the match. But actually he already has another tournament scheduled months ago, so he could only play one day in HK. Fans may misunderstand him as being not professional. Any respect to the stars in all aspects?
This is extremely disappointing and concerning. Misrepresenting the players damages their image and selling a match when you know full well that one of the players will not be available is dishonest. Credits to Patsy for trying to put things right. She genuinely loves snooker and does share a genuine friendship with some of the players.
Here are some of her pictures notably showing her with Willo’s family and Kyren Wilson, eating by the river.
The action continued in Hong Kong and Ronnie had just one match to play yesterday … against Judd Trump who beat him by 5-2 and made a 147 for good measure … 🙄 There is no doubt that Judd is currently the man in form and – allegedly – he had some extra motivation: he was watched by his alleged new girlfriend who is Chinese…
Here are some pictures of the action … they were shared yesterday on weibo.
Also now available on YouTube is Ronnie’s match v Mark Williams, a close match where both players played well especially considering that it started late and amongst unhappiness from spectators who had paid for pricy tickets only to be unable to watch the table properly. This kind of delay would have affected Ronnie more than Mark who is pretty unflappable…
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 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…
Bai Yulu has won the 2024 Women Snooker World Championship
She beat Mink Nucharut by 6-5 in a tense high quality final. This means that she will be offered a main Tour card for the 2024/25 season. Mink will get one as well as she’s guaranteed to finish the season as Women’s Snooker number 1. In many ways this is the best possible outcome from allegedly the best ever Women Snooker World Championship.
Congratulations Bai Yulu!
Bai Yulu 2024 Women Snooker World Champion AND 2024 Junior Women Snooker World Champion!
Home favourite Bai Yulu beat Mink Nutcharut 6-5 on the final pink to win a dramatic final at the World Women’s Snooker Championship in Dongguan Changping, China.
Victory earns 20-year-old Bai a place on the World Snooker Tour for the first time and she will join the main circuit for the 2024/25 and 2025/26 seasons. Talented Bai reached the final last year before losing to Baipat Siripaporn, and has now clinched her maiden world title.
Women’s world number one Nutcharut, who lifted this trophy in 2022, had not dropped a single frame in the tournament until the final. Bai took an early 3-1 lead, helped by a break of 122 which was the highest of the tournament and highest ever in the World Women’s Championship final. Thailand’s Nutcharut hit back to take three in a row with a top run of 62 to lead 4-3, before Bai knocked in 97 and 75 to edge 5-4 ahead. Nutcharut then took frame ten on the colours to set up the decider.
Both players had chances and it came down to the colours – Nutcharut leading 46-43 when she failed to gain position on the brown. Bai potted brown and blue to lead 52-46 during a safety battle on the pink. Trapped in a snooker, Nutcharut hit the pink but left her opponent a chance, and Bai slotted it into a baulk corner to clinch the Mandy Fisher Trophy.
It has been an impressive rise to the top from Bai, who had never competed on the women’s tour before last year’s World Championship. She went on to win her first women’s ranking event at the British Open in May last year, beating Reanne Evans in the final.
Bail also won the world under-21 title earlier in the week, beating Narucha Phoemphul in the final.
Eve of the 2024 World Open in Yushan … Ronnie honoured
As always in China, the players are made to feel very welcome with an opening ceremony and a red carpet walk, but this time, Ronnie was particularly honoured as he was inducted in the World Billiards Museum Hall of Fame
Here is a short video of that event shared by Roger Leighton on Youtube
And there were some pictures shared on weibo, of the red carpet walk, the induction ceremony and the opening ceremony
Sichuan
