The Snookerbacker Blog

Whatcha Gotta Lose? The tour just got flatter

The marathon that is Q-School reaches its conclusion today with the final 16 players in Q-School 3 fighting it out for the last 4 main tour places up for grabs from this event.

On the main tour itself, yesterday was notable for the draws being published for the first three events of the season which start off with the qualifiers for the Wuxi Classic in Gloucester on Monday.

Perhaps surprisingly Ronnie O’Sullivan has entered, he starts off his campaign against the man who works behind the bar at the venue Michael ‘Wazza’ Wasley and this tournament also of course sees the beginning of Bazza’s big gamble; the flat 128 structure which will become an increasingly familiar sight as the season progresses, how it goes remains to be seen.

Tuesday also saw the draw for the qualifying rounds of the Australian Open which follows the Wuxi qualifiers at the same venue. This event does not follow the same flat structure and at first sight suffers from a severely depleted field, the highest ranked player that I can see in the qualifiers is Ken Doherty who is currently in 27th spot. This means that only 16 players above him in the rankings have entered the tournament, probably because of the prize money and associated travel costs which I commented on the other day here.

I’m guessing that not many of the 16 with the exception of Neil Robertson will be from the top 8, but we shall see, there may be the odd few that fancy combining it with a holiday in Australia, I think I remember Shaun Murphy saying he had friends there and enjoyed his time in Aus and I imagine former champ Ballrun Bingham and current one Barry Hawkins  will be on the plane but after that it’s anyone’s guess.

UPDATE: THE LAST 32 DRAW IS HERE SO YOU CAN SEE WHO ENTERED.

The Bulgarian PTC draw also came out and once again the World Champion O’Sullivan has bucked the trend and entered and if this YouTube clip is to be believed he is really looking forward to it, you can see the excitement on his face in fairness.

You can view the draw for the Wuxi Classic here.

You can view the draw for the Australian Goldfields Open here.

You can view the draw for PTC Bulgaria here.

It’s great to see that the World Snooker PDF’s are up to their usual standard too.

Here’s the draw for today, you can keep up with these matches on the live scoring here.

10am

Gareth Green 4-1 Sydney Wilson
David Morris 4-2 Ant Parsons
Lee Spick 4-3 Darren Cook
Phil O’Kane 0-4 Duane Jones
Adam Wicheard 4-1 Darryl Hill
Chris Wakelin 4-1 Darren Bond
Josh Boileau 1-4 Ashley Carty
Rhys Clark 3-4 Fraser Patrick

3pm

Gareth Green 1-4 David Morris
Lee Spick 4-2 Duane Jones
Adam Wicheard 2-4 Chris Wakelin
Ashley Carty v Fraser Patrick

During the course of running the last 2 Snookerbacker Classics I have been lucky enough to meet some great people. Not only the players but those who work hard behind the scenes to support snooker at grassroots level in the UK.

One of those people is Simon Goldstein, whose son Tom has played in a couple of events and hopes to build on those performances in this season’s Classic. He’s even got his own website, it’s here.

Now, as well as Simon sharing my taste in the more eclectic corners of 1980′s music, he also shares my ‘give it a go’ attitude and is working hard in his local area of Grantham to grow snooker at a junior level.

He’s also a cheeky blighter and approached me a few weeks ago about a possible prize offering for his forthcoming event, the Grantham Junior Open on Sunday 7th July.

Once he had applied the thumbscrews and instructed his cocker spaniel to be on alert I caved in with very little resistance and offered up two free entries to an event in Gloucester next February to the winner and the runner-up of the aptly named ‘Ambitions Cup’.

Simon says “As a snooker Dad, I have been to many snooker competitions in the last 5 years and so wanted to give a bit back in organising my own. I am lucky to have the right ingredients to promote this event with the friendliest of snooker clubs – ‘Grantham Snooker and Pool Club’, top class sponsors and a network of junior players. I look forward to making this event a huge success and hopefully continue with more events as the need grows”.

I’m very happy to support the tournament and would like to wish all the players competing the very best of luck and I look forward to welcoming the winner and runner-up to the SB Classic.

How to Enter:

If you are under 18 as of 6th July 2013, what the devil are you waiting for? Get your name down.

To enter the tournament contact Simon by email on Goldstein_simon@hotmail.com or via Twitter by following him @simongold or you can call the Grantham Snooker and Pool Club on 01476 564525. You can also text Simon on 07827 242936 and the entry fee to the event is just £10.

So, for just a tenner you could end up in one of the Q-School slots on offer in the Snookerbacker Classic 2014 and begin your career in the sport.

FULL DETAILS OF THE 2014 SNOOKERBACKER CLASSIC WILL BE AVAILABLE SOON AND PRIZE MONEY IS NOW INCREASING TO OVER £6000 WITH NEW INITIATIVES INCLUDING NEW VENUES, AN ORDER OF MERIT LIST AND ROYCEY’S REF SCHOOL.  

It’s off to sunny Quedgeley next Monday

Despite the fact that the 2012/13 professional season finished just two weeks ago at the Crucible, the new one starts in earnest a week today as the South West Snooker Academy or Capital Venue if you prefer, plays host to the first two sets of qualifiers for the Wuxi Classic and the Australian Goldfields Open.

It will be very interesting to see who chooses to play in these two events and possibly more interesting to see who decides to skip them. I reckon it’s a cunning move by World Snooker to have the two qualifying events running consecutively in the same venue and perhaps this might encourage those that were going to give the Aussie event a miss to enter it seeing as they are in Gloucester anyway for the Wuxi one.

The draw for both is apparently imminent as the final rounds of Q-School draw to a close and are due to finish on Wednesday.

The Wuxi Classic represents the first chance we will have to see how the flat draw structure pans out of course. It’s to be applauded that the winners of their first matches will be guaranteed at least £3000 prize money and for me that should signal a very healthy turnout for an event which concludes in China next month and was won last season by Ricky Walden.

I’m not sure that the same can be said for the Australian event though, it looks very much as though only a run to a last 32 slot in that will be enough for players to cover their expenses and I should think this will be a contributory factor in the number of entries we see for that one, but for those that decide to enter it may offer a decent chance to make a mark in the ranking list early on in the season as I very much doubt that many of the top 16 will bother with it. But I could be wrong of course.

Sandwiched in between the qualifiers and the Wuxi Classic final stages we have the return of the good old PTC’s, with the European events kicking off in Sofia and the Asian ones in Yixing. Increased prize money is also the order of the day in these which is all good.

You can see the full calendar here and below is a summary of the first four events in terms of prize money on offer. More prize money details can be found on this PDF file which amongst other things unfortunately for me shows how way down the pecking order the German Masters remains financially despite it being a fabulous well-attended event in a fantastic city. I really can’t think of a reason why a more attractive German sponsor can’t be found for this amazing tournament, I’m all ears on that one.

Anyway, lots of positives in terms of the dosh available to the players this season, now it’s up to them to earn their crust.

Wuxi Classic

Winner £80,000
Runner-up £35,000
Semi-finals £20,000
Quarter-finals £11,500
Last 16 £8,000
Last 32 £6,500
Last 64 £3,000
Last 128 Nothing
High break (Finals) £2,000
High break (Qualifiers) Nothing
Total £467,000 (£400,000)

Goldfields Australian Open (For reference: $1000 AUS = £643

Winner $70,000  
Runner-up $30,000
Semi-finals $20,000
Quarter-finals $15,000
Last 16 $10,000
Last 32 $7,500
Last 48 $1,600
Last 64 $750
Last 96 $150
Last 128 Nothing
High break (Finals) $2,500
High break (Qualifiers) $100 = £64
Total $445,000 ($435,000)

European Tour Events (Continental)

Winner €25,000 
Runner-up €12,000
Semi-finals €6,000
Quarter-finals €4,000
Last 16 €2,300
Last 32 €1,200
Last 64 €700
Last 128 Nothing
Total €125,000 (€70,000)

Asian Tour

Winner £10,000
Runner-up £5,000
Semi-finals £2,500
Quarter-finals £1,500
Last 16 £1,000
Last 32 £600
Last 64 £200
Last 128 Nothing
Total £50,000 (£50,000)

2013 

MAY 

27-29th 

Wuxi Classic Qualifiers
The Capital Venue, Gloucester 

30-3rd June

Goldfields Australian Open Qualifiers
The Capital Venue, Gloucester 

JUNE

6th

European Tour 1 (amateur pre qualifier)
Sofia, Bulgaria

7-9th

European Tour 1 (Last 128)
Sofia, Bulgaria

ORDER OF MERIT – SEEDING CUT OFF FOR EUROPEAN TOUR 2

11-15th 

Asian Tour 1
Yixing, China 

17-23rd

Wuxi Classic
Wuxi, China 

29 – 6th July 

Asian Indoor Games 
Incheon, Korea

Jamie Clarke – still in the hunt.

It’s another life-changing day over in Sheffield today as the 16 players left in Q-School 2 start at 10am knowing that they are all just 8 frames away from the main tour, by later today 4 of them will be on the tour and the other 12 will know that Q-School 3 is their only remaining chance of getting that coveted spot in the professional ranks.

It’s an exciting day for me too as it’s great to see so many familiar names still involved. No fewer than six Snookerbacker Classic stalwarts are still in the hunt although up to now the champion David Gray is not making the impact that he might have expected. But the one thing I will say about David is that he tends to do things the hard way if the Classic is anything to go by, preferring to play his best when it’s, to use a technical term, shit or bust.

There remains no fewer than 4 past SB Classic Grand Finalists still there, unfortunately 3 of them are in the same quarter, those being 2012 finalist Syd Wilson and 2013 finalists Ant Parsons and Jamie Clarke.

The other past finalist from 2012 Zak Surety is also still involved as well as Classic regulars Ben Harrison and Reanne Evans. It would be great if 3 of those 6 names were on the tour come tea time.

For anyone catching up on Q-School, event one saw another SB Classic regular Elliot Slessor qualify in quickfire fashion despite being a bit under the weather, I think he could be a real danger on the tour next time. Alex Davies also returned to the tour as did Lee Page and making up the foursome was London’s Hammad Miah. You can read a summary of that event here.

The 2014 Snookerbacker Classic preparation is now into it’s later stages with all venues now confirmed.

The launch date for the event will be in June after myself and Mrs SB return from our week away in the middle of nowhere early in the month and the headline news is that the prize money will be increased by a further 50% to just over £6000, with prize money extending to the Last 16 rather than the quarter-finalists.

The Grand Finals this season will be played at the South West Snooker Academy on March 1st 2014.

But for now it’s all eyes on Sheffield and I’d like to wish all those I know personally the very best of luck.

10am

Ahmed Saif 4-2 Ant Parsons
Syd Wilson 3-4 Jamie Clarke
Mitchell Travis 0-4 David Morris
Mitchell Mann 2-4 Ross Muir
Ben Harrison 0-4 Ryan Clark
Dylan Mitchell 0-4 Zak Surety
Reanne Evans 1-4 Alexander Ursenbacher
Paul Wykes 4-2 Jeff Cundy

Finals

Ahmed Saif 4-1 Jamie Clarke
David Morris 0-4 Ross Muir
Ryan Clark 4-1 Zak Surety
Alexander Ursenbacher 4-0 Paul Wykes

I just had to share this with the group. It’s Friday, I’m off for a game of snooker, but I am a bit worried about where I leave the car. THIS is what I have been waiting for……….(with thanks to Joe Gibney for unearthing this treasure)

After an exhausting day for yours truly, I can now reveal the winners and losers of this season’s Willies. The only snooker awards that really matter to fans.

Upton Snodsbury Comrades Club again laid on a cracking spread and everyone left in jovial mood. The police turned up at the end but it was nothing to do with any of the lucky award recipients.

You can take a look at what happened by clicking here or the Great WT below. Enjoy.  

I’m having a few days off while I get things sorted out for next season’s Snookerbacker Classic but I am keeping an eye on Q-School and in particular the Snookerbacker Classic boys from whom I expect big things.

It’s covered by the World Snooker scoreboard in real time but to keep up to date with the scores please visit the increasingly excellent Cue Tracker website’s results page here. 

I’ll be back refreshed and ready when the time is right, there may be some news on Stephen Lee before the start of the next season so if I hear anything I will be sure to pass it on. It’s also not long until the Upton Snodsbury Comrades Club once again plays host to this season’s Willie Awards.

Who would you like to walk off with an erection and why? A reminder of last season’s winners can be found here.

David hopes to keep the 100% record in tact.

Tomorrow sees the start of two more weeks of snooker as the amateurs play in their very own World Championship in pursuit of 12 more main tour places for next season at the Q-School. It is being played at the World Snooker Academy in Sheffield and will be covered on the World Snooker scoreboard, but unfortunately not live streamed.

Among the hopefuls lining up is the 2013 Snookerbacker Classic Champion David Gray who hopes to keep the 100% strike rate of champions going following 2012 champion Martin O’Donnell’s success in Q-School 1 last season. So the very best of luck to this year’s champ who is aiming at a return to the professional ranks after a few years away, a bit like a phoenix from the flames.

There are many more familiar names from the SB Classic competing, the likes of past finalists Oliver Lines, Jamie Clarke, Sydney Wilson (who faces David Gray in Q-School 1), Adam Wicheard, Zak Surety, Ant Parsons and Sanderson Lam are all in the mix along with SB Classic stalwarts like Ben Harrison, Ryan Causton, Elliot Slessor, Gaz Allen, Jack Bradford and Alex Taubman. So with such a high number of SB Classic boys and girls (I can’t leave out Reanne after all), we are surely going to be seeing a few familiar names lining up next year against the big names.

For those unfamiliar with the format, there are 3 seperate events, each in effect comprising of 4 knockout competitions all played over 7 frames. From each of the 3 Q-School events there are 4 qualifiers making a total of 12 at the end, with qualifiers from earlier events dropping out of the draw in later ones. All 12 receive a two-year tour card.

The draw for all 3 Q-School events can be found here along with the schedule of play.

The preparations for next season’s Snookerbacker Classic are well underway and most of the dates and venues are now confirmed. I’m in the process of getting some promotional things sorted out and this year will see two big new initiatives. The first will be an Order of Merit list which will run alongside the main event and determine two finalists (Finals Day will now involve 16 rather than 8 players) and the second is Ref School, more details on that exciting initiative to follow for budding referees.

The Classic will also be upping the game when it comes to prize money, with prizes extended to the Last 16 and a total prize fund increase of a massive 50% to over £6000. This makes the Snookerbacker Classic the most financially lucrative event for amateurs in the UK.

In short, the SB Classic (adopts X-Factor style booming voice…..JUST GOT BIGGER)

As well as the two Q-School places up for grabs for the winner and runner-up, there is also the chance for those who do well to attract the interest of sponsors. Indeed Sanderson Lam did just that with his run to the semi-finals last season where he was narrowly pipped by the eventual winner Gray, he was actually spotted by a sponsor interested in putting a player through Q-School and as a result lines up in Sheffield from tomorrow.

Sandi said ‘All amateurs wanting to do well in snooker need to enter the Snookerbacker Classic. It is a great tournament and is run as a tournament should be. It is the best amateur competition there is and it brings out the best in you and gives you the exposure to attract sponsors like I did, without the SB Classic I might not be in Q-School this year and I didn’t even win it!’

But for now it’s just left to wish all the players the best of luck, especially those that I have had the pleasure of meeting these past two seasons.

Hopefully I won’t be seeing too many of you again next time.

He came. He saw. He scurried off with the trophy.

It’s the morning after the night before and newspapers and internet sporting based sites are awash with images of Ronnie with the World Championship trophy which he came back to defend successfully last night in true champions fashion.

Amid the talk of burnout and slipping standards, the one player that can still ignite the sport to new levels did his thing. He’d had a year off, he got a bit bored, put a bit of practice in and came back to claim his trophy. In the process he made Simon Bedford a great pub quiz answer in the not so very distant future.

Is he the greatest player the sport has ever seen? Yes, of course he is. He may well even go on to better the seven world titles of the only player that could challenge for this title and seal all arguments that way, he doesn’t need to in my opinion but I would not bet against him doing just that.

Where does this achievement rank in snooker? Well, it’s never happened before so it’s out there on it’s own. I didn’t actually think that lack of match practice was ever going to be a problem for him once he’d negotiated the first round and it wasn’t, but in the great scheme of things it has to rank up there with one of the great sporting comebacks.

Does his win prove that the standards overall have dipped? Well, no it doesn’t really, although I think it’s more or less accepted that they have. Ronnie is the best player in the world at the moment and he proved it again. OK, some of the big names most notably Selby and Robertson just didn’t turn up but the championship was still won by the best player, which it usually is. I don’t think even if the two players mentioned had played their best they would have beaten him, but the fact that they didn’t will make some question falling standards.

Are there too many tournaments? Yes there are. Players that have chased ranking points and played in everything and done well have arguably suffered as a consequence at the biggest event of them all. But this is nothing that better planning can’t fix for next season when I expect the big guns to be fully prepared having learned their lesson this time. Is it that big a deal to fall down the rankings if your game is in better shape for the main events? Of course it isn’t. The choice is clear and it’s either to play in everything and risk burnout or to select and be at the top of your game in the tournaments you want to target. I know what I’d do if I was a top player and I suspect we’ll see a lot less of the likes of Selby and Robertson in the smaller events next season.

Was this the worst world championship ever? That’s impossible to answer in an objective way. It was good in spurts but suffered through the poor performances of some big names. On the plus side, Ronnie was superb and the championship saw a new light shed on Barry Hawkins who must surely take so much out of his performance in the final which was nothing short of outstanding.

Overall, I enjoyed it and from a betting perspective it was magnificent. OK, it didn’t have the stand out moments that some have had but in the end the only man that can possibly claim that snooker needs him more than he needs snooker put the sport back in the limelight. I think we’ll see him in a few events next season; the UK, the German Masters and The Masters at the very least and he’ll probably be in tip top shape again next year for the Crucible where he has already been installed as a short-priced favourite.

So at the end of a long hard season and only a couple of weeks away from the start of the new one all that’s left to say is well done to Ronnie, he’s a one-off, he’s crackers but he’s bloody brilliant.

Will it be back in the Chigwell trophy cabinet tomorrow night?

The culmination of the months and months of snooker we have seen this season is the World Championship Final and this year Ronnie O’Sullivan and Barry Hawkins take to the baize for what is now the only two day final left on the calendar, over the traditional 35 frames.

Back in the day this signalled the end of the season and a time when the potters could pack up their cues for a few months and head for sunny faraway places until the nights grew colder and the mornings darker and the new season started up again.

But that isn’t the case these days and the end of season break is now barely enough time for a long weekend in Skegness since Bazza waved his magic wand and made all these tournaments appear, to mixed receptions from the players.

The new season begins in earnest on the 27th May, yes May, this month, May. This is far too early in my opinion but it is then that the Wuxi Classic qualifiers kick off with surely a hugely depleted field and in between this time we have Q-School where amongst other hopefuls the 2013 Snookerbacker Classic Champion David Gray hopes to win through to the main tour. For anyone that thinks they can stomach any more snooker this month you can take a look at the new calendar here.

But before this post threatens to become another rant about there being too much snooker these days let’s instead concentrate on the matter in hand and that is, can Ronnie win his fifth world title to eclipse his lifelong rival John Higgins tally or will the unlikely finalist and huge underdog Hawkins shock the snooker world with a famous victory against all odds?

Well, the obvious answer is that it will take a shock of Joe Johnson-esque proportions, perhaps even greater, for Barry to do so. It was a huge deal when the dapper red-shoed Bradford potter and Joe Jogia lookalike made history by defeating Steve Davis way back in 1986 but there is that little matter of history having a tendency to sometimes repeat itself when you least expect it, but in layman’s terms this is not so much David against Goliath as David against Goliath and his Dad and big brother.

Hawkins reaction to winning last night was a joy to behold, he looked like a kid who had just been woken up in the middle of the night and told he was going to Disneyland as he struggled for words before finally saying ‘things like this don’t happen to me’ in one of the great Crucible quotes this year.

He is sure to have won people over on the strength of that line alone and his general demeanour after his victory over Ricky Walden, who may take a while getting over his final session performance. The fact that the name Barry Hawkins was briefly trending on Twitter as news of his victory came through is possibly one of the most unlikeliest tales to emerge from what has been an otherwise largely forgettable world championship so far.

Barry is more than aware how big his task is but is going in with the mentality that he can win. He said “Everybody loves an underdog and I was a massive outsider before the start of the tournament. Hopefully people will warm to me and the neutrals are on my side. Ronnie is an unbelievable player but I have to just try and concentrate on what I am doing. In the final I will just go out there in the frame of mind that I can win. If I don’t then there is no point in me even turning up. I have got nothing to lose, but there is still pressure. I don’t mind that – if there is pressure it shows that you care and that you want to win.”

To see what the less animated defending champion Ronnie had to say after beating Judd click here.

In terms of the betting, both semi-final recommended bets landed including the maximum one on last night’s match so I hope a few of you made a bit on those. For those who followed the outright staking plan it’s crunch time as the 4 points recommended on O’Sullivan a couple of months ago at 9/1 reaches it’s climax.

I will admit to laying a very small section of the possible winnings off before yesterday afternoon’s session against Judd and I will be keeping a very close eye on this match in running. If I detect that Joe Johnson’s spell has been weaved on Barry I will lay some more off, but for now I will sit tight and hope Ronnie takes the early initiative to allow me to lay a tiny part of it at silly odds this afternoon.

The Final:

Ronnie O’Sullivan (1) v Barry Hawkins (15)

Stunned

It’s five years since the two finalists have met and as you can see and would probably expect, Ronnie has a very good record in the head to heads. But take a look at the scores, three deciders and two close ones (one of which Hawkins won on the pairs first ever encounter), with only one demolition job which is possibly skewed by the fact it was Barry’s first ever final as a professional in 2007, after six years on the tour. But does this have any bearing on what will happen here?

Well, Hawkins will know that Ronnie is beatable as he’s done it before, he will take confidence from his semi-final performance which saw him gradually improve with every session, he might also know that despite the fact he appears to be in cruise control Ronnie is yet to be really tested in any match, Judd and Ali both got close to doing this but Ronnie, sensing the threat knuckled down and pulled away keeping his lead in both matches throughout with some incredible safety play and solid break building. It’s also interesting to note that nobody has ever won the world championship having never been behind in a match and I’d hazard a guess that nobody has done it winning the first frame of all their sessions either, Ronnie can achieve both if he keeps these records in tact here and once again add his name to the history books.

So what about a bet then? Well for the reasons I have stated above I won’t be having one at the start of the match, if Ronnie takes the first session 6-2 or better he’ll go close to 1/20 I reckon and at that point I will lay some off. But for those looking for a bit of interest in the match I would have pitched the handicap at -8.5 for this, but most bookies have pitched it at -6.5, indeed some have gone as low as -4.5. The bet I would recommend would be there to be less than 29.5 frames in the match at 10/11 with Skybet, this covers a comfortable win for Ronnie and an unlikely Joe Johnson romp job and ride to glory for Hawkins, in terms of a score it would be the one below.

Selection: O’Sullivan to win 18-9 (Best Price 10/1 at Apollobet)

Click the banner below to open an account at blog partners Apollobet, your first bet up to a maximum of £20 will be matched with a free introductory bet to the same value. 

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