The Snookerbacker Blog

June 15, 2010

The Players Tour Championship – Barry's First Big Initiative

Filed under:

Snooker News

— snookerbacker @ 10:40 am

Is Ron likely to take this event seriously?

The start of Barry Hearn’s reign over the world of snooker begins in earnest soon with the Players Tour Championship first event on 25-27th June at the World Snooker Academy in Sheffield.

This is a significant starting point in the new snooker season as not only does it offer the chance for amateurs to mix it with the big boys but it also offers:

£10,000 first prize money for the winner
£50,000 in total prize money for each of the 12 events
World Ranking Points available to all professional entrants with 2000 points being awarded to the winner of each one.
A seperate ‘Order of Merit’ ranking list and the establishment of a ‘top 24′ to play in a further televised event for more world ranking points with prize money of £200,000.
The chance for the players to play more regularly (there are 12 events in all)
The opportunity for snooker fans in Europe to watch top players live in action.

It will be interesting to see who enters these events and word has it that the first has attracted a quality field including Ronnie O’Sullivan, Mark Selby, Mark Williams and Shaun Murphy. There is no mention as yet of Ding Junhui, World Champion Neil Robertson (who last I heard was spending the summer in Melbourne), Stephen Hendry or Ali Carter.

(FULL LIST OF ENTRANTS NOW IN COMMENTS SECTION – PETER EBDON SUPPORTING THE EVENT, A CHANCE FOR YOUNG LUCA BRECEL TO SHINE, BUT SURPRISINGLY NO SIGN OF REANNE EVANS?)

The ranking points on offer are not to be sniffed at and a good run from a player lower down the ranks in a few of these events could see him (or her, sorry Reanne) make big gains in the rankings.

Similarly, if a few of the big boys such as Ronnie and company decide to be selective in the ones that they enter their final ranking may suffer as a result of their decision.

The tournament is made even more significant given that the ranking system has had such a radical shake up and for all but a few of the players a starting place at the Crucible next April is no sure thing, with those currently just outside the top 16 snapping at the heels at those that made it after Sheffield.

Any amateurs wishing to enter can find the entrance form here

This should be the first real test of how receptive the players are to the changes that have been put in place by Bazza. Given that he only squeezed the vote to take his plans forward it’s a ‘watch this space’ brief for this first event.

Comments (8)

Line and paragraph breaks automatic, e-mail address never displayed, HTML allowed: <a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <cite> <code> <del datetime=""> <em> <i> <q cite=""> <strike> <strong>

8 Comments »

Ryt thanks anyway

Comment by snookerfan1 — June 23, 2010 @ 6:52 pm Reply
No they aren’t, the only way to keep up is on the World Snooker Scoreboard or Global Snooker website.

Comment by snookerbacker — June 23, 2010 @ 7:42 am Reply
Does anyone know if any of the matches in sheffield are on tv?

Comment by snookerfan1 — June 22, 2010 @ 7:09 pm Reply
Full list of the professionals and pre-qualifies amateurs entered:

96 players through to the last 128:

73 professionals:

1. Zhang Anda
2. Justin Astley
3. Simon Bedford
4. Stuart Bingham
5. Nigel Bond
6. David Gilbert
7. Alfie Burden
8. Jamie Burnett
9. Marcus Campbell
10. Liu Chuang
11. Jamie Cope
12. Matthew Couch
13. Dominic Dale
14. Mark Davis
15. Paul Davison
16. Ryan Day
17. Graeme Dott
18. Tony Drago
19. Mike Dunn
20. Peter Ebdon
21. Patrick Einsle
22. Tom Ford
23. Marco Fu
24. Martin Gould
25. Gerard Greene
26. Adrian Gunnell
27. Xiao Guodong
28. Anthony Hamilton
29. Bjorn Haneveer
30. Dave Harold
31. Barry Hawkins
32. Andy Hicks
33. Andrew Higginson
34. Liam Highfield
35. Michael Holt
36. Joe Jogia
37. Jak Jones
38. Jamie Jones
39. Mark Joyce
40. Mark King
41. Stephen Lee
42. Peter Lines
43. Jack Lisowski
44. Kurt Maflin
45. Stephen Maguire
46. James McBain
47. Ian McCulloch
48. Anthony McGill
49. Rory McLeod
50. Alan McManus
51. Jimmy Michie
52. Robert Milkins
53. Shaun Murphy
54. Fergal O’Brien
55. Jamie O’Neill
56. Ronnie O’Sullivan
57. Andrew Pagett
58. Barry Pinches
59. Jimmy Robertson
60. Mark Selby
61. Matthew Selt
62. Matthew Stevens
63. Joe Swail
64. Judd Trump
65. Ricky Walden
66. Patrick Wallace
67. Jimmy White
68. Adam Wicheard
69. Mark Williams
70. Kyren Wilson
71. Ben Woollaston
72. Kuldesh Johal
73. Igor Figueiredo

23 amateur players drawn at random to make up to 96:

1. Chris Norbury
2. Marc Harman
3. Zak Surety
4. Sam Baird
5. Ian Burns
6. Mitchell Mann
7. David Grace
8. David Bailey
9. Ben Harrison
10. Liu Song
11. Ian Glover
12. Gavin Buller
13. Sam Thistlewaite
14. Lee Farebrother
15. Paul Metcalf
16. Jamie Clarke
17. Luca Brecel
18. Shokat Ali
19. Gareth Greene
20. Lee Spick
21. Adam Stefanow
22. Danny Douane
23. Adam Duffy

Comment by snookerbacker — June 16, 2010 @ 9:33 am Reply
Tell him to clone himself steve! I’ve backed him to get the number one spot next year at 28/1! He needs the points.

Thanks for the well wishes btw, passed on to Mrs Sb.

Comment by snookerbacker — June 15, 2010 @ 4:44 pm Reply
I think it’s behind closed doors for the Sheffield ones, or a select few. But I’d imagine the ones in Europe would be open to the public, you’d hope so anyway.

Comment by snookerbacker — June 15, 2010 @ 4:43 pm Reply
Do you know if Joe Public can go along to watch?

Comment by IanW — June 15, 2010 @ 4:18 pm Reply
Greetings Mr (and) Mrs SB

Ali is doing an exhibition in Austria that w/e (and a guranteed pay day, as opposed to a potential financial loss should he have got turned over early doors in the PTC1 – what would you do??!!). Intending to play the next one though.

As always, best regards
Manager

Comment by mngrsteve — June 15, 2010 @ 2:42 pm Reply