The Snookerbacker Blog

Well, that didn’t last long did it?

Within the space of a few hours of the Leeds event being announced here it now has the 16 players that will battle it out to be the 7th qualifier to this year’s Snookerbacker Classic Finals Day in February.

THE DEADLINE FOR PAYING ENTRY FEES FOR THIS EVENT IS THE 18TH JANUARY – I HAVE PEOPLE WAITING TO TAKE UNPAID PLACES.

This means that the ‘Last Chance Saloon’ on Sunday 17th February at the South West Snooker Academy is now truly, errmm, the last chance to be competing for the big prizes just a few days later on Friday 22nd February. There are also extra prizes on offer for the Gloucester event which is uncapped on numbers, including a £100 highest break of the day prize kindly donated by Essential Life Advice, I could do with some of that to be fair, the advice I mean not the money, oh hang on the £100 might come in handy too.

I can now announce that the winner in Gloucester will have their accommodation expenses paid for Thursday 16th February to save any last minute booking issues. So £40 gets you your place and a chance to join the other 7 qualifiers at Finals Day.

Following the regrettable cancellation of the Dublin leg this season I can now confirm that a replacement event will take place at the Northern Snooker Centre in Leeds on Sunday 27th January.

The event will be a 16 player tournament, all matches best of seven frames with the winner progressing to Finals Day in February. Entries will be taken on a first come first served basis and there is now a discount for entering both the final two events.

So the remaining fixtures in this year’s event are:

Sunday 27th January: Leeds (16 players, 1 qualifier). Entry Fee: £50. Dress Code: Polo shirt or shirt, shoes. No jeans or trainers. 

Sunday 17th February: South West Snooker Academy Gloucester (uncapped number, 1 qualifier). Entry Fee: £40. Further Prizes: Runner-Up £60, Losing Semi-Finalists £40, Highest Break of the Day £100 (sponsored by ELA). Dress Code: Polo shirt or shirt, shoes. No jeans or trainers. (Please note that early rounds in this event will be the best of five frames) 

SPECIAL DISCOUNT: Enter Leeds and Gloucester for £75, Leeds winner will be refunded any fee not needed. Please bear in mind there are only 16 places in the Leeds event.

Finals Day: Friday 22nd February in Leeds. Dress Code: Waistcoat, trousers and shoes, no bow tie required.

If you would like a place in either or both these events and haven’t already done so then please contact me via any of these channels. To pay entry fees there is a Paypal link on the top right hand side of  the blog.

Closing Date for Paying Entry Fees:

Leeds (when it’s full – first come, first served – contact me to book a place)

Gloucester – Sunday 10th February and not a day later! 

Crondon Park: A Bit Tacky.

The Championship League gets under way today over at Crondon Park Golf Club in Essex, a club which boasts none other than Ballrun Bingham amongst its members and is available for weddings, birthdays, christenings, bar mitzvahs and two table no-nonsense snooker tournaments. 

While I have nothing against this event as it’s generally quite entertaining to watch, from a betting point of view it’s a no-go area. With the qualifiers for the China Open running from Wednesday to Saturday and the Masters kicking off from Alexandra Palace on Sunday there are other priorities this week on the snooker front for busy bloggers.

If you do however feel like contributing to any of the bookmaker’s shareholders annual profits party you can keep up with all the action and lose all your hard-earned at the usual betting sites. Bet 365 tends to have the best coverage in my experience and you can tune in there to watch the players ply their trade from the oversized armchairs. You can also tune in simply to hear Dave Hendon eulogising about the belly-busting breakfasts.

If you don’t have access to the live stream and have absolutely nothing better to do today, perhaps you are bedridden and/or paralyzed from the neck down, or you are just an idle workshy benefit-cheating loser (I know my audience so well), you can also keep up to date with the scores on the World Snooker scoreboard here.

For all things Championship and Premier League there is also the official pages over at Matchroom sport here.

Incidentally, I have heard a rumour that unlike previous years, the eventual winner of this is not guaranteed an automatic place in the Premier League, this isn’t official and I might have dreamt it, but if it’s true you do wonder quite what the point of this event is other than to keep the bookies sweet.

Anyway, it kicks off today and runs until Thursday with two groups being played out. The format is basically that the top four in the group play off with two semi-finals and a final, the winner progressing to the Winners Group later in the season and the three others, plus the person that finishes fifth playing on in the next group. The two players that finish sixth and seventh are relegated and replaced in the next group by two new players and they do it all over again until they have seven winners. Crystal clear.

Today’s opening group features Judd Trump, John Higgins, Shaun Murphy, Ali Carter, Matthew Stevens, Martin Gould and Dark Mavis.

If you’ve never seen this event before it’s worth giving it a watch, but don’t, I repeat don’t be tempted to ‘just have a little flutter’, that’s how heroin addicts start.

You have been warned.