Stephen Lee out of PTC Grand Finals

February 9, 2013

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Snooker News

— snookerbacker @ 8:32 am

Won’t be travelling to Galway.

As the long running saga surrounding Stephen Lee shows no sign of coming to an end news emerged last night that the event which his name was listed in as a player is now no longer open to him. Despite qualifying for the PTC Grand Finals in Galway next month, Lee has been replaced in the draw by Xiao Guodong who was the next in line from the Asian legs of the tour from which Lee qualified.

My revealing of this fact was greeted with some suspicion on Twitter last night and I was accused on more than one occasion of simply making the whole thing up to get attention.

But for once even though I obviously crave this attention like oxygen I didn’t make this one up and the draw for the PTC Grand Finals can be viewed by clicking here, the format and running order for the event can be viewed by clicking here.

It’s another blow to Lee who would have been hoping that the whole thing was done and dusted and his name cleared by then, it remains to be seen as to whether this means that he will still be in limbo or there may have been some action on World Snooker’s part in relation to the current match fixing investigation.

For anyone who has been living on the moon for the last six months or has been in prison you can read about the circumstances surrounding Stephen’s current period of suspension here.

Let’s hope for everyone’s sake that a conclusion is not too far away.

Comments (18)

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18 Comments »

@Enough Already – no not Lee himself, the CPS have been slow in releasing documents pertaining to the previous investigation which relates to matches played in the 2010 UK championship.

Comment by snookerbacker — February 11, 2013 @ 8:12 am Reply
@SB who are you saying is to blame then? Do you think it’s SL himself?

@whynot I either party had concrete evidence this would have been cleared up along time ago. There seems to be a lot of speculation and not much evidence. WS need to prove there has been some cheating going on. How an individual can prove they haven’t cheated is another story??

Comment by Enough Already — February 10, 2013 @ 8:30 pm Reply
Yer he’s been suspended for longer than Higgins (Higgins should of been banned for life) I really can’t see Lee ever coming back after this, yeh ws are frustrated but I’m sure they have concrete evidence off Lee cheating on more than one occasion otherwise ws would of bottled it by now and let him play, the form Lee was in he could of potentially (not likely) won every tourny since + lost sponsors + exhibitions + very well paid Chinese exhibitions + huge solicitors bills if Lee isn’t found guilty big baz and snooker are going to suffer.

Comment by Whynot — February 10, 2013 @ 12:46 pm Reply
@enough already – it’s true about the length of this suspension, I know WS are frustrated at how long it is taking too but this time it is largely not them at fault. As for the Jimmy story, that was a total non-story, a piece of typically lazy journalism on the part of the newspapers.

Comment by snookerbacker — February 10, 2013 @ 8:38 am Reply
(

WS burn in hell!
Stephen, come back!

Comment by Sergey — February 10, 2013 @ 7:32 am Reply
It was posted in twitter last night Stephen has been suspended pending investigation longer than John was actually banned when he was caught on camera. Can this possibly be right? Jogia’s case was done and dusted very quickly. Jimmy White didn’t seem to have anything to answer when his pa/someone with no connection was caught? It would appear Stephen had upset someone somewhere to be kept out of the game this long??

Comment by Enough already — February 9, 2013 @ 9:57 pm Reply
It seems like Lee’s time in purgatory could be enough of a punishment for what he’s allegedly done. If he ends up innocent somehow, he could sue World Snooker out of business if he wanted to. I hope he gets released from this mess one way or the other soon.

Comment by valerieinto — February 9, 2013 @ 5:39 pm Reply
@kimball: the man himself:
http://www.fatsoma.com/tickets/qa-night-with-stephen-lee/the-royalist/market-harborough/e80931

Not sure who the market for this is – he’s hardly Tony Benn!

Comment by ANON — February 9, 2013 @ 5:34 pm Reply
And Scottish red tape, couldn’t get it off!

Comment by kimball — February 9, 2013 @ 3:54 pm Reply
No wonder they gave up on Jamie Burnett, to much red tape!

Comment by kimball — February 9, 2013 @ 3:41 pm Reply
That’s the one Kimball, from the UK. There is lots of red tape to release papers to World Snooker.

Comment by snookerbacker — February 9, 2013 @ 1:04 pm Reply
CPS case is from 2010, correct? “In due course” is very aptly frased! What a farce!

Comment by kimball — February 9, 2013 @ 12:56 pm Reply
The whole investigation centres around Lee and Lee only. Delays have been due to releasing of evidence from the previous case which was with the Crown Prosecution Service, I think it’s drawing to a close now but I’m sure we’ll find out everything in due course.

Comment by snookerbacker — February 9, 2013 @ 12:43 pm Reply
@kimball: you would think it would have to be big money involved for it to be going on this long??

Comment by curious — February 9, 2013 @ 11:59 am Reply
Mr Backer, Do you think you could dig and find more information? Surely as Kimball says it must be a big betting ring, investigation or surely a bloody big amount of money to keep someone out playing for so long? It seems quiet from Lee and also World Snooker.
If it is a big betting ring would there not be more players involved? Is this linked to Jogia?? too many questions

Comment by curious — February 9, 2013 @ 11:58 am Reply
Who’s Q//A session?

Comment by kimball — February 9, 2013 @ 11:02 am Reply
Did anyone go to his ‘question and answer’ session in Market Harborough on Thursday?

Comment by ANON — February 9, 2013 @ 9:23 am Reply
Since it takes so bloody long to decide, it must either be a Big bettingring and a Big investgation, or they can’t agree with Lee about costs for damagee done. In any case, Lee is
a patsy for all old evil by a lot of players and hangers on.

Comment by kimball — February 9, 2013 @ 9:02 am Reply