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This season’s Snookerbacker Classic will see a number of changes. There will be more prize money, an order of merit list and three new venues. There will also be Ref School, an initiative I have been discussing with qualified referee Martyn Royce, who has just finished a stint at Q-School.

Martyn and I would like to encourage new referees into snooker by giving them the opportunity to get involved in the SB Classic next season. We both share a passion to nurture a new crop of gloved-up, eagle-eyed snooker referees.

But enough from me, here is Martyn himself to explain everything and tell you why you should consider getting involved with Ref School.

“Being a snooker referee might not appear to be the most glamorous of roles. Without delving beneath the surface you could be forgiven for thinking it’s simply a case of standing around a green table with two other people wearing white gloves and taking balls out of pockets.  But the beautiful thing about being a referee is that you don’t have to be any good at playing the game to don those white gloves and get involved. Whether you’re young or old, male or female, short or tall, anyone can be a snooker referee – even you“.

“My name is Martyn and I have been a qualified snooker referee since March 2009. Over the years I have refereed countless hundreds of frames and overseen dozens upon dozens of matches. I have had the pleasure of refereeing every standard imaginable, right from club level players simply out to have a good time through to the world’s finest professionals playing for the crowds and making their living. Every single shot in every one of those matches brings with it a different challenge, and it’s this challenge which I thrive upon as a referee. I love being the ‘man in the middle’ and being at the heart of the action, and I would love to see more referees enter the fold and take the stage themselves”.

“The Snookerbacker Classic has become an established series of fixtures in the amateur snooker calendar. With the 2014 competition comes a number of big, exciting new changes and the Snookerbacker Ref School is one of them. I will be leading a scheme across all the competition dates whereby you can get hands-on experience of refereeing if you’ve never tried it before. Everything from etiquette and positioning around the table, preparing the table ready for a match and pre/post-match routines will be covered. I will be there every step of the way giving help and advice as you take your first steps to becoming a fully fledged referee”.

“If you have the drive and commitment to become a referee, I have the drive and commitment to get you on the right track”.

“If you’d like to know more then e-mail me at: refschool@mail.com and tell me why you’d like to be a part of Ref School and what (if anything) has stopped you from refereeing before. Places will be allocated on a first come, first served basis, but you are welcome to travel to whichever event you wish if your initial choice is full. So what are you waiting for? Break out of your shell, sign up for Ref School and make your first steps towards the bright lights of the Crucible”.

So there you have it. A chance for budding referees with little or no prior experience to get involved in the UK’s biggest amateur snooker tournament. Who knows? One day you might be the man or woman in the middle on the biggest stage of them all. Don’t forget, the email to get in touch is refschool@mail.com – what are you waiting for?

You can also follow Martyn on Twitter by clicking here – ask him loads of questions. 

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

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.  

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.