Unfortunately, Martin is a UK Southerner unlike me but despite this handicap he is a confident yet down to earth lad and that is why I have been so fanatical about him in Q-School. Mrs SB also has a soft spot for him. He is professional and hard working in his approach to the sport that he loves and that showed in the tournament wot I run and he won. I am also delighted to say (unbeknown to me and still not official) that the £1000 entry fee that he won at the SB Classic will now be transferred into his first season entry fees by World Snooker.

He’ll probably end up leaving us all far behind when he gets rich and famous and I think the mobile phone pictures I have with the lawyers might distance him from me eventually.

But this is a time to enjoy the moment, be scared, be anxious, think about the future and think about arrangements Martin, that is natural.

But  always remember to be excited and to look ahead, this is your chance at life, this is your big time moment, this is what you have been working for and that is what makes champions. I blog, you play snooker, there is only one of us that would swap places. I am ecstatic beyond words for you and I still remember when you rang your Mum in Gloucester. A special moment.

Well Done Mate.

It's MO'D-Day for the Champ

As amateur snooker goes it doesn’t get much tenser than days like today. By around 7.30 this evening four of the sixteen players still left in the first event at Q-School will be professional snooker players with a two year tour card in their possession and one of those names I am unashamedly hoping will be Snookerbacker Classic Champion Martin O’Donnell.

The MO’D came through yesterday with a whitewash of the promising youngster Jamie Clarke and hit his second century of the week in the final frame. He now faces Paul Davison, the experienced York player who was relegated from the main tour last month and is now attempting to bounce back at the first time of asking, he is a formidable opponent for Martin and has proved he’s in form by hitting the best break of the week so far, a 138 in his opener against Stuart Carrington.

Gloucester’s Sam Baird, my old pal Rod Lawler and Welshman Daniel Wells are other fallen professionals who are attempting to get back on the main tour straight away, but there are a whole host of good amateur names ready to stop them. Chen Zhe of China seems to be a lot of people’s idea of a shoo-in to make it at some point during Q-School, I’ve never seen him play so can’t comment but of the players I do know of Ian Burns and Scotland’s Scott Donaldson are ones I would class as real danger men and I have also been told by an experienced eye that Ashley Wright is a player with a big future.

Neil Robertson’s brother Marc also remains in the hunt and is clearly a player that has benefitted from his brother’s company. I wonder if the man himself might make his way to Sheffield for the action today to offer some support?

Anyway, the best of luck to all the players, in particular Martin who is carrying the flag for the blog. Go get ‘em MO’D. Let’s get behind our man.

If Boylesports decide to price this morning’s matches up I may flag a bet shortly.

11am: Round 4

100) Adrian Ridley 4-3 Frazer Patrick
101) Paul Davison 3-4 Martin O’Donnell
102) James Cahill 0-4 Sam Baird
103) Nick Jennings 4-1 Ashley Wright
104) Rod Lawler 4-2 Scott Donaldson
105) Ian Burns 4-2 Daniel Wells
106) Chris Norbury 2-4 Chen Zhe
107) Jordan Brown 4-1 Marc Robertson

5pm: Final Round 

108) Adrian Ridley 1-4 Martin O’Donnell
109) Sam Baird 4-0 Nick Jennings 
110) Rod Lawler 3-4 Ian Burns
111) Chen Zhe 4-1 Jordan Brown

Qualifying Tour Professionals: Scott Donaldson 102

Well I'm bloody not.

The first event of Q-School continues today and later on Round 3 gets underway with SB Classic Champion Martin O’Donnell in action against promising youngster Jamie Clarke.

Martin came though in a decider yesterday against Alex Taubman and was joined later in the day by Allan Taylor who had a more comfortable 4-1 win over Lee Page, the Assassin now faces Sam Baird.

Given that these two boys won and the treble I stuck up yesterday was completed by Duane Jones and also the fact that I’d flagged the 3/1 on Jamie Clarke to win aswell, I think we might have scared Boylesports off as there don’t appear to be any prices up today. I hope a few of you managed to win a few quid.

On another note, the World Snooker website took a turn for the worse yesterday as it now appears to be also a site that promotes darts. An absolute monstrosity of a song by one half of Cockney Duo Chas and Dave proclaiming that he has got his tickets for the darts which to me provokes a perfectly natural response of ‘so f****g what?’. It’s snooker’s governing body website not a free-for-all pubsports blog so let’s get that pile of shite off it and say no more about it shall we?

Anyway, the best of luck to all the players highlighted in bold today who were part of the SB Classic and also to Bobby Cruickshanks and Scott Donaldson from Scotland who would have competed had the Scottish event gone ahead. Also, for anyone that is interested, playing at 1pm is a lad from Australia named Marc Robertson, who just happens to be Neil’s brother.

10am

74) Joel Walker 3-4 Gareth Allen
75) Husain Mahmood 2-4 Daniel Wells
76) Darren Bond 4-0 Alan Hudson
77) Chris Norbury 4-1 James Silverwood
78) Sydney Wilson 4-1 Anthony Harris
79) Kyren Wilson 1-4 Chen Zhe

1pm

80) Fabio Luersen 3-4 Jordan Brown
81) John Sutton 1-4 Greg Batten
82) Adam Wicheard 2-4 Bobby Cruickshanks
83) Marc Robertson 4-1 Richard Remelie

Round 3

84) Adrian Ridley 4-3 Jeff Cundy
85) David Gray 3-4 Fraser Patrick

4pm

86) Gary Wilson v Paul Davison
87) Martin O’Donnell 4-0 Jamie Clarke
88) James Cahill 4-1 Oliver Brown
89) Sam Baird 4-0 Allan Taylor
90) John Astley 1-4 Nick Jennings
91) Ashley Wright 4-1 Justin Astley

7pm

92) Duane Jones 2-4 Rod Lawler
93) Shahbaaz Khan 2-4 Scott Donaldson
94) Ian Burns 4-1 Nick Dyson
95) Gareth Allen 1-4 Daniel Wells
96) Darren Bond 1-4 Chris Norbury
97) Sydney Wilson 3-4 Chen Zhe
98) Jordan Brown 4-2 Greg Batten
99) Bobby Cruickshanks 1-4 Marc Robertson

on

Centuries: 129 Sam Baird, 121 Ashley Wright, 100 Martin O’Donnell, 103 Chen Ze, 100 Daniel Wells.

The Assassin is back in action today.

Q-School continues today as we move into the second round of the first event in this marathon of pressure snooker. Yesterday saw wins for, amongst others, Snookerbacker Classic Runner-Up John Sutton and Classic entrants Ryan Causton, Gareth Allen, Kyren Wilson and Michael Wasley.

Boylesports have decided to take the plunge and price up a few of the matches if anyone fancies a bet. Of the outsiders I wouldn’t rule out Jamie Clarke at 3/1 to beat Kuldesh Johal, Jamie was the 2011 recipient of the Star of the Future award from Rileys and got a cheque for £5000 and some one-to-one sessions with Ronnie for his trouble, I also saw him play briefly at the SB Classic and he is definitely one to watch.

The bet I have decided on however is a treble made up of SB Classic Champion Martin O’Donnell, Blog Favourite Allan Taylor and Welshman Duane Jones, who I have heard some very good things about. That pays just under 9/4.

To follow all the matches today on Live Scoring click here.

To open an account with Boyles and bet on Q-School click here. To go straight to the match prices click here. The Best of Luck if you decide to have a bet.

There are ten SB Classic entrants playing today and they are highlighted in bold below.

10am

49) Callum Downing 0-4 Bobby Cruickshanks
50) Saqib Nasir 2-4 Marc Robertson (Robbo’s Brother!)
51) Elliot Slessor 3-4 Richard Remelie

Round 2

52) Mitchell Travis 0-4 Adrian Ridley
53) Sam Harvey 2-4 Jeff Cundy
54) Richard Twomey 2-4 David Gray
55) Fraser Patrick 4-1 Michael Wild

1pm

56) Lucky Vatnani 1-4 Gary Wilson
57) Stuart Carrington 2-4 Paul Davison
58) Martin O’Donnell 4-3 Alex Taubman
59) Jamie Clarke 4-1 Kuldesh Johal
60) Li Hang 3-4 James Cahill
61) Oliver Brown 4-3 Jay Bullen

4pm

62) Sam Baird 4-0 George Marter
63) Allan Taylor 4-1 Lee Page
64) John Astley v Rhys Clark
65) Mohammed Omar 2-4 Nick Jennings
66) Reza Hassan 1-4 Ashley Wright
67) Justin Astley 4-3 Ross Muir

7pm

68) Vinnie Calabrese 0-4 Duane Jones
69) Phil O’Kane 1-4 Rod Lawler
70) Shahbaaz Khan 4-3 Itaro Santos
71) Michael Wasley 1-4 Scott Donaldson
72) Adrian Gunnell 3-4 Ian Burns
73) Nick Dyson 4-1 Ryan Causton

Centuries: Li Hang 116, Paul Davison 138, Ian Burns 131, Mohammed Omar 109, John Astley 101, Lucky Vatnani 100,

John Sutton starts his campaign tonight.

It’s Day 2 at the Q-School and yesterday saw Martin O’Donnell and Allan Taylor safely negotiate their first hurdles each with a 4-1 win.

Snookerbacker Classic Runner-Up, Ireland’s John Sutton who also received free Q-School entry by virtue of his performance in the Classic takes to the baize this evening so I’d like to wish him the very best of luck.

There are 7 SB Classic boys in action today as well as a few other familiar names to snooker fans. Not least Eighties Legend and the greatest shagger of a generation, Tony Knowles.

Here’s the full list of matches, all still Round One.

10am

25) Dessie Sheehan 0-4 Vinnie Calabrese
26) Mark Vincent 2-4 Duane Jones
27) Rod Lawler 4-1 Ben Jones
28) Josh Boileau 0-4 Shahbaaz Khan
29) Stephen Ellis 1-4 Itaro Santos
30) Michael Wasley 4-1 Jason Devaney

1pm

31) Li Yinxi 0-4 Scott Donaldson
32) Ian Burns W/O David Singh
34) Brent Kolbeck 0-4 Ryan Causton
35) Richard King 0-4 Gareth Allen
36) Husain Mahmood v Sachin Plaha
37) James Burrett 0-4 Daniel Wells

4pm

33) Tony Knowles 2-4 Nick Dyson
38) Darren Bond 4-1 Kevin O’Leary
39) Andrew Hudson v Jayson Wholey
40) Jake Nicholson 0-4 Chris Norbury
41) James Silverwood 4-3 Peter Antrobus
42) Anthony Harris 4-2 Lee Spick

7pm

43) Kyren Wilson 4-2 Alex Davies
44) Joe Delaney 0-4 Chen Zhe
45) Ben Harrison 3-4 Jordan Brown
46) Mohammed Raoof 2-4 John Sutton
47) Mohamed Al Shaikh1-4 Greg Batten
48) Shaun Wilkes W/O Zhang Anda Or if prefer Adam Wicheard 4-1 over Mr Wilkes

Centuries: Shahbaaz Khan 103, Michael Wasley 101, Chris Norbury 100,

The MO'D is in action today

Today sees the start of the biggest week of amateur snooker known to humankind as the hopefuls at Q-School battle it out to see who joins the main tour next season.

For those unfamiliar with the format, there are three seperate events, each playing down to four players with each of those gaining their main tour ticket.

It goes without saying that this is a massive deal for all the players and I would like to wish that little bit of extra luck to those competing over the course of the next week or so who I met at the Snookerbacker Classic last season.

The Snookerbacker Classic Champion Martin O’Donnell starts his campaign at 1pm and finalists David Gray, Jamie Barrett, Allan ‘Pretzels’ Taylor and Zak Surety are also kicking off today. Runner-up John Sutton from Ireland starts out tomorrow evening and I have highlighted all those who entered in bold below. I’d also like to wish the best of luck to Ross Muir who was one of the players from Scotland that entered the cancelled qualifying leg over there.

Following the Q-School I will be launching the 2013 Snookerbacker Classic which kicks off at the end of September and full details of how to enter will be made available.

To keep up to date with the action you can follow it on the World Snooker scoreboard here.

Let the tension begin….

10am

Round 1
1) Christopher Keogan 2-4 Mitchell Travis
2) Adrian Ridley 4-0 Simon Bevz
3) Jeff Cundy 4-2 Jamie O’Neill
4) David Gray 4-3 Robbie Williams
5) Mitchell Mann 2-4 Michael Wild
6) Gary Wilson 4-0 Matthew Day 

1pm

7) Stuart Carrington 4-1 Sean O’Sullivan
8 ) Jamie Barrett 3-4 Paul Davison
9) Martin O’Donnell 4-1 Declan Brennan
10) Greg Davis 3-4 Alex Taubman
11) James Hill 1-4 Jamie Rhys Clarke
12) Andy Marriott 0-4 Kuldesh Johal

4pm

13) James Cahill 4-2 Zak Surety
15) Sam Baird 4-0 Kacper Filipiak
16) Kankan Shamsi 3-4 George Marter
17) Yin Lun Cheng 1-4 Allan Taylor
18) Lee Page 4-0 Stephen Groves

7pm

19) Liam Monk 2-4 John Astley
20) Rhys Clark 4-0 Marc Harman
21) Nick Jennings 4-3 Charlie Walters
22) Tom Maxfield 3-4 Ashley Wright
23) Justin Astley 4-2 Habib Subah
24) Reanne Evans 0-4 Ross Muir

Centuries: Jamie O’Neill 117, Martin O’Donnell 112, Lee Page 110.

You Win Again.

It was time for World Snooker to dish out the awards last night at the swanky Dorchester in London and the players that could be bothered to show up seem to have had a great time, even if they didn’t end up collecting an award.

Ronnie predictably went away with the World Snooker Player of the Year and with the Journalists Player of the Year. This prompted what I thought was a very odd tweet from Ronnie’s manager at Grove Snooker who decided to say ‘Thanks to all journalists. Not bloggers. Ronnie is their player of the year’. This might be lost in translation but I took this as a direct swipe at those of us who devote a great deal of unpaid time to the sport and as a consequence to the players that play it.

UPDATE: It appears it was lost in translation and Grove simply meant that bloggers should also be included so I have removed the previous rant and I apologise to Grove for jumping the gun.

Grove player Judd Trump deservedly scooped the fans player of the year, Luca Brecel’s performance in the World Championship earned him Rookie of the Year, which last year went to Jack Lisowski who seemed to struggle a bit this season, but it’s far too early to call this a ‘curse’.

Stephen Hendry’s maximum in his swansong at the Crucible followed on from Rory McLeod fluking a black to scoop the Magic Moment prize and out and out grafter and thoroughly nice chap Stuart Bingham picked up an award for Performance of the Year for taking his first ranking title in Australia in dramatic fashion, coming back from a seemingly desperate position to pip Mark Williams at the post.

But surely the most bizarre award went to Walter Donaldson, the two times World Champion and prolific ‘currently dead’ tweeter (follow him here) who was inducted into the World Snooker Hall of Fame from the Great Billiard Hall in the Sky, in there Walter can recount tales of the slate driveway he made out of his old snooker table with Ronnie, Mark Williams and John Higgins, the three greats of the post-Hendry era in terms of World Titles.  

The awards are listed below, but of course the real ones that matter ‘The Willies’ grabbed the headlines last night with one of the journalists who received an award getting a bit touchy about it. Ooops. 

Ronnie O’Sullivan
Journalists (NOT BLOGGERS) Player of the Year
World Snooker Player of the Year 

Judd Trump
Fans Player of the Year

Luca Brecel
Rookie of the Year

Stephen Hendry 
Magic Moment (for his 147)

Stuart Bingham
Performance of the Year (for winning the Australian Open)

Walter Donaldson (!?!!?), Mark Williams, Ronnie O’Sullivan and John Higgins.

Inducted into the World Snooker Hall of Fame.

(Thanks as ever to Monique Limbos for the main image)

So who has won the Player of the Season? Who will be crowned Foxiest Referee? What will be awarded the Best and Worst Tournaments? Who left the club with a record-breaking NINE Willies?

I won’t keep you dangling any longer. The answers to all these questions and a whole lot more are answered by clicking here.

The redesigned Willie for this year is pictured below, I’m sure you’ll agree it’s a fine erection.

The Home of The Willies

It’s almost time to unveil the winners at this year’s Willie Awards. The red carpet is currently being de-flead and hoovered and Fat Stan has ordered an extra consignment of Scampi Fries in preparation for the arrival of snooker’s biggest stars at the prestigious Upton Snodsbury Comrades Club near Worcester just east of Bell End, the undisputed and instantly recognisable home of The Willies.

As well as the standard awards such as Best Player, Worst and Best Commentator, Shiniest Head, Worst Hair and Foxiest Referee, there are also a plethora of other erections being dished out this year for more specific categories. Of course I cannot divulge what these are as they are currently being held under lock and key at Snookerbacker Mansions under the watchful eye of the whippet.

This year the Willies Committee have decided to throw an award out to the readers of this blog as they have one going spare that they don’t really know what to do with.

The simple question that you need to answer is: ‘Who would you nominate for a Willie and why?’    

Only the very best answers that aren’t already in-line for one of these prestigious awards will be considered, so get your thinking caps on and let’s have a few suggestions based on the snooker season as a whole.

The awards themselves are also undergoing something of a transformation. The Committee considered the old design of the Willie lacking a certain something. They felt that when the winners came up to receive their awards they didn’t have a great deal to really grab hold of. They considered the old design Willie a little limp.

So this year, the designers have been busy giving the Willie a bit of enlargement. I am pleased to report that the newly enhanced Willie will be longer and thicker than the previous one with a more pronounced head at the top of it, which means that the winners can really get a good grip of it when they show it to the assembled crowd and press.

It’s now just a matter of a days until the lucky and not so lucky winners are announced, so please get your own personal nominations in as soon as possible, using the comments section.