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2020 Snooker Island World Championship

Postby chengdufan

I'm calling for entries to the 2020 Snooker Island World Championship (SIWC). Entry is free!

Any posters on the island who play snooker at least occasionally are eligible to enter.

If you would like to participate in this inaugral event and have a chance of winning, please post a message below or send me a pm. Entries will close on September 11th.

Here are the competition rules:
1. The rules are not set in stone. If you would like to suggest changes, please do so before September 11th. My decision on whether to implement changes to the rules will be final.
2. The tournament will have a knockout format, with players drawn to play against each other at random in each round until we have a winner.
3. To play a match, you need to play some real snooker.
a) After your matchup is announced, you will have up to 2 weeks to play a total of 9 frames against a real opponent (or more than one).
b) Your real life opponent(s) (likely not someone in this competition of course) should play at a similar level to or higher level than yourself (if possible).
c) You should decide in advance of playing a frame whether or not it will count towards your SIWC match.
d) If you score fewer than 20 points in a frame (i.e. 1-19 points), that frame will not count as part of your SIWC match and you will need to play another frame.
e) In the 9 frames you play, keep a record of your 9 highest break scores. Only breaks that include at least one red potted count. One frame can have multiple breaks which count.
f) After you have completed your 9 frames, send me a PM with your 9 highest breaks from those frames.

4. The match score will be decided by a 'frame' being awarded for the 9 highest breaks out of the 18 scores sent to me by the two players.
For example:
Player A's break scores are as follows: 32, 22, 20, 20, 17, 15, 13, 13, 12
Player B's break scores are as follows: 48, 37, 22, 18, 18, 16, 12, 10, 8
The 9 highest breaks were B(48) B(37) A(32) A/B(22) A(20) A(20) B(18) B(18)
The match score is Player A 4-5 Player B. Player B wins!

5. After I have received the scores from both players in a particular match, I will announce the match result on the island.

6. Depending on how many people enter and how it goes, we may consider changing the number of frames and breaks per match after the first round.

If you like playing snooker but are rubbish at it (like me), please do not let that stop you from entering. This is just for fun, and a chance to share and talk about your own play in a more meaningful context.
There are no prizes. It's just for fun.
Honesty is required and expected by the participants. This is snooker!

Re: 2020 Snooker Island World Championship

Postby chengdufan

I should probably have put this in the 'local 'leagues' section rather than amateur/pro-am. Apologies. Maybe a mod can move it?

Re: 2020 Snooker Island World Championship

Postby chengdufan

In creating this competition, I was thinking about our many posters who play fairly regularly and talk about their game. I thought it would be enjoyable if they could have matches against each other and share their experiences of playing real snooker.
I really hope we get lots of entries. Those who spring to mind are:
Badsnookerplayer
Rekoons
Johnny Bravo
Hendry Fan
CSPrince
Acesinc
Prop

There are many others of course.

Re: 2020 Snooker Island World Championship

Postby SnookerEd25

I'm kind of interested, but my regualr snooker club is the one place i've been reluctant to venture out to so far (principally because it was pretty unhygienic before lockdown, I always had to disinfect, sanitise and shower profusely after visiting (and I can't see them implementing the required measures as stringently as some). Might try to find an alternative venue instead.

I'll keep you posted...

Re: 2020 Snooker Island World Championship

Postby chengdufan

Thank you to the early entrants for getting the ball rolling.

If anyone needes a bit longer than 2 weeks to get their 9 frames in, I don't see a problem. We can be flexible.

Re: 2020 Snooker Island World Championship

Postby acesinc

I think this is a novel idea and rather an ingenious method of format. I am definitely in and I hope we get enough entrants to fill your brackets, Chengdufan. At the moment, I am not getting too much table time so I appreciate some flexibility on the two week window for matches. My usual playing partner, my son, is away at University (hopefully, until the end of the year if they can keep this damn virus in check), so my playing time is sporadic and limited with a variety of other players. Once competition starts, I will monitor break scores of any frames I find myself in so I should be able to post scores regularly. I will be on holiday for a time soon, and work is busy so if I am quiet for a time, you know the reason. My scores are competent, not top shelf, so I am looking forward to seeing scorelines of some of the more solid strikers we have here on the Island. Thanks for your idea and willingness to follow through, Chengdufan!

Re: 2020 Snooker Island World Championship

Postby Andre147

chengdufan wrote:I should probably have put this in the 'local 'leagues' section rather than amateur/pro-am. Apologies. Maybe a mod can move it?


Done

Re: 2020 Snooker Island World Championship

Postby chengdufan

Deewee wrote:Great idea! Hoping to participate if I find the time

Really pleased hear this. I hope we get at least 8 confirmed before the deadline.
I'll send out some pm's if we haven't heard from people by this weekend.

If you like playing snooker, there's a club near you open, and you can occasionally pot red and a colour, this is the snooker tournament you've been waiting for!

Re: 2020 Snooker Island World Championship

Postby SnookerEd25

Dan-cat wrote:I wish I could play snooker regularly :-( I would be in


You could organise a similar Pool competition... :pool1:

Re: 2020 Snooker Island World Championship

Postby rekoons

SnookerFan wrote:
rekoons wrote:My game is in shreds at the moment, but i'm in.


No matter how bad you are, nobody can take the Coland Rox Memorial Trophy from you.


I thought I had to pass it on to the next champion? :chin:
Need to ask Pinkie...

Re: 2020 Snooker Island World Championship

Postby Pink Ball

rekoons wrote:
SnookerFan wrote:
rekoons wrote:My game is in shreds at the moment, but i'm in.


No matter how bad you are, nobody can take the Coland Rox Memorial Trophy from you.


I thought I had to pass it on to the next champion? :chin:
Need to ask Pinkie...

Correct. Unless you win again, of course.

Re: 2020 Snooker Island World Championship

Postby chengdufan

I've decided to enter.

Anyone who draws me is basically getting a warm-up for their next match. For reference, my 'par' is probably 3 10+ breaks in 9 frames.
Why am I willing to embarrass myself? Well, despite loving playing snooker, I don't play very often and this is going to give me an excuse to get out and play. It might also encourage me to try out a more attacking game. If I pot a red, I normally just try to secure the points of the colour and then play safe. But needing to go for breaks, I think I will make more of an effort to play position when potting the colour. If I end up getting more than 3 10+ breaks, I'll be quite pleased. And who knows, I might get that elusive 20+ break!

Re: 2020 Snooker Island World Championship

Postby chengdufan

So we currently have 6 confirmed entries:
Pink Ball
Juddernaut88
AcesInc
Deewee
Rekoons
ChengduFan

SnookerEd25 is a tentative entry.

There are still 6 more days to enter, so we may get a few more. Let's hope so. The more the merrier!

The draw for the first round will be made here at 12 noon GMT on Friday September 11th (7pm my time here in China). I will make the random draw live, editing one post as the names come out of the hat.

@Andre147 Would you mind acting as the 'referee' for my match? That would involve receiving the scores from me and my opponent, and posting the result here when both sets of scores are in.

Re: 2020 Snooker Island World Championship

Postby rekoons

Sickpotter wrote:Looks like fun but I have to decline, both time and venues are limited for me right now. :-(


Judging by your highest break, good news for the competitiveness of this event :john:

Re: 2020 Snooker Island World Championship

Postby chengdufan

The draw will be made tomorrow, but in classic snooker administration fashion, it may be later than I planned.
Might be driving out for a short holiday tomorrow evening.

Only change to the stated rules is that the 9 frames do not have to be played within 2 weeks.
Of course, the sooner they are played, the better. But I think some of us may need nearer to 4 weeks.

Any last minute entrants?

Re: 2020 Snooker Island World Championship

Postby Juddernaut88

I really wish I could do this but it is getting very difficult :( not many snooker clubs open in my city or nearby. There are the odd pubs and sports centres that have 2 Snooker tables but you need a lot of luck to be able to manage to play for 3+ hours on them in case other people are waiting. Rileys is back open but the prices are ridiculous and I'm not prepared to pay the prices they are charging these days.

Re: 2020 Snooker Island World Championship

Postby acesinc

chengdufan wrote:I've decided to enter.

Anyone who draws me is basically getting a warm-up for their next match. For reference, my 'par' is probably 3 10+ breaks in 9 frames.
Why am I willing to embarrass myself? Well, despite loving playing snooker, I don't play very often and this is going to give me an excuse to get out and play. It might also encourage me to try out a more attacking game. If I pot a red, I normally just try to secure the points of the colour and then play safe. But needing to go for breaks, I think I will make more of an effort to play position when potting the colour. If I end up getting more than 3 10+ breaks, I'll be quite pleased. And who knows, I might get that elusive 20+ break!


I actually did something of a study in my little club and came to the conclusion that this is exactly true for many, many low level players. In fact, worse than that, many players will pot Red and fail to have any sort of position on any colour and so will play a half-safe such as attempting a ridiculous long Blue off spot into a baulk corner which of course NEVER comes off and ALWAYS leaves the White in baulk where even if they had made the Blue pot, they could not have continued the break. And now the Blue is probably out of commision for most of the rest of the frame. Or after pot of Red, they may decide better off to just play straight safe off a baulk colour, leaving White against cushion but probably knocking the baulk colour out so it nestles in among the pack of Reds, again creating an impedance to the assembly of a decent break. These tactics are usually done in ignorance and are nearly always annoying to vain attempts to keep a tidy table.

It is actually a huge step to the improvement of your game for you to recognize this.

For purpose of this competition, I will need to be selective of my opponent because many players in my club do exactly what you describe so that it is difficult to run any sort of reasonable sized break against them. There are a few that will attempt to go for the larger breaks, which (in my opinion) is better snooker.....at first, it will cost you some frames because a lazy safety player will often win against a weak break-builder, but if you are patient and put in the work to learn a better game, you will become the stronger player in the long run.

As you already know, I can be pretty long winded with these posts. I do have a whole write up to explain this thought process if you are interested in it. With that said, my kid and I developed a whole handicap system and ultimately a different variation of Snooker based on this concept. If you are willing to be bored to tears by my musings, you can find those two write-ups here:

http://acesmachinery.com/site1/league/h ... epaper.pdf

and here:

http://www.acesmachinery.com/league/club74_gen.pdf

and a little bit more about the Club 74 variation here:

http://www.acesmachinery.com/Club74.htm

Using the information in these documents, my kid has become the most improved player in my club over the last three years. He has gone from a handicap of 28 plus 3 Provisional Colours (you need to read the stuff to understand that) to a straight 16 point handicap (zero PC) and I have a very tough time winning a match. His breaks have gone from 3 ball (Red, colour, Red) with a rare fourth ball potted to running multiple four ball breaks (usually 14's and 16's) just about every frame. He will generally run two or three breaks of 20+ in a session of 10 or 12 frames. High break of 39, reaches something in the 30+ range about once every four or five sessions. Take the info to heart, stick with it, and the 20+'s will start to come very natural to you.

By the way, my little club has just 10 members. 8 of us ALWAYS play the Club 74 variation for about the last year and a half, and I have seen fair improvement in all of their games. They simply make better decisions now. The other two guys are older (mid-70's), absolutely stuck in their ways, and will play nothing else but standard snooker. I have known one of them for well over thirty years now and his game is the same now as it was then, back in his 40's....very rare to clear the 20+break ceiling, probably about once every 20 to 25 frames. I should also add something about my kid, you know, I said "most improved player" up above? He HATES to put in any practice at all. He just wants to have fun, knock balls around the table. So he has seen all this improvement based solely on the system and learning what he should be doing in order to properly understand the game. He literally does ZERO practice routines or exercises. Not really looking to improve at all, just play the game.

That actually is a huge problem among lower level players.....everyone WANTS to play the game better, but very few are willing to WORK to learn to play the game better. This system finds a nice balance to help you improve to some degree but still have a lot of fun doing it.

Also, I am not suggesting this for the Snooker Island league; it is strictly to help you to improve your personal game and become more competitive. Good luck!