by Pink Ball » 10 Feb 2016 Read
People often ask what's their favourite tournament, which is nothing more than an opportunity to give the World Championship a lick out. We all know it's the best tournament, so why ask it like?
So let's change it up, what's the WORST ranking tournament? Let's go through the contenders so.
Australian Open: Happens ages away from where all the players live, at a time that most people don't care about snooker. Also, kangaroos are class, so why aren't they exploited more to promote it?
Shanghai Masters: Tables often seem rubbish. Atmosphere wouldn't be the best either by the look of it.
UK Championship: Once a great tournament, now it's had its bottom torn asunder by Barry Hurn. Makes for sad viewing in the lead up to Christmas.
Welsh Open: A lot of people don't like its best-of-7's, which seems a silly format for a top tournament.
Players Championship: Excellent concept to have a finals, but could it not be longer than best-of-7's? Oh God forbid!
The Grand Prix: Best-of-7's, again? buck it lads. Ruins the good idea of having an elitist ranking touranament.
China Open: Once a serious tournament, now a lot of players see it as a good one to skip given that the worlds do be coming up at that time of year.
Last edited by
Pink Ball on 10 Feb 2016, edited 1 time in total.
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by Cloud Strife » 10 Feb 2016 Read
I voted for the China Open because the qualifiers are currently taking place and therefore it is fresh in the memory.
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by SnookerFan » 10 Feb 2016 Read
That one they had in Bahrain.
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by SnookerFan » 10 Feb 2016 Read
The Grand Prix shouldnt have been upgraded, in my opinion.
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by SnookerFan » 10 Feb 2016 Read
The Welsh Open used to be good, but it's not as good now due to the best of sevens.
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by Smart » 11 Feb 2016 Read
I voted for the Australian Open and the Grand Prix.
I think the Australian Open is scheduled at some silly time of the year that is clearly not snooker time (sorry I am traditional and still view snooker as a winter domain sport). For this reason I have probably watched very little of this tournament.
The Grand Prix reinventing itself and moving venues ...... there is nothing prestigious about the Grand Prix imo. It could be cancelled tomorrow and would I care in truth ???
On the others, well clearly the UK champs is not the UK champs we all grew up with. That alone doesn't make it the worst ranking tournament just means it is a shadow of its former glory.
I like both the Shanghai and China Open personally. I love the enthusiasm of the crowds and the funny refs, the pretty refs and the lovely armchairs (Shanghai >?). I love the early morning snooker and the evening snooker which is on at our lunchtime. if you are not working this schedule is just superb.
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by SnookerFan » 11 Feb 2016 Read
I don't think having an elitist ranking event is a good idea. You can't have a ranking event, then only invite people in a certain ranking position. Invitational events have no place awarding ranking points.
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by Smart » 11 Feb 2016 Read
Thinking a bit more about the UK champs. I wish at the time that the best of 11 format was introduced the tournament was re-named / re-branded. If that had happened then the record books would not be tainted and arguments would not rage. Clearly winning an old standard UK champs is different to winning a modern day UK champs. I would prefer the modern day UK Champs to be re-branded as the Kingdom Open. That way it is clearly a different beast from the original UK Champs and there is no misrepresentation in the record books.
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by SnookerFan » 11 Feb 2016 Read
Smart wrote:Thinking a bit more about the UK champs. I wish at the time that the best of 11 format was introduced the tournament was re-named / re-branded. If that had happened then the record books would not be tainted and arguments would not rage. Clearly winning an old standard UK champs is different to winning a modern day UK champs. I would prefer the modern day UK Champs to be re-branded as the Kingdom Open. That way it is clearly a different beast from the original UK Champs and there is no misrepresentation in the record books.
I don't find it as prestigious as it used to be, either.
And whilst we're not on the subject, I never really liked the name the UK Championshop.
The name the UK Championship harked back to the days where the tour was predominately British based. (Except for a few pesky Canadians that turned up.) For me, the name implies the person who won it is Champion Of The UK. This year's final had a guy from Australia play a guy from China. Changing the title would imply it's a tournament held in the UK, open to all. Not a tournament whereby the person is champion of the UK, which thus makes non-UK players win it a bit strange.
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by Cloud Strife » 11 Feb 2016 Read
They should call it the Kingdom of England Trophy.
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by Smart » 11 Feb 2016 Read
Cloud Strife wrote:They should call it the Kingdom of England Trophy.
Why not brand it regionally ....
It could be the
DAFABET Kingdom of York Open Championship
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by whitespider » 11 Feb 2016 Read
Selected the Grand Prix - purely on the grounds that it is a bonkers setup. I still reckon though it's only here as a ranker because they are short this year. With English, Scottish and Irish Opens next year I reckon this will be invitational again next season.
Think people are harsh on Australia. It's winter (all relative) there at that time of year after all. The game needs to grow.
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by Cheshire Cat » 11 Feb 2016 Read
The Welsh Open is a shocker. At the end of the day it's about winning events, I understand that, but something just doesn't sit well with me about top players making early exits in a best of 7 frame match in a ranking tournament. I've always advocated some protectionism and exclusive benefits for top players. On paper a top player /shouldn't/ be making early exits, they /should/ be winning comfortably, but a best of 7 is nowhere near comparable to a best of 9, 11, and especially 19 when it comes to finals. It's so much more a race to the finish line and I don't want that in ranking events.
Instead of bringing the top players down to that level, I think snooker should be pushing the lower players up; making them play longer matches is worth so much more experience. It's no good winning sprints to 7 and then getting steamrolled in a final when it's over a greater distance like a best of 19. It's so patronising, especially from pundits, when they say lower ranked players will just value the 'experience' of a final; that's dross, they want to win like any professional does. To do that you have to learn to build and maintain a lead, to not let your mind collapse when you're trailing by 4 or 5 frames, to cope with the very different pressure of having someone come back at you from say a 4 or 5 frame deficit -- you don't get that from short format matches, it's a mentally challenging experience and at the end of the day snooker is as much a mental game than anything else.
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by SnookerFan » 11 Feb 2016 Read
whitespider wrote:Think people are harsh on Australia. It's winter (all relative) there at that time of year after all. The game needs to grow.
That's always been my opinion.
I enjoy watching the Australian Open, when they can bother to televise it that it. If people want to watch outdoory sports when it's good weather over here, let them. It's pretty easy to ignore, it's not like Wimbledon or something like that, where you can't turn on the telly without some hammer giving you a news update about it.
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by SnookerFan » 11 Feb 2016 Read
Cheshire Cat wrote:The Welsh Open is a shocker. At the end of the day it's about winning events, I understand that, but something just doesn't sit well with me about top players making early exits in a best of 7 frame match in a ranking tournament. I've always advocated some protectionism and exclusive benefits for top players. On paper a top player /shouldn't/ be making early exits, they /should/ be winning comfortably, but a best of 7 is nowhere near comparable to a best of 9, 11, and especially 19 when it comes to finals. It's so much more a race to the finish line and I don't want that in ranking events.
The Welsh Open used to be a quality little event. First year I went, I got an all day ticket for day one. It was about £6 and I got to sit anywhere I wanted. It started at 11am, and I ended up watching three best of nine matches of my chosing.
Second year I went, it had all changed to best of sevens. Several of the matches I saw over three days where over in 40 minutes.
Now I pick semis and final, which are okay and all. But it means I get no choice of where to sit or who to see. And I end up not seeing much before then on the telly. Makes a once decent snooker event feel a bit like a weekend away.
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by Pink Ball » 11 Feb 2016 Read
Welsh Open was a great tournament. It used to have a grand slam Friday with all four quarter-finals taking place one after the other. That was a great idea.
Thanks Hurn.
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by SnookerFan » 11 Feb 2016 Read
Pink Ball wrote:Welsh Open was a great tournament. It used to have a grand slam Friday with all four quarter-finals taking place one after the other. That was a great idea.
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by Smart » 11 Feb 2016 Read
SnookerFan wrote:Pink Ball wrote:Welsh Open was a great tournament. It used to have a grand slam Friday with all four quarter-finals taking place one after the other. That was a great idea.
yes from mammory it was roll on rollen off for the quartern finals
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by Cloud Strife » 11 Feb 2016 Read
Smart wrote:SnookerFan wrote:Pink Ball wrote:Welsh Open was a great tournament. It used to have a grand slam Friday with all four quarter-finals taking place one after the other. That was a great idea.
yes from mammory it was roll on rollen off for the quartern finals
Thanks for the info.
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by Pink Ball » 11 Feb 2016 Read
SnookerFan wrote:Pink Ball wrote:Welsh Open was a great tournament. It used to have a grand slam Friday with all four quarter-finals taking place one after the other. That was a great idea.
I used to take the day off for it it was so good.
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by Smart » 11 Feb 2016 Read
Pink Ball wrote:SnookerFan wrote:Pink Ball wrote:Welsh Open was a great tournament. It used to have a grand slam Friday with all four quarter-finals taking place one after the other. That was a great idea.
I used to take the day off for it it was so good.
I used to buy a large bag packet of onion rings and a large bar of Milka chocolate to devour for the QFs.
Hurn you nasty monster
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by PLtheRef » 12 Feb 2016 Read
The fact that the PTC Finals are supposedly moving to a Best of 11 semifinal and best of 19 final might improve it somewhat though it runs the risk of turning the ITV events (shootout excepted) into the same thing.
Voted for the Australian and Welsh Open's. Australia is simply played in what should be the close season for snooker hence why you get several top players giving it a miss. At that time of year a pro isn't looking for full rankers. Maybe the odd invitational as Wuxi was originally It'd be better served either by having it a non ranking invitational giving the chance of more Australians getting pro tournament experience besides Robertson and Calabrese or by moving it to after the Shanghai Masters. Thailand and China used to be back to back no reason why these can't be.
The Welsh Open becoming more and like a PTC in playing best of 7 in the early rounds and loads of games making the first couple of rounds harder to follow is to its detriment and seems to give it almost a ongoing status of being the likely candidate SD should the full rankers be trimmed.
With the Home Series from next season I'd hazard a guess this year might well be the last Welsh Open with a Best of 17 final. - perhaps a home series of best of 7 followed by a Best of 11 final for 2017
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by Wildey » 12 Feb 2016 Read
UK Championship hands down
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