Next season 2014 2015

Wuxi qualifies coming up

Can't wait

Hopefully mark williams wins

You might say I'm daft but I've got a suspicion the potting machine has something left in the tank

Don't think ronnie will play again until the international championship qualifiers in nearly 5 months

When's the draw for the Wuxi qualifying matches happening?

Binman wrote:Wuxi qualifies coming up

Can't wait

Hopefully mark williams wins

You might say I'm daft but I've got a suspicion the potting machine has something left in the tank

Don't think ronnie will play again until the international championship qualifiers in nearly 5 months

Rigsby may never play again.

Predictions for Wuxi?

By the way selby and Robertson can't be spoken in the same breath as Williams until they've won at least 2 worlds

Selby even if he wins two can't be compared to Williams

I like selby but he's nowhere near a prime williams

Just annoys me that Williams gets mentioned only as an afterthought when people talk about the great players in the history of the game

It's an injustice to his achievements

Ronnie will play before the International I expect because he said he thought it was a mistake to not play in the Shanghai last time. I expect another good season from him, maybe even better as he won't have the burden of being World Champion. 5 wins, including another major? something like that.

O'Sullivan will play a PTC or two.

Fancy quite a few players to miss Wuxi and definitely Australia

Binman wrote:Just annoys me that Williams gets mentioned only as an afterthought when people talk about the great players in the history of the game

It's an injustice to his achievements

You are right, multiple World Champions are few and far between. He's achieved much more than Selby ever will.

Andy Spark wrote:

Binman wrote:Just annoys me that Williams gets mentioned only as an afterthought when people talk about the great players in the history of the game

It's an injustice to his achievements

You are right, multiple World Champions are few and far between. He's achieved much more than Selby ever will.

what has that got to do with anything?


you sound a bit bitter to me.

Spark is Seifer-lite

Wildey wrote:

Andy Spark wrote:

Binman wrote:Just annoys me that Williams gets mentioned only as an afterthought when people talk about the great players in the history of the game

It's an injustice to his achievements

You are right, multiple World Champions are few and far between. He's achieved much more than Selby ever will.

what has that got to do with anything?


you sound a bit bitter to me.

Andy Spark stated a fact, maybe it was the wrong place to do so.

And yes, it does annoy me when players like Selby and Robbo get mentioned in the same breath as Williams. Williams was different class, a class which Selby will never be in.

To start with yes Williams was a special player But he won 2 Masters 2 UK and 2 World titles its well within the grasp of Both Selby and Robertson to smash that right out of the water.

but thats beside the point.

Regarding Williams my Top 5 players of all time back in 2003 was

1 Stephen Hendry
2 Steve Davis
3 Mark Williams
4 Ronnie O'Sullivan
5 John Higgins

Wildey wrote:what has that got to do with anything?


you sound a bit bitter to me.

I'm not really bitter. I was replying to the matter of Williams being not mentioned as much when listing greatest ever players. Selby has something like 4 ranking titles, Williams has 18 plus an extra World title...that's a huge difference and one that Selby is very unlikely to bridge now he's 30. I used Selby as an example because he is an often mentioned player.

Sonny wrote:Spark is Seifer-lite

No, Spark is diplomacy.

Some information released today regarding the last few spots on the Tour:

Thanawat Tirapongpaiboon will be given a 2 year tour card for 14/15-15/16 for winning the Asian U21 Championship on Friday. This is because the tournament took place after the completion of the 13/14 season, and therefore Thanawat Tirapongpaiboon was considered an amateur.

There will be no Americas nomination this year as there will be no All-Americas Championship being held (has there ever?!?!).

On a side note, Hossein Vafaei Ayouri has been given a special Wild Card for the 14/15 season only. However, he will be given a full 2 year tour card for 15/16-16/17 starting with zero points for winning the IBSF U21 Championship recently.

So that leaves one spot left: Africa. The 2014 African Snooker Championship is due to be held in Sudan between August 1st-9th.

I think they should scrap this Amateur tag and just call everyone players. Some are on tour the others are trying to get on tour the best way possible for them Thanawat Thirapongpaiboon took his chance brilliantly.

fridge46 wrote:There will be no Americas nomination this year as there will be no All-Americas Championship being held (has there ever?!?!).

Why didnt they simply give it to Pagulayan? Maybe he didnt accept it?

Hopefully this means though that there will be an All-Americas championship next year
By the way, remember when World Snooker said there will be only 8 places available at Q School to provide more places to international players?

kolompar wrote:Why didnt they simply give it to Pagulayan? Maybe he didnt accept it?
Hopefully this means though that there will be an All-Americas championship next year

Yes, its strange. He is ranked 3rd on the Top-Up list so I would expect he would be invited for almost all the ranking events this year. Lets see if he turns up.

If he doesnt, then its probably financial, in which case thats probably the reason he might not have accepted the nomination, if it was given.

If he does turn up, then the only reason why he would have declined the nomination is so that he can have a year getting familiar with the pro-game before possibly playing in the All-Americas Championship and receiving a full 2 year tour card.

kolompar wrote:By the way, remember when World Snooker said there will be only 8 places available at Q School to provide more places to international players?

I think that was their excuse for having to have less players on tour, otherwise we would have 136 players this year!!!

But additional qualifying routes will be needed next year. According to my maths, using current qualifying criteria, there will only be a maximum of 127 players...

if Pagulayan wasent serious about turning pro why did he enter Q School which has no financial gain the only prize is pro status.

The reality is World Snooker has obligation to Ayouri to try and secure him a genuine chance on tour and they have done that at the expense of the American place.

Binman wrote:Just annoys me that Williams gets mentioned only as an afterthought when people talk about the great players in the history of the game

It's an injustice to his achievements

Shame that, aint it?

When I was at university when I went to watch snooker, I tended to watch Mark Williams. At one point it seemed like he was the only one playing, because he just kept winning.

SnookerFan wrote:

Binman wrote:Just annoys me that Williams gets mentioned only as an afterthought when people talk about the great players in the history of the game

It's an injustice to his achievements

Shame that, aint it?

When I was at university when I went to watch snooker, I tended to watch Mark Williams. At one point it seemed like he was the only one playing, because he just kept winning.

Mark Williams was the Best Player in the World without a doubt between 1998 and 2003 and up to 2009 i rated him above John Higgins and i still rate him above Steve Davis even today.

Maybe it's because after his peak, MJW has had a few quite obvious declines. Like dropping out of the top 16, getting back in, then dropping out again. If you'd only been watching snooker for the past 5 years, you could be mistaken for thinking Williams was just another player.

SnookerFan wrote:Maybe it's because after his peak, MJW has had a few quite obvious declines. Like dropping out of the top 16, getting back in, then dropping out again. If you'd only been watching snooker for the past 5 years, you could be mistaken for thinking Williams was just another player.

yea its been a fast decline hasent it Mark Williams was World no 1 going in to the 2011 Shanghai masters he reached the final lost 10-9 to Selby with that red/pink controversy Selby reached no 1 for the first time and since then Mark has dropped down to a bit player without reaching another major ranking final.

Still, what's he up to now? 19 or 20 ranking event wins. He can't complain about that haul. Especially being a two time World Champion.

Most players would be envious of that.