Post a reply

annoucement from world snooker

Postby csprince

Monday 8 Jun 2020 10:00AM
Snooker has strengthened its position as the pacesetter for the return of global sport by announcing plans for its qualifying school and the structure of the WST circuit for next season.


Top stars including Judd Trump and Ronnie O’Sullivan have made a successful return to action over the past week

This month has seen snooker become the first sport other than horse racing to return to live action, by staging the Matchroom.Live Championship League. World-leading standards on Covid-19 testing, sanitisation and social distancing have ensured that the event has run successfully.

So far at the event in Milton Keynes, all 86 players, staff and officials have tested negatively for Covid-19, and the strict health and safety regulations have been followed meticulously. This has set the precedent for further events, with the Coral Tour Championship to follow from June 20th to 26th.

Detailed plans for further events are being put into place, and WST has now announced the structure of the tour for the 2020/21 season, to include 12 players from the qualifying school.

Q School will run during the Betfred World Championship, which will take place from July 31 to August 16. The precise dates, venue and further details for Q School will be announced soon and it will be run according to the government guidelines at the time. Staging Q School during this period will allow the 12 winners to join the tour in time for the start of the 2020/21 season.

The 2020/21 WST players will be:

The top 64 from the official two-year rankings at the end of the 2019/20 season

The top four players on the one-year rankings (outside the official top 64)

35 players in the second year of a two-year tour card

Two players from the Challenge Tour: Lukas Kleckers and the winner of the Play-Off event.

World Snooker Federation Open Champion: Ashley Hugill

World Snooker Federation Open runner-up: Iulian Boiko

World Snooker Federation Junior Open Champion: Gao Yang

World Snooker Federation Junior Open runner-up: Sean Maddocks

EBSA European Champion: Andrew Pagett

EBSA European Under-21 Champion: Aaron Hill

Two players from the CBSA China Tour: Pang Jun Xu and Zhao Jianbo

12 players from Q School

Total: 125 players

In addition, if any player comes through the qualifying rounds to reach the final stages of the Betfred World Championship at the Crucible but finishes the season outside the official top 64, he or she will earn a two-year tour card.

WST Chairman Barry Hearn said: “This is a fantastic announcement for all of those amateur players around the world who were unsure whether Q School would go ahead in the current circumstances.

“Snooker is open for business! We already have a very successful event in progress at the Matchroom.Live Championship League, setting an example in terms of testing, sanitisation and social distancing which other sports will have to try to follow. Our remaining WST events this season will be played over the coming weeks, keeping our players busy on the table and plenty of live snooker on television and online.

“Q School was originally planned to start on May 18th but will now be played at the same venue as the World Championship qualifiers, with the venue to be announced shortly.

“As usual there will be three tournaments, with the four semi-finalists from each of them earning a tour card. This is the chance for players around the globe to chase their dream and earn a coveted place on the World Snooker Tour for the next two years.

“We realise there will be challenges for players overseas to travel to the UK for Q School but it is vital that we make this opportunity available for all players. We cannot sit back and allow circumstances to set our sport back when we have made so much progress in recent years. We are liaising with the UK government with the intention to help players coming from overseas.

“As we move forward we will examine every route towards staging events, providing prize money for our players and coverage for our fans, while working with government to keep the safety of all concerned as the highest priority.”

Re: annoucement from world snooker

Postby mick745

Iulian Boiko to get a tour card.

Hope it doesnt set his game back by turning pro too soon. There will be some bad defeats in his first season, that is inevitable.

Is he the first professional from Ukraine?

Good luck to the lad.

Re: annoucement from world snooker

Postby lhpirnie

mick745 wrote:Iulian Boiko to get a tour card.

Hope it doesnt set his game back by turning pro too soon. There will be some bad defeats in his first season, that is inevitable.

Is he the first professional from Ukraine?

Good luck to the lad.

Yes, Boiko and Gao are certainly too young and will need to be looked after well. It's going to be extremely tough for them to win any matches at all during their 2 years.

Re: annoucement from world snooker

Postby SnookerEd25

Boiko currently 14, turns 15 in September; does seem a mite too soon, but he has played a number of matches on the pro' tour so he's not going in completely blind.

But, yes, I hope World Snooker keep a close eye on him and provide some sort of support if needed.

Re: annoucement from world snooker

Postby mick745

I remember Shaun Murphy saying just after he turned pro, i think he was 16 at the time, an older professional came up to him and basically told him he shouldnt be there, it wasnt a place for kids, as players were trying to pay the mortgage, support their kids, etc.

Re: annoucement from world snooker

Postby lhpirnie

These plans for Q School are very ambitions, but it does make sense to hold them immediately after the WC qualifiers, at the same venue. They will have 12 tables ready.

But they will also need up to 200 hotel rooms available onsite, and carry out 100 antigen tests per day. That's a heck of a challenge. If any of these 100's of tests produce a positive result (the test is not 100% reliable anyway), we have a situation that hasn't arisen yet in the Covid Classic. I assume the player concerned would just have to scratch, perhaps with a refund?

Anyway, there won't conceivably be 216 entries to Q School in these conditions. Nobody has played for 3 months, it's an expensive entry, and you'd have to drive to and from the venue 3 times in two weeks. There won't be any overseas players either, apart from possibly some relegated players who are still around, assuming they decide to come back at all.

Perhaps we can have a forecast as to how many entries there will be?

Re: annoucement from world snooker

Postby lhpirnie

SnookerEd25 wrote:Boiko currently 14, turns 15 in September; does seem a mite too soon, but he has played a number of matches on the pro' tour so he's not going in completely blind.

But, yes, I hope World Snooker keep a close eye on him and provide some sort of support if needed.

Yes, they are the youngest professionals since 2013, and that player was nearly killed in a fire, and quit snooker 2 years later in alcoholic despair. I hope Boiko and Gao are treated better!

Re: annoucement from world snooker

Postby chengdufan

Disappointed there's no q school in China. Seems like a missed opportunity.

Re: annoucement from world snooker

Postby lhpirnie

chengdufan wrote:Disappointed there's no q school in China. Seems like a missed opportunity.

There may be. The numbers add up to 125, so they could organise a Q School in China for 2 places perhaps.


Most likely Q School UK will have Zhang Anda, Chen Feilong, Zhang Jiankang, Fan Zhengyi and perhaps Luo Honghao (if relegated). Wu Yize could attempt to get here as he has a World Championship wildcard anyway. But it's also possible that some of these players will not come back to the UK - only Chen and Fan are here at the moment.

I'd predict 5 players from Asia, 10 from Europe, and maybe 100 British players in a depleted Q School.

But we know that the same old players usually qualify back anyway.

The format of Q School has a host of problems anyway, although I wouldn't suggest now is a good time to change it. In the future they could use a Swiss elimination to make it fairer. I expect they will split each Q School event into 4 quarters, and play them sequentially to minimise the number of players at the venue at one time.

Re: annoucement from world snooker

Postby Alex0paul

Excellent news. Great efforts from Jason and Barry getting all this organized safely.

Re: annoucement from world snooker

Postby SteveJJ

Yes they have a few spaces to play with (assuming 3 to be relegated players don't qualify for the world championship). I think there might be further oversees nominations for the last few places on particular if limited international entrants to q school.

They also need to have a word with the likes of Steve Mifsud to ask whether he intends to enter tournaments.

Re: annoucement from world snooker

Postby lhpirnie

SteveJJ wrote:Yes they have a few spaces to play with (assuming 3 to be relegated players don't qualify for the world championship). I think there might be further oversees nominations for the last few places on particular if limited international entrants to q school.

They also need to have a word with the likes of Steve Mifsud to ask whether he intends to enter tournaments.

Yes, there may be players giving up their Tour Card for various reasons, not just Peter Ebdon. Financially, many of them are broke. It's also likely that many of the overseas will be missing for a lot of tournaments anyway. We don't know how the quarantine situation will be. The cost of flights is an issue. I'm very dubious about a 14-year old playing the full tour.

Re: annoucement from world snooker

Postby SteveJJ

lhpirnie wrote:
SteveJJ wrote:Yes they have a few spaces to play with (assuming 3 to be relegated players don't qualify for the world championship). I think there might be further oversees nominations for the last few places on particular if limited international entrants to q school.

They also need to have a word with the likes of Steve Mifsud to ask whether he intends to enter tournaments.

Yes, there may be players giving up their Tour Card for various reasons, not just Peter Ebdon. Financially, many of them are broke. It's also likely that many of the overseas will be missing for a lot of tournaments anyway. We don't know how the quarantine situation will be. The cost of flights is an issue. I'm very dubious about a 14-year old playing the full tour.


Wonder if Ebdon has officially resigned his place as if not it could be another Hendry/Hicks situation from a few years back

Re: annoucement from world snooker

Postby SnookerEd25

SnookerFan wrote:Does anybody actually bother to call them the World Snooker Tour?

They'll always be called World Snooker, won't they?


Who, the WPBSA?

Re: annoucement from world snooker

Postby TheSaviour

"Top stars including Judd Trump and Ronnie O’Sullivan have made a successful return to action over the past week"

- hmm. Right. Ben played well, Brecel obviously also played well. But how about Ronnie; getting whitewashed by Stualt Bingham isn´t exactly ringing any bells.

At some point, Ashley Calty was pretty much running the show, which says it all.

Don´t sweat, or at least then refuse to take on any giving long red, no matter who you´re name ever happens to be, then.

Subcontinental spices. Indian food, in one form or another, forms the mainstay of modern Gulf cuisine - a result of long-standing historic links between the two regions. Thai and Chinese restaurants have also made considerable inroads into the local dining scene in the major cities, although the style of Chinese cuisine served up in many places is a hybridised Indo-Sino style of cuisine, with rather more spice than is authentic. Marco Polo took the macaron from the Chinese. Later, when he returned back to Italy he had to be in jail for a few years. He told all the good from the Chinese food culture, including the macaron and a rice with eggs, and they thought he was just bullshitting them.

Maroccon food can also be found throughout the main cities of the region, with signature dishes including various couscous dishes. Dubai is also particularly good for Iranian food, featuring Iranian style biriyanis leavened with saffron and barberries. Fast-food outlets have made inevitable inroads into the region.

Dates.

Lebanese manakish, a kind of pizza!

Gulf! Brrrrrriiiiiiiiinnnnnnggggg it on!
Last edited by TheSaviour on 13 Jun 2020, edited 2 times in total.

Re: annoucement from world snooker

Postby SnookerEd25

TheSaviour wrote:
Subcontinental spices. Indian food, in one form or another, forms the mainstay of modern Gulf cuisine - a result of long-standing historic links between the two regions. Thai and Chinese restaurants have also made considerable inroads into the local dining scene in the major cities, although the style of Chinese cuisine served up in many places is a hybridised Indo-Sino style of cuisine, with rather more spice than is authentic. Marco Polo took the macaron from the Chinese. Later, when he returned back to Italy he had to be in jail for a few years. He told all the good from the Chinese food culture, including the macaron and a rice with eggs, and they thought he was just bullshitting them.

Maroccon food can also be found throughout the main cities of the region, with signature dishes including various couscous dishes. Dubai is also particularly good for Iranian food, featuring Iranian style biriyanis leavened with saffron and barberries. Fast-food outlets have made inevitable inroads into the region.

Dates.

Lebanese manakish, a kind of pizza!



There's a thread for 'cooking in the time of Coronavirus'. Please use it. :no:

Re: annoucement from world snooker

Postby SnookerFan

SnookerEd25 wrote:
SnookerFan wrote:Does anybody actually bother to call them the World Snooker Tour?

They'll always be called World Snooker, won't they?


Who, the WPBSA?


The World Snooker Tour.