Snooker Loopy

China has in recent years become a hotbed of snooker. The Chinese people have embraced the game and brought the sport in their culture and schools. The ethos of starting young is prevalent across the country and snooker is part of the Chinese school curriculum. Unlike the United Kingdom that has sadly ignored the youth market for many years due to underinvestment and the mass closure of snooker clubs, China is constantly striving to produce a new Ding Junhui. This is born out when you watch snooker on television and often see players under the age of 18 competing. The recent victory for Yan Bingtao in Riga, shows that the Chinese talent on the circuit is slowly bubbling to the surface. Many of these players who were produced in China now reside in the United Kingdom, living in places such as Sheffield where there is an academy. These young men or often teenagers come to this country knowing little or no English and met by a culture that is very different from their own. However the c

So on this last day in Riga, 8 players remained to fight it out for a chance to reign in Latvia. Play began and the results made it clearer of who get to the semi-final stage. Interestingly no top seeds remained in this stage and so the great Kurt Maflin was pitched against the Chinese player, Luo Honghao. Perhaps the pressure of progressing so far in the tournament got to Luo because he failed to make an impression in this match and his Norwegian opponent built on his great form so far and blew  the young player towards the exit door, winning the match comfortably, 4-1. Similarly Mark Joyce again kicked into gear, pushing Selby’s slayer, Stuart Carrington into the airport terminal for an early flight. The weight has definitely been lifted on these players as they can now show their worth, skills that that are largely overshadowed when the likes of the snooker elite play well. Joyce proved this by notching up a 4-1 win with a 68 break in the last frame. 4-1 seemed to be the flavour

Well this tournament is not failing to disappoint.After the controversy of the Luton flight, Mark Selby managed to get two unprecedented walkovers in a day to reach the last 33 stage of this competition and matched up with Graeme Dott today. Dott looked fearless and looked like he was going to win the match but like a finder he is, fought back and won four frames on the spin to win 4-3. He now will face Joe Perry or Stuart Carrington in the last 16. Jack Lisowski drew a tough cookie, the Welsh potter, Daniel Wells who is currently ranked 58 in the World rankings. Wells had a good run in the Scottish Open and was eventually beaten by Mark Allen. Lisowski is an infuriating player to watch because we know he is from the same mould as his great friend Judd Trump but his performance is often flaky on the television tables. Wells took the first frame with an impressive break and didn’t leave many options open for Jack. However before long, the tables turned and Lisowski produced a quality

So the wait is finally over and players have travelled far and wide to lock horns in Riga, Latvia. After the recent taster of the World Cup, the meat and bones of the season starts here and fans will not be disappointed as most of the top players are here to jostle for the top prize on Sunday. Over the course of the weekend, I will be giving daily reviews of some of the televised matches and reporting on the highs and hopefully not too many lows of this great tournament that players praise and enjoy to travel to. However there was a sting in the tail as 8 players including last year's winner Neil Robertson and Robert Milkins was  left stranded at Luton airport after their plane was grounded. First up was a refreshed Ricky Walden who had the youthful Chinese player, Yuan Sijun in the draw. Despite a great start from Walden and within a whisker of winning the first frame, Yuan came back at him and took the frame in the colours. Then it was on to the second with Ricky missing an eas

Anthony Hamilton has long been a serious force in snooker and ask any current or past player about this man’s snooker credentials and you will get a glowing report. On the practice table, Hamilton is lethal and often dominates the table with century plus breaks. He is a fast player and will always punish his opponent’s mistakes. However despite this promise, Anthony has always been below the radar and until his fabulous victory at the 2017 German Masters never reached his full potential. Berlin was an emotional time for him and his parents as it was here that he finally raised some silverware and put a career win on his Curriculum Vitae. What should have been a springboard to further success fell flat and Hamilton has been scratching around ever since for tournament progress. The main reason for Hamilton’s decline is his eyesight and this was highlighted in a recent World Snooker interview. Anthony admitted that he has had corrective eye surgery, replacing his natural eye lenses with

Barry Hawkins is one of the most accomplished players on the main tour but a recent boating accident left him with a broken rib.Hawkins described the incident to the media saying:  “I  got onto the boat, I wasn’t even drunk, but I came onto the boat and missed the last step and went over and smashed my side on something.” “It’s only just getting better and that was five weeks ago. So I wasn’t able to practice or play at all really, I just turned up.” Barry’s injury has had a detrimental effect to the start of his season with a shock 4-1 defeat to Jamie O’Neil in the Riga Masters qualifiers and had to  suffer with pain in his match against Jimmy White, battling through with a 5-3 win to qualify for the International Championship. Hawkins of course wanted to qualify for both and so has mixed emotions to the start of the season but tried to make the most of it by saying: “I got through the one I really wanted to get through in,’ continued the world number nine. ‘Obviously I’d h

Judd Trump has proved all his doubters wrong by raising the trophy at this year’s World Championship. The player who once tied himself in knots with self doubt, has managed to conquer his mental demons and refine his game. Unlike before, he now reigns in his shots and doesn’t attempt a pot for the sake of showmanship and instead plays safe when the game requires it. Trump was a different player in the World Championship and treated us to snooker that few players could ever play in a match let alone a seventeen day tournament. Described by Dominic Dale as a “modern day Alex Higgins”  Judd now believes in himself and the gift he has, a turnaround that he cites to now having his brother, Jack travelling with him. Jack. A necessity for any player who has to experience the loneliness and self critique of being a snooker player. Now that Trump has formulated a method to overcome his shortfalls, that barrier to true success should fall. However we all know that snooker doesn’t work like tha

Reanne Evans is one of the most prolific women in snooker and has won the World Women’s Championship an incredible twelve times with ten consecutive titles between 2005 and 2014 with a further two in 2015 and 2019. With a highest break of 118 and ranked number one in the world, Evans is a player who has helped raise the profile of the the women ‘s game and has even tried to get onto the main tour via the Q School. However sadly the women’s game still walks in the shadows of the men’s and lacks the multi-million investment that has been pumped into snooker and doesn’t have the major venues and television coverage that the main tour has. In my view, Reanne has been instrumental in making people in the industry wake up to the idea that there is definitely a female force in snooker. Hailing from Dudley,  Evans has been a true ambassador for the sport, being the face of many media interviews and was key to creating a Ladies Day at the World Championship. An event that celebrates and showc

Having just watched a Jimmy White about snooker exhibitions, I was fascinated by something he said and so decided to write a piece about it. Back in 1903, the clothing retailer Burtons was founded by Sir Montague Morris Burton. Originally trading as a tailor, Burtons has traded in various formats over the years, providing affordable clothes and was a key distributor of the demob suit, post World War Two. My interest however surrounds the retailer in the 1920s when in 1923, Montague Burton began to purchase a swathe of buildings across England, choosing town centre corner buildings, so they had a prominent place on the high street. Using a Leeds based architect, Harry Wilson, the company created a unique style of store, using Art Deco. It was during this period that Burtons used the upper space of the building to create a billiards hall and these existed above most stores. From Burtons perspective, this was a sales pitch and a means of targeting 18-30 year olds, charging an annual fe

Marco Fu is the most recognised of all the players to have ever come from Hong Kong but his potential and match statistics are worlds apart. Marco started playing snooker at the age of nine and regularly at the age of fifteen. Having left his native shores, he moved to Vancouver, Canada when he was twelve and back to Hong Kong, aged eighteen. His beginnings in snooker was very promising, winning both the World Amateur and World Under-21 Championship in 1997 before turning professional in 1998. This was followed by his first title in the Premier League in 2005, beating Mark Williams, 9-5 in the final. With further wins in the 2007 Grand Prix, 2013 Australian Goldfields Open and the 2016 Scottish Open, this looked like the start of a very promising career in professional snooker. However this where the baize drought began and in this piece I want to explore what has gone wrong for this player. The main struggle that Fu has had recently involves his eyesight Marco developed “ floaters”

With a taster of the new snooker season recently in the form of the Snooker World Cup, the main thrust of the tour is nearly upon us. Players will travel to Riga at the end of July for a three day event that was won last year by Neil Robertson. With Barry Hawkins having to withdraw after a recent boating accident and Ronnie O’Sullivan having confirmed that he won’t be playing until the Shanghai Masters, the field appears to be wide open for this tournament. The most obvious choice for  a victor candidate is Judd Trump. Trump is still riding on the crest of a wave after his World Championship win last season and so should in theory bring this delightful form back into the new season. However we know from history that snooker doesn’t always work that way with the World Championship title acting as a hindrance rather than a help to performance. Neil Robertson and Mark Selby had patchy form last season with neither really living up to their expectations. Robertson may have taken this on

One of the most prestigious events of the snooker calendar is the UK Championship. It is a title that every professional player aspires to win but few have managed to achieve. The UK Championship was first played in 1977 as an invitational event with Patsy Fagan collecting the trophy from Joe Davis in Blackpool after beating Doug Mountjoy in the final, 12-9. Classed as one of the "Triple Crown" events, there have been multiple winners such Steve Davis, Stephen Hendry and Ronnie O'Sullivan and is regarded by many as second only to the World Championship to win. The tournament moved from Blackpool at the Guildhall in Preston in 1978 and to its current home at the Barbican Centre in York in 2011. In October, World Seniors will hold a UK Championship at the Bonus Arena in Hull, several of the players competing have been former UK Championship contenders. The first of which is Dennis Taylor. Taylor's main swathe of a player in this event ran between 1984-1997 with the I

Goffs played host to the Irish Masters every year from 1978 to 2000. The venue traditionally used for horse trading, has had many snooker tussles in its circular arena over the years and was where Ken Doherty had his first job as an usher. The Irish Masters played at Goffs was born out of a challenge match in 1975 between Alex Higgins and John Spencer. In 1976 and 1977 the event was staged as a four-man invitational and was replaced by the Irish Masters in 1978. Goffs is unique because of its construction. Built like an amphitheatre, the arena is circular and means wherever you sit in the audience, a clear view of the stage can be seen. In this piece, I want to concentrate on the current players on the Seniors tour and how they faired in this great Irish tournament. The first of these is Jimmy White. White had success at Goffs, winning back to back titles in 1985 and 1986, beating Alex Higgins and Willie Thorne by the same score line, 9-5. Jimmy’s success in County Kildare, boils dow

Ding Junhui is the best player that China has ever produced but why is that he has underachieved in snooker? His dip in recent form is clearly apparent with the clear amount of space in his trophy cabinet. It is true that he has won the UK Championship and the Masters in 2009 and 2011 but his last ranking title was the World Open in 2017. To find out what is actually going wrong with his game and form, you have to delve deeper. From his body language when he misses a shot. I have studied him over a period of time and he always adopts the same pose. He sits with head in his hands. This is like Christmas Day for his opponent because they can sense vulnerability and potential victory. This dejection in his character is in my opinion threefold. Firstly, people should appreciate that there is so much pressure from his fan base in China to win. Like a rockstar, he can’t go out the door in China without being mobbed by fans who want a piece of him in the forms of a selfie or an autograph. W

Long before the World Seniors tour was created, a tournament took place in 2000 that could be seen as the trailblazer for the future tour. Called the World Seniors Masters, it was held at the RAC Club in London and was the brainchild of two businessmen, Peter Bainbridge and Ralph Holt. Designed as a Pot Black style tournament, former professional players were invited to take part with a total of £25,000 on offer, divided into £10,000 for the winner, £7,500 for the runner up and £3,750 for the losing semi-finalists. The winner received an antique gilded claret jug that was retained by the winner  during his year as titleholder. The event ran between 27-28 May, 2000. The event was invitational with 15 players finally taking part after Terry Griffiths and John Spencer were unable to take part With support from Willie Thorne, the tournament was streamed on the internet and Willie beat Cliff Thorburn in the final 1-0. Years later Thorne said of the Masters : “When I won the Seniors Mast

Snooker has a vast treasure trove of tournaments in its past and one that definitely springs to mind is the former British Open The tournament began life in 1980 in the Assembly Rooms, Derby in 1980 and was a sixteen-man invitational event with a round-robin stage with winners advancing to the semi-finals. The next two years the tournament was renamed twice, first being called the Yamaha Organs Trophy and then the International Masters. After Yamaha decided to withdraw its sponsorship, the event was finally called the British Open in 1985.The tournament moved from Derby to Plymouth, Newcastle and in its final years was played out in Brighton. For this piece, I want to concentrate my attention on the event’s time at Plymouth. In 1994, the British Open moved to the Plymouth Pavilions. Plymouth probably had the golden years of its life in this South West city and all the greats of the modern game graced its stage. By this time, the “class of ‘92” were just starting to break through on t