4.11.08

FIXTURES NEED FITTING INTO PLACE

The Bahrain Championship had a depleted field long before Ronnie O’Sullivan’s withdrawal yesterday.

The clash of dates with the Premier League meant that Mark Selby, John Higgins and Ding Junhui could not enter.

We still don’t know what Steve Davis is going to do.

There have been other dates clashes this season which caused a World Series event to be cancelled and uncertainty as to who could play in pro-ams in Europe, which are spreading the snooker word across the continent.

How can this be avoided in future?

The answer is simpler than you might think.

Each year there should be a ‘fixture conference’ chaired by World Snooker to which all independent promoters are invited.

World Snooker run the professional tour – which should take precedence – but it is in their own members (ie the players) interests to be able to play in as many tournaments as possible.

There is no reason why the dates for all tournaments should not be agreed in a civilised manner that benefits the sport as a whole.

Of course, some new events may be added that scupper things but, in principle, there is no reason why everyone can’t get round a table and act like grown-ups.

Surely the game itself is the most important thing?

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

common sense is the less common thing in this world (Who said that again?)... alas

while power junkies run it.

Anonymous said...

well said.

get ws to announce concrete dates and maybe get them to have two potential "weeks" where any "additions" will be put if they find venues and sponsors etc at a later date. the rest can fill in the blanks. if ws dont add in on dates other than whats stipulated then everyones a winner.

sadly its all too common that sense seems to be thrown out the window

Anonymous said...

i could sit down now and fill my diary with sporting dates for the next four years or more.

When it comes to snooker, I am armed with a liberal amount of tippex and I still can't put more than a couple of dates in a couple of months ahead, and sometimes not even then.

In the "Amateur" game we have attempted for many years now to coordinate the major international dates to avoid clashes. IBSF blocks out certain date brackets each year for their events (when they actually manage to run them!) and EBSA and ACBS etc use the spare months to cement their events into date brackets.

So even if I don't know the precise date/location I always know that the IBSF World champs are in November, the EBSA champs in first two weeks June, etc

With that in place the NGBs can work out their calendars accordingly.

For the Pontin's events (disregarding getting shunted aobut by wsa) we get a copy off all the NGB calendars (England, Wales, Scotland, Ireland) and try and plan round that for junior events and pios, and round the wsa events also for the Pro Ams - and it's a logistical nightmare trying to do that.

Additional liaison with the "new" promoters around Europe would assist this process as recently we've had all sorts of clashes because of lack of consultation.

I set up the GSC Calendar more than ten years ago precisely to be a tool to assist organisers avoid clashes. Sadly even now some people are working isolation when planning their events and others just ignore anything that's going on anywhere else in the world.

To see everyone round the same table is a nice dream - but dream on because I can't see it happening any time soon. But if it does do let me know the date and I'll put it in my diary!

Anonymous said...

Imagine world snooker being in charge of golf or tennis or F1 or any other sport where forward planning is required :-O

Anonymous said...

COULD IT BE WORLD SNOOKER ARRANGED THE BAHRAIN EVENT PURPOSELY SO HIGGINS + DAVIS WOULD CLASH. BARING IN MIND HIGGINS HAS ARRAGED HIS OWN TOURNAMENT (WORLD SERIES) AND DAVIS IS "MR MATCHROOM" (PREMIER LEAGUE). THEY SEEM TO HAVE DONE THIS IN THE PAST WHEN REARRAGING THE U.K. TO CLASH WITH THE MOSCONI CUP POOL SO DAVIS COULDN'T COMPETE. ARE THEY ARE LIKE THE BDO IN DARTS? "WE CAN'T RUN THE GAME, BUT WE DON'T WANT YOU TO". LOOK WHAT THE PDC HAVE DONE TO THE DARTS GAME THAT THE BDO WAS RUINING

Anonymous said...

/ws\ are far from perfect imho, but id say that is a definite NO.

Anonymous said...

BUT IT DOES SEEM A BIG COINCIDENCE THAT THE WEEK THEY PICKED FOR BAHRAIN COINCIDED WITH HIGGINS+DAVIS'S PREMIER LEAGUE. IF WORLD SNOOKER REALLY DID FIX THIS THEY SHOULD BE ASHAMED OF THEMSELVES, AS THE THE PLAYER WHICH WILL SUFFER MOST RANKING WISE WILL BE DING JUNHUI, THE PLAYER WHO EVERYONE WHO CARES ABOUT SNOOKER SHOULD WANT TO SEE ACHIEVE HIS GREAT POTENTIAL.

Anonymous said...

i dont think that seems a big coincidence at all.
if in future it happen a few times, to the "same" folk then i will say thats a big coincidence afterwards...