26.5.09

IN THE NEWS

A few updates...

Jimmy Robertson has won the English Amateur Championship, snooker’s oldest title, with a 9-8 defeat of David Craggs in Sheffield.

Robertson, 24, is thus eligible to return to the main tour next season having played on the pro circuit during the 2002/03 season.

The amateur title was first contested in 1916. It was won in 1987 by Mark Rowing who last weekend defeated Colin Norton 6-4 to win the English seniors title.

The Irish national title has been won by Martin McCrudden, who beat David Hogan 8-6. However, Brendan O’Donoghue finished top of the RIBSA rankings and will therefore be nominated for a place on the ranking event circuit.

Mark Boyle (no relation, as far as I’m aware, to Susan) is also heading for the pro tour after winning the Scottish title with a 7-0 defeat of Ross Vallance.

Michael White is the new Welsh champion, Warren Horsley has retained his South African national title and Robin Hull, whose professional career ended because of illness, has won the Finnish Championship.

Meanwhile Ronnie O’Sullivan, for whom running has become an obsession, was in Derby today launching a new charity challenge.

Has this video been speeded up or is Ronnie the new Usain Bolt?

32 comments:

Anonymous said...

Great to see Mark Boyle do the business. He could really make his presence known in the pro-ranks if he knuckles down and lays off the booze.

He's also a particularly adept billiards player.

jamie brannon said...

I see you have put comments back on. Is the full composition of the Main Tour known for next season? Is the UK Championship going to be in Telford again?

Anonymous said...

jamie

Are the comments really back on? I hadn't noticed. How do you know?

Anonymous said...

Jimmy Robertson played on the main tour a lot more recently than 2002/3.

Anonymous said...

A note from Belgium: Mario Geudens became 2009 Belgium Champion after winning 7-3 to Kevin Van Hove (and Bjorn Haneveer in the semi).

Anonymous said...

is it not "ex world champion" regarding ronnie or have i missed something?

Anonymous said...

"Mark Boyle (no relation, as far as I’m aware, to Susan) is also heading for the pro tour after winning the Scottish title with a 7-0 defeat of Ross Vallance."

is it right that players gets on tour having won their national titles

there might be better players in England that would benefit the tour but because tour places are given to scottish national champions etc those English players or whatever are missing out.

surely the best players should have the best opportunity to get on tour and not based on any nationality.it isn't fair that those players might have been born English where the pool of players are greater to choose from. but because places are given to wales or Scotland players based on nationality they miss out.

Sparky said...

Yes, but England has 2 spots compared to Scotland's 1.

Anonymous said...

there's a better way to pick players for tour and limiting players that compete in a national championship isn't the way to go.

id make each qualifying championship open for all so if someone from England wants to give it a go via the scottish route that would be better and same for all.

id get rid of the PIOS and run 32 open qualifying tournaments World Wide so if someone wants to do the traveling to play they can and the winners of those 32 tournaments making it on tour.

so if you lose in england you go to wales and on and on.

obviously cash is a problam but so is players from ireland and china playing in the PIOS.

Anonymous said...

Anonymous said...
is it not "ex world champion" regarding ronnie or have i missed something?


???????????

Matt said...

The full composition isn't known yet Jamie, think there are another nine places yet to be filled.

RichP said...

I have to agree with anon 4.01pm and also the other anon 5.30pm as there is without doubt some weaker players getting on the tour over some decent PIOS players. I mean how would James Wattana of faired on the PIOS tour for example?

Dave H said...

To clarify: Robertson was on the tour in 2007/08 as well

Anonymous said...

The newspaper article reads....
SNOOKER World champion Ronnie O'Sullivan has visited the Hilton Hotel at East Midlands airport to launch a charity challenge.

Anonymous said...

Ronnie is definitely the new people's champion. If it wasn't for him our sport would no longer be televised. Well done to him for giving up his time to help disadvantaged kids. There's not many players today with the charisma to help out a charity like Ronnie.

jamie brannon said...

I mentioned about comments as Dave had taken them off, but clearly he has had a change of mind. I think that is good news and we should show the blog the respect it deserves.

Anonymous said...

7.45 anon

of course it would be televised. Ronnie is brilliant but if you would open youre eyes you would see the brilliant product snooker today is with or without Ronnie.

wildJ0NESEYE said...

the post at 851 is not me. anyone can see it i dont want to start a fite but this is just stupid and we will hav the coments reemoved agane.

Anonymous said...

LOL anon @ 8:01!!

Let's get some management-marketing speak into the conversation.

If snooker is a product there's not too many customers! Maybe there needs to be some blue sky thinking? Should we run it up the flagpole and see what people think?

I agree to an extent with the OP. Snooker will keep going when RoS stops playing but at the moment it can ill afford to stage events without him. Ask any sponsor who they want as top billing and you know the answer.

Anonymous said...

Is Mark Boyle any relation to Fargo Boyle who appeared as a sheep farmer in Father Ted once?

Anonymous said...

9:24 PM

who sais theres no customers.

theres more people watching snooker now than ever thanks to eurosport.

Ronnie is brilliant and snooker would miss him initially but then someone else will take over the mantle and who knows be even better for the sport.

snooker will move on with or without Ronnie.

Unknown said...

To clarify even more.
Each country has its own criteria.

They can decide with WSA beforehand whether they will be nominating their national champion, or the number one off their ranking lists

In the case of Jimmy Robertson, he finished Number One on the EASB Pro Ticket rankings and won his place through that.

There isn't an automatic place for the English amateur champion.

there is one more place up for grabs this weekend for England when they hold their 32 man play offs.

Scotland nominate their No 1, so do Wales, and Ireland, for the very reasons that have been mentioned on the comments. A player has to prove himself right through the season to finish number one, whereas the national champion might only enter just that one event and might even be a fluke winner. (A one hit wonder!)

and one more national championship last weekend. David Palmiero from the Montpelier Club is the 2009 French Champion.

Anonymous said...

yes but can english players enter the welsh system or vice versa.

i think the best players should get maximum chance of making the tour.

at the moment we could have 30 english players better than any welsh player but chances of most of thoes 30 making the main tour is limited while welsh players who arent as good make the tour because they were lucky to be welsh.

Dave H said...

Surely the more pertinent question is this: why do so few players that get promoted from whatever way stay on the tour?

Is it the ranking points system or is there a dearth in genuine talent?

Anonymous said...

dave

new pros get on tour thinking lets play like Ronnie all out atack before they know it they lost 7 or 8 matches to hardened pros jerneymen if you like and they are back where they came from.

i think the talent is there but have they got the patience to work hard or do they expect instant success.

just look at jimmy robertson he was on tour in 2002/2003 it took him 5 years to get back and hes droped straight back down again so if these young players dont grasp on to theire place getting back there isnt as easy as you think.

Matt said...

I think that the ranking system plays a part, but against the experience of the players occupying the top 64 places it is always going to be tough for them to break through.

I mean this past season for the first time I was able to see the qualifying matches and I found it noticeable how in some cases, certain young players would look really good in their first match against fellow newcomers, only to find themselves tied in knots during their second and third round matches. Obviously there are exceptions to this but I can see why it might take the youngsters a couple of attempts on the main tour to find their feet and establish themselves among the 96.

Anonymous said...

Forget Ronnie ...

The little kid running around the hotel is quicker ...

Anonymous said...

These new players, hopefully there's something about them, the so called X-factor. We need new characters in the game today. Most of today's players are so boring. Not like yesteryear, when we had the likes of Higgins and White. Jimmy White is still one of the biggest draws in snooker.

Anonymous said...

if you want "not boring", go to the circus!

i actually find all snooker "not boring", even though i have my favourites.

Unknown said...

It always has been a struggle for newly promoted players, but far more so in recent season.

The reasons are manyfold.
Probably the first is the ranking points, whereby they come in on the "lowest players" points, but that wouldn't stop them being in the TOp 8 on the one year list.

The secondary reason would be there are far too few ranking events for them to learn their craft and earn their points. At the moment we're looking at 6 ranking events for 2009-10. It should be double that.

Thirdly. Regardless of where they've qualified from they've come from events with lower quality opposition, probably lower quality conditions, shorter matches.

The best test is the PIOS, which replicates the playing conditions, has probably 20 or more professional quality or experience opponents, and matches at least best of 7.

Personally I'd like to see PIOS matches made best of 9, to replicate the main tour qualifiers and also provide a stronger test to players.

But the bottom line for new pros is that "you can't buy experience". However hard players think they practice, however well they do in their national events or the PIOS, they are still taking a giant leap when they go up to the Main Tour.

Chris said...

Global is right, whatever happens they will have a tough time on the pro circuit.

Anonymous said...

of course global is right. the high percentage have a tough time on the pro circuit as theres only 32 places in the top 32, funnily enough, and anyone outside this isnt making a great living IMHO from WS tournaments